A common complaint among players and fans of teams who lose big games is that they were playing against the opposing team and the officials.
While more often than not that comes down to sour grapes, Chris Paul might have a case against referee Scott Foster.
Foster, who is a polarizing official on a good day, is party to a suspiciously lopsided record in Paul's playoff games that he officiates. Indeed, Paul entered Tuesday a shocking 2-17 in postseason contests officiated by Foster, including 13 straight losses.
While player records should, generally, be independent of officials, the correlation is hard to ignore.
But after the Suns beat the Clippers 123-109 in Game 2 of their Western Conference playoff series, snapping Paul's losing streak at Foster's hands, perhaps the speculation of a Foster vendetta against Paul will be quashed.
With that in mind, what's really going on between Paul and Foster? Do they have legitimate beef? Does Foster not like that Paul sometimes straddles the line between player and official? Or does Foster want to be in the game that badly?
Or is it much ado about nothing?
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The Sporting News takes a look at Foster vs. Paul, the great heavyweight bout of our time, following Clippers vs. Suns Game 2.
Chris Paul playoff record vs. Scott Foster
Chris Paul is now 3-17 in playoff games officiated by Foster with five (5!) different teams. Whether it's with the Hornets, Clippers, Thunder, Rockets or Suns, he just can't seem to shake Foster's influence.
Paul has lost 13 straight Foster-officiated playoff games before the Suns' 123-109 win over the Clippers in Round 1 of the 2023 postseason. Before that, a team with Paul playing hadn't won a Foster-officiated game in the playoffs since 2013, when the Clippers were able to beat the Grizzlies.
Chris Paul stats with Scott Foster
Despite Paul's horrid record with Foster, his postseason stats in games officiated by Foster are actually pretty in-line with his career stats.
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Indeed, Paul scores a marginal amount less, has less than one assist more and 0.2 fewer fouls in Foster-officiated games. His counting stats are all well within a standard deviation.
And yet, the lopsided record makes it feel like something must be afoot, particularly with 10 games being decided by single digits.
| Date | Team | Opponent | Result | Score | PTS | AST | REB | STL | FOULS |
| 5/18/2023 | Suns | Clippers | Win | Suns 123, Clippers 109 | 16 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| 4/19/2022 | Suns | Pelicans | Loss | Pelicans 125, Suns 114 | 17 | 14 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 7/20/2021 | Suns | Bucks | Loss | Bucks 105, Suns 98 | 26 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 7/11/2021 | Suns | Bucks | Loss | Bucks 120, Suns 100 | 19 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 5/27/2021 | Suns | Lakers | Loss | Lakers 109, Suns 95 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 2 |
| 9/2/2020 | Thunder | Rockets | Loss | Rockets 104, Thunder 102 | 19 | 12 | 11 | 2 | 2 |
| 4/30/2019 | Rockets | Warriors | Loss | Warriors 115, Rockets 109 | 18 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 2 |
| 5/14/2018 | Rockets | Warriors | Loss | Warriors 119, Rockets 106 | 23 | 3 | 11 | 1 | 4 |
| 5/2/2018 | Rockets | Jazz | Loss | Jazz 116, Rockets 108 | 23 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 5 |
| 4/25/2017 | Clippers | Jazz | Loss | Jazz 96, Clippers 92 | 28 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 |
| 4/23/2016 | Clippers | Blazers | Loss | Blazers 96, Clippers 88 | 26 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 4 |
| 5/14/2015 | Clippers | Rockets | Loss | Rockets 119, Clippers 107 | 31 | 11 | 7 | 0 | 2 |
| 4/28/2015 | Clippers | Spurs | Loss | Spurs 111, Clippers 107 | 19 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| 5/9/2014 | Clippers | Thunder | Loss | Thunder 118, Clippers 112 | 21 | 16 | 2 | 3 | 3 |
| 4/20/2013 | Clippers | Grizzlies | Win | Clippers 112, Grizzlies 91 | 23 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 5/15/2012 | Clippers | Spurs | Loss | Spurs 108, Clippers 92 | 6 | 10 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 5/9/2012 | Clippers | Grizzlies | Loss | Grizzlies 92, Clippers 80 | 19 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| 4/27/2009 | Hornets | Nuggets | Loss | Nuggets 121, Hornets 63 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| 5/19/2008 | Hornets | Spurs | Loss | Spurs 91, Hornets 82 | 18 | 14 | 8 | 5 | 6 (FO) |
| 4/29/2008 | Hornets | Mavericks | Win | Hornets 99, Mavericks 94 | 24 | 15 | 11 | 2 | 2 |
| TOTALS | 3-17 | 19.2 | 8.8 | 4.9 | 2.1 | 2.8 | |||
| CAREER PLAYOFFS | 73-71 | 20.3 | 8.3 | 4.9 | 1.9 | 3 |
It is, truly, bizarre. There's a run in the middle where Paul is accruing more fouls than normal, specifically from 2016 to 2018. However, for the most part, his numbers are about in-line with his playoff numbers.
Why does Scott Foster hate Chris Paul?
It is a leap and a jump to say an official "hates" a player, but with Foster and Paul, the numbers at least kind of back up the claim.
Naturally, Foster doesn't speak out about Paul, although Paul has gone out of his way often to talk about his issues with Foster.
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While we can't definitively ascribe a reason for Foster to dislike Paul, the team results are hard to argue with.
Chris Paul vs. Scott Foster timeline
Foster and Paul have a history that goes back to Paul's very first playoff appearance with the then-New Orleans Hornets.
Foster officiated a Hornets win over the Mavericks in Round 1 of that postseason, which the Hornets took in five. However, in Game 7 against the Spurs, Foster was on the whistle in a nine-point loss for the Hornets.
From there, Paul's teams — whether he was on the Hornets, Clippers, Rockets, Thunder or Suns — have run into Foster. He is 1-16 since those first two games. And don't think Paul hasn't noticed either. A prominent member of the NBPA, Paul has talked to NBA officials about the Foster-loss trend.
January 2018
Paul started to become more outspoken about Foster during the Rockets' regular season in 2018. After a January game in which Paul received a technical, Paul said it was "Scott Foster at his finest" before pensively repeating "never fails."
He added, "I'm over there with Courtney saying 'that's Scott, that's Scott' and I get a tech, you know what I mean? That's history there so Scott... He the man. That's who they pay to see."
February 2019
After a loss in February for the Rockets, Paul and James Harden both told reporters about their problems with Foster, with Harden going as far as to say Foster shouldn't be able to officiate Rockets games.
It was here that Paul confirmed he'd met with the league about Foster, adding he didn't "know what else to do."
September 2020
After the Thunder lost a Game 7 game to the Rockets (Paul was playing for the Thunder after a trade with Houston), Paul was beside himself and emotional after the game. The Thunder lost 104-102, and Paul laid into Foster on the podium.
There was a controversial delay of game in the game that Paul claimed was facilitated by Foster misleading him. In talking about a close call, Paul said Foster whistled him for tying his shoe despite giving him the go-ahead.
"I dropped down to tie my shoe up to hopefully see if we see the replay," he said. "Scott Foster walked over to me and told me 'Chris you ain't gotta do that, I got 'em sweeping up the floor.' OK cool! So I start tying my shoe back up. And he still called a delay of game. That s— don't make no sense. But I don't know. That's crazy ... League know. They gonna fine me. I said his name. We already know the history."
Paul also claimed Foster reminded him that he officiated the first Game 7 of his career, although the intent of telling him that is unclear.
June 2021
When the Suns lost Game 3 of a 2021 series against the Lakers, Paul pulled no punches, repeatedly saying "11 games in a row" to reporters, alluding to his current losing streak in Foster-officiated playoff games.
July 2021
In July 2021 in the NBA Finals, Foster had already officiated a Game 3 loss for the Suns against the Bucks that had made the series 2-1. In Game 6, with the Bucks suddenly up 3-2, Paul was seen talking to Foster ahead of the game, which cameras caught.
Due to their history, the moment made waves on social media. The Bucks would go on to win the game and the championship, and it marked Paul's 12th straight loss in a Foster-officiated playoff game.
It's clear Foster has rubbed some other NBA players the wrong way. In an anonymous poll of NBA players conducted by The Athletic, 25.4 percent of NBA players voted Foster the league's worst official, the most for any individual by 16.9 percent (Tony Brothers and Evan Scott were both at 8.5 percent). Only "other" drew more votes.
Does correlation equal causation in the feud between Paul and Foster? There is an awful lot of smoke for there to not be fire.
But after the Suns' recent win, the conversations of conspiracy may die down just a bit.
