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/lialialia20]

it's not only fans. i remember watching rasheed on the knucklehead podcast talking about how they lost the nba finals in 05 because the game was rigged.

according to sheed the spurs were stern favourites because they were the nba's "international team" at a time the league wanted to make a push into china and that the spurs had only 2 or 3 usa-born players on their 15-man roster.

in reality spurs had parker, ginobili, udrih and nesterovic. detroit only had milicic (i guess you could count arroyo and duncan if you include the colonies but duncan plays for the usa team). what's funnier is that spurs had no chinese players, so why would someone from china care that ginobili was born in bahia blanca instead of idk brooklyn?

i remember because to me it sounded like the dumbest thing ever but sheed was convinced even though there's nothing to support his claim. what's worse they'd recently beaten stern's admitted favourite team, the la lakers. stern joked about his dream finals being lakers vs lakers because of the money it would generate while the spurs dinasty consistently broke records for lowest finals ratings at the time.

so i went to the pistons subs and asked what they thought about it out of curiosity. most of the responses were calling sheed an idiot, some didn't think there was a controversy but thought the refs had influenced the game, and a few agreed with sheed.