Discussions continue on how the NBA could restart the 2019-20 season and, with a massive Board of Governors meeting on the horizon later this week, a sense of urgency is seemingly developing. On Tuesday evening, however, a largely unexplored angle came to the surface with the help of a prominent (and active) referee in the league.
While many have speculated on what the sounds of the game could entail in a bubble-like environment with no crowd noise, a lot of that chatter has been about what players, or even coaches, might be caught saying by live microphones. This time, though, NBA referee Scott Foster shed light on a different angle when he joined the good folks at NBA TV. In short, Foster was prompted on how, if at all, his job might be different in this strange environment and, after saying he had given it “an immense amount of thought,” Foster turned up the heat a bit.
“I don’t know who I’d be more worried for, the players or referees at this point,” Foster said, via a Twitter thread from Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press. “I know I don’t want everything that we normally say to each other going out. But normally we’re all in a professional manner out there. But it is going to be different.”
“There’s going to be some assistant coaches that we haven’t really heard from before sitting in the second row that we’ll be able to hear now, so there’s going to be some adjustment there,” Foster continued. “And then I think we’re going to need to really talk about and analyze what is OK for the public to hear and how we’re going to go about our business. But it’s definitely going to be a different thing. I’m definitely looking forward to it. I think it’s going to be a really unique experience for the referees, players, coaches, everybody who’s going to go through this.”
In short, this is pretty interesting from Foster, especially when realizing that it won’t just be players and coaches that could be picked up by courtside microphones. Referees are often making noise of their own during games and, beyond that, they will now be hearing much more than usual, particularly from the benches, without the obstacle of blaring music and raucous crowds.
Candidly, the league has larger concerns and bigger wrinkles to smooth out in the coming days before any formal announcement can be made or any official plan can be consummated. Still, it will be interesting to see how the league handles the aesthetics of game play when and if the “campus environment” convenes in Orlando some time later this summer.
