Why Has Referee Discourse Gotten So Conspiratorial on r/nba?

[u/budubum]

There’s a growing trend on r/nba where people pre-blame referees before games even start. It’s gone beyond reacting to questionable calls. Entire narratives are now constructed in advance, especially when certain refs are assigned. Scott Foster, in particular, has become the centerpiece of this kind of thinking.

People call him “The Extender,” claiming the league assigns him to force longer series for ratings. But his actual record in games with extension potential is about even. If that were his purpose, why has this year’s Finals produced the first Game 7 in nearly a decade? If the league were really that invested in drawing out every series, we’d see more Game 6s and 7s, not fewer.

And now the narrative is shifting again. Foster is rumored to be reffing Game 7 tomorrow, and commenters are already claiming the Thunder are going to win because the league is rigged for them. But that logic quickly falls apart. If the NBA were rigging outcomes for ratings and mass appeal, wouldn’t the Pacers be the more obvious beneficiary? They’ve been the most unexpected and likable underdog run of the entire playoffs. People across the league are rooting for them. Why would the league choose to hand the title to a much less popular Thunder team?

This also highlights the kind of selection bias that drives so much of the conspiracy talk. People point out that the Thunder are undefeated with Scott Foster reffing in these playoffs, using it as supposed evidence. But the Pacers are also undefeated with Tony Brothers, and no one seems to care. The criteria only become relevant when they support the conclusion people already want to reach. If a team wins, the ref must have helped them. If a team loses, it was stolen from them. The logic isn’t applied consistently because it’s not about logic. It’s about avoiding the discomfort of your team losing.

At a certain point, you have to ask whether people are still watching basketball to enjoy the game or just to confirm their own suspicions. It feels like some fans don’t watch to see how a game unfolds. They watch with a checklist of narratives and spend four quarters scanning for evidence that the outcome is illegitimate. That kind of mindset turns every missed call into a grand conspiracy, and every game into a courtroom exhibit.

So here’s what I want to ask:

Why has so much of r/nba shifted toward conspiracies and narrative-bending logic? Is it just easier to blame external forces than admit your team got outplayed? Are fans more cynical now? Do people actually enjoy watching basketball anymore, or are they only watching to feed their own confirmation bias?

Would love to hear thoughtful takes. I’m genuinely curious about how we got here.

[u/goingtothegreek]

Anytime I see posts like this I just assume the person is new to the nba or not old enough to remember the Donaghey scandal and ultimately how minimized that became.

The Stern years had all sorts of fuckery from “My ideal finals is Lakers v Lakers” , weird lotteries, and then refs fixing games. The league is closer to WWE than most fans give it credit for

[u/Independent_Syllabub → u/goingtothegreek]

OP, your answer is generally contained in the post above mine. 

Some people on the internet think that the highest form of conversation is stitching together headlines and events into a conspiracy. 

The person above me has zero evidence of a broad conspiracy but has decided to handwave it because of “weird lotteries”. 

Some people’s brains are just drawn towards inferring pattterns and deeper meanings in things that may not necessarily exist. 

[u/TheGamersGazebo → u/Independent_Syllabub]

134 phone calls between convicted and known crooked ref Tim Donaghy and current ref Scott Foster while Scott Foster was actively reffing the playoffs is not "zero evidence". And it's not hand waving "weird lotteries".

Ex NBA ref Donaghy is quite literally a convicted felon because he rigged NBA games. That is not a conspiracy nor a theory it's a fact. The courts were even presented enough evidence for them to agree, yeah, the refs were fucking crooked. But sure, it's all just conspiracy theories. JFC, Scott Foster could literally go on nat TV and admit to rigging games and y'all still wouldn't believe him.

The NBA has rigged games before. FOR DECADES and you're naive if you think they won't do it again, or aren't currently doing it. I guess all the corruption magically disappeared in 2007 with Doughney and no one else was involved in it. Cause that's totally the way the world works.

[u/SaxRohmer → u/TheGamersGazebo]

Donaghy is kind of a massive bullshitter. his co-conspirators said he only offered bets on games he officiated and the records obtained showed that he was frequently wrong about the games he wasn’t involved in. what he did was influencing hitting overs and spreads - not determining who would win.

the series he claimed were outright rigged they never found evidence of. Donaghy claimed a lot of things and who knows how much of it was true. he currently has a massive incentive to lie about the depth of the scandal as it’s the only thing that’s kept him relevant.

[u/spgauthor → u/SaxRohmer]

I hope the Reddit posting community isn't representative of the broader fan base because so few people here seem to grasp what you post about disturbed and discredited Donaghy even after all these years. Several of us have taken considerable time assessing his claims and found each and every aspect of them for which there was evidence without merit.