Who doesn’t love drama on the NBA court? Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals became a contest to remember for all the incidents on the court. Before referee Scott Foster gave the tip-off, the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, presented Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with the NBA MVP trophy for his spectacular season.
The crowd pumped from the start and carried that MVP presentation energy to the rest of the game as the Oklahoma City Thunder took a 2-0 lead over the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nonetheless, another incident involving referee Foster caught the fans’ attention and stole the headlines.
NBA Referee Scott Foster Gets Injured Following an Inadvertent Smack by Luguentz Dort
The referee tipped the ball to start the play as the Timberwolves got possession. Following that tip-off, Luguentz Dort and Julius Randle had a jump-ball situation.
At the tip-off for the jump ball, the scores remained 2-2 with 10:27 left on the clock, and Dort battled Randle to get an advantage for possession. While contesting for it, Dort unwittingly hit Foster in the face while landing on the floor. Fans saw the official visibly shaken as the ball went out of bounds, and the referee called for an official timeout to clean up the mess.
NBA ref Scott Foster was bloodied, resulting in a delay, after getting hit in the face on a jump ball during Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals. 🏀🦓🤕 #NBA #NBAPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/pOLukdN6HG
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing)
The impact left him with a bloodied nose, as the bleeding didn’t stop. The physios tended to the referee and put some cotton to stop the bleeding, with the game halted for two minutes. You don’t see this happening on a basketball court every single day, don’t you?
After patching him up, the game resumed, and Foster officiated the game with no other medical concerns. But it’s not the first time the referees have fallen prey to a player’s unfortunate bumps.
In a game between the Golden State Warriors and the New York Knicks, Jordan Poole, who donned the Warriors jersey, was in the way of a referee’s landing foot, which caused him to tweak his ankle. At first, the referee kneeled on the floor in pain, unable to move around.
The other officials came to his aid and carried him as the referee tried to walk it off. Likewise, another former Warriors player, David West, accidentally bumped into the referee, placing him on the floor and injuring him.
Returning to Foster, this is not the first time he has been left in a bloodied mess. LeBron James gave him a hard bump during the Los Angeles Lakers game against the Denver Nuggets, which left Foster bleeding from the mouth.
In a humorous exchange, though, Foster said to James after the collision, “You’ve been wanting to do that for 25 years,” keeping his humor in check.
Thus, accidents are part of the game, and Foster took it on the chin and carried on.
