The NBA announced its referee assignments for Game 5 of the NBA Finals on Saturday, naming Scott Foster as crew chief for the New York Knicks' potential championship-clinching game against the San Antonio Spurs.
Foster will be joined on the floor by James Capers as referee, Tyler Ford as umpire and Mitchell Ervin as the alternate for Saturday's game. The league had selected a 12-official pool to work the Finals before the series began, and Foster was identified as the senior member of that group.
Foster, 59, began officiating in the 1994-95 season and has been chosen to work the NBA Finals 19 times, making Saturday his 19th Finals assignment. The selection sets an experienced crew for a game that could end the postseason for one team and prolong it for the other.
This will be the second appearance together this series for Foster and Capers. The pair worked Game 1 with Sean Wright as the umpire and JB DeRosa as the alternate; Tyler Ford worked Game 2, with Mitchell Ervin serving as the alternate for that contest.
The assignment matters because the Knicks can close out the series on Saturday; New York arrives off Wednesday's 29-point comeback in Game 4 and can win its first championship since the 1972-73 season with a victory. The Spurs, meanwhile, can force a Game 6 back in New York on Tuesday if they win Saturday.
New York took the first two games of the series in San Antonio and has strung together eight straight road wins in this postseason, a streak tied with the Los Angeles Lakers' 2001 run for the longest road streak in NBA playoff history. Those stakes place extra attention on the officiating assignments for a game that could either conclude the 2025-26 NBA season or extend it.
Game 5 is set for Saturday; if the Spurs prevail and push the series to a Game 6 on Tuesday in New York, the league has not announced whether Foster's crew will be retained for any later Finals game. The immediate schedule and the officials named for Saturday, however, are now fixed ahead of what may be the decisive night of this Finals series.
