Indiana coach Rick Carlisle offered an impassioned and somewhat unprompted defense of referee Scott Foster on Sunday, evidently aware of the mountains of online criticism that came after Game 4 of the NBA Finals.

Scott Foster may be the NBA's only active celebrity referee. The official's poor reputation with players—they voted him the league's worst referee in a 2023 poll taken by The Athletic—has won him a kind of cult notoriety.

Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle on Sunday decried the swell of public criticism of the officiating that flowed following the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Game 4 win in the 2025 NBA Finals, describing the carping on perceived mistaken calls and non-calls — specifically those involving longtime NBA referee Scott Foster — as,