On April 12, Beijing time, the NBA officially announced the list of 36 referees who have refereed the playoffs this season, basically all of whom are veteran referees who have been in the battlefield for a long time, and the refereeing experience is quite rich. For Paul, however, the last thing he wanted was to see anyone on the list.
There are a total of 36 referees in the first round of the playoffs, and at the same time, the NBA officially announced the list of 8 substitute referees.
The selection of the playoff referee list is mainly based on three principles: 1, the ranking of penalties, 2, the accuracy of blowing penalties, and 3, the ranking of the referee team. NBA officials will also decide who will be refereed for the next round based on the referee performance of each round of the playoffs.
The average referee experience in this playoff has reached 16 years, with 29 people having at least 10 years of refereeing experience. And there are 21 people who have at least 5 years of experience in the playoffs. The two big names, Tom Washington and Scott Foster, are in their 24th and 22nd playoff referees, respectively.
Of the first round of referees scheduled in the playoffs, Foster has the most experienced playoff referees, reaching 201 games, and eight others with at least 100 games. Only three referees are in charge of the playoffs for the first time, and they are Eric Dalen, Mitchell Ervin and Justin Van Duyne.
For now, the whistle-picked Scott Foster will remain the preferred referee for key playoff games. And he also has a big nickname, that is Paul Nemesis. It wasn't until the Suns' showdown with the 76ers on March 28 this year that Paul finally ended Foster's nightmare of losing 13 straight. In the playoffs, though, he's refereed Paul hasn't won yet. And this season Paul is optimistic about winning the first title of his career, can he completely end Foster's coaching nightmare?