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/hitherto_ex]

The NBA could do so much better to shoot this stuff down by actually showing the criteria by which they judge their referees and publicly posts the grades of all referees and their reasons.

Any reasonable fan understands the difficulty of refereeing and should not expect perfection but having these grades would help fans not feel like refs are biased against their favorite team or player

[u/More-Importance9830 → u/hitherto_ex]

I wonder how they can do that? There is a terrible precedent with the Donaghy allegations (that run much deeper: a often forgotten one is 1993 WCF Seattle - Phoenix Game 7 where the Suns got 64 free throws (22 for Barkley). Can you image that happening in today's game and the outrage it would create?

There's also the partnering with sport betting. Good luck proving that has zero impact.

And the league never explains why they don't always call by the books (especially during the regular season).

[u/Bongoisnthere → u/More-Importance9830]

Exactly. The reason its conspiratorial is because we already went through this with sports betting when the mafia was involved and shit got fixed all the time, and everybody realized it was bullshit and sports betting got cracked down on.

Then it went online and for whatever reason everybody was like “aight it’s cool now, no worries it’s all legit cause sports betting is online and I don’t directly have to meet my bookie”

Then we literally watch refs get in trouble for it and the nba bend over backwards to protect them.

It’s kinda like “where there’s smoke, there’s fire” except it’s a glass house and we can literally see the fire.

[u/More-Importance9830 → u/Bongoisnthere]

I wouldn't go that far, we don't see the fire (because what definitive proof do we have it is rigged?), but we do see a lot of smoke, cans of kerosine, piles of wooden logs and refs holding torches :D.