Individual Spotlights: Zach Zarba was ranked as the No. 1 referee in the NBA. Zarba is the only official ranked by players in the Top 12 by every single team in the league. Joining him in the “Elite” category is Kevin Cutler, who was ranked No.1 by six different teams.

Behind the Numbers: Scott Foster is one of the league’s most polarizing officials with the highest standard deviation in the dataset. Although ranked as the top official by one team, combined feedback from all 30 teams placed him in the second tier. Ashley Moyer-Gleich and Sha’Rae Mitchell both received positive feedback from the players regarding improvement in their overall performance, which landed them in the second tier.

referee-superfan | Trail Blazers

218 | 6 hours ago

It makes sense. He’s extremely consistent on what he calls and what he doesn’t. He’d be perfect if he just called fewer things with the same consistency imo

Waikuku3

47 | 6 hours ago

He is the king of ticky tacky fouls. Just let them play man

Feelscreative101 | 76ers

11 | 5 hours ago

I’ve seen him tilt both ways very hard. He sometimes just fully lets them play and it’s very difficult to get foul calls out of him. I like that he keeps it consistent between the teams, though.

Clemsontigger16

-7 | 4 hours ago

He reversed that call the other night where McDaniels shoved Bryant into Naz hard as hell, and Zarba called it “marginal”.

Dude sucks as bad as the rest of them.

delta-red-14

165 | 6 hours ago

His name is kinda close to Zebra. That’s some nominative determinism.

Custrdw4lrus | Pistons

38 | 6 hours ago

Your dentists name is Crentist? Sounds a lot like dentist

Gekthegecko | BOS

9 | 6 hours ago

Maybe that’s why he became one

Acceptable-Golf-8811

4 | 6 hours ago

That’s an aptonym

superfoodtown

2 | 6 hours ago

This is an all time comment. Appreciate you.

swizznastic |

1 | 6 hours ago

Hes also what the industry likes to refer to as a “cutie pie”

GrumbleAlong

66 | 6 hours ago

“Scott Foster is one of the league’s most polarizing officials with the highest standard deviation in the dataset.”

kamekaze1024

19 | 6 hours ago

What team has him ranked as #1?

thehammerismypen1s | Rockets

35 | 5 hours ago

Clippers probably like, yeah we get the Chris Paul hate now.

yesidoes

2 | 6 hours ago

Lakers of course

livefreeordont | 76ers

-2 | 6 hours ago

Warriors?

Bronetta | Raptors

30 | 7 hours ago

All my homies love Zach Zarba

captain_ahabb | Lakers

-27 | 6 hours ago

Nah he sucks

CapableRespond1110 | Warriors

17 | 6 hours ago

I don’t think lakers fan get to complain about refs lol

HereIGoAgain_1x10 | Cavaliers

1 | 6 hours ago

I don’t think Warriors fans get to say anything about the refs in general… Curry gets a dhit whistle but Draymond more than makes up for it, he should’ve been fined and suspended twice as often as he actually was.

HOFredditor | Warriors

1 | 2 hours ago

Lol what else do lakers do as a team?

captain_ahabb | Lakers

-10 | 6 hours ago

I don’t care what my flair says

preddevils6 | Grizzlies

1 | 6 hours ago

The officials do

captain_ahabb | Lakers

-6 | 6 hours ago

I just find flair sniping and team tribalism very boring

ScaredOfWindow | Bucks

26 | 7 hours ago

I only have negative memories of him as a fan, but I suppose that’s the nature of being a referee. You don’t want people to know your name because you’re not supposed to be doing anything noteworthy and people are just gonna remember the times they were pissed at you. Also, his hair always made him very easy to recognize.

ktpkchu | Mavericks

1 | 25 minutes ago

confirmation bias definitely affects people’s perceptions of refs, we’re not likely to remember calls that benefitted our teams or weren’t important to the outcome of a game

sor2hi

25 | 6 hours ago

ZZ TOP!!

GenoThyme | Celtics

4 | 6 hours ago

A-haw haw haw-haw

realworldschamp | Knicks

18 | 6 hours ago

I had a middle school teacher long ago named Mr Zarba and I just realized that he is the father of Zach Zarba. Coincidentally, Koby Altman (president of the Cleveland Cavaliers) also was in my graduating class in the same middle school.

Nearby-Brush2176

-1 | 4 hours ago

Private?

realworldschamp | Knicks

5 | 4 hours ago

Public. Brooklyn NY.

Nearby-Brush2176

-2 | 4 hours ago

That makes it even less likely

realworldschamp | Knicks

3 | 4 hours ago

What do you mean?

Arcnciel | SAS

13 | 6 hours ago

Tony Brothers being elite needs to be studied.

Fantastic-Boot-684 | Bulls

19 | 6 hours ago

I mean he is always decent, that’s why he got the top games

kamekaze1024

21 | 6 hours ago

Yes all the refs people know by name are the top ones that get more nationally televised games. When looking at the list, I didn’t even know there were that many refs. I can name probably less than 8-10 and they’re all the usual suspects + Bill Kennedy

Silver-Elephant8279

5 | 5 hours ago

I love how Bill Kennedy’s always recognized for being delightful while everyone else is recognized for being controversial.

preddevils6 | Grizzlies

16 | 6 hours ago

You think this sub knows ball?

stridered | Suns

1 | 5 hours ago

They probably had them all ranked in a list so he ends up being elite by default because there’s so many others worse than him.

IsThisMe8 | Warriors

1 | 19 minutes ago

Both Draymond Green and Dillon Brooks have said they liked him. Lol

Rook2Rook

6 | 7 hours ago

Warriors fans hate this dude

skywalkerRCP | Warriors

2 | 5 hours ago

Indeed

Im__Ron__Burgundy | Celtics

1 | 6 hours ago

Wow can’t believe Tyler Ford is in the lowest tier.

GiantBrownBalls | Raptors

1 | 5 hours ago

Hollywood Zach Zarba as Scal calls him haha

LetsGoLesko8 | Raptors

1 | 4 hours ago

Zarba is my 2nd fav ref, behind the goat Bill Kennedy

TheSmokedSalmon420 | Cavaliers

-12 | 6 hours ago

Yeah if he’s the best ref that’s a huge issue lmao

genius-baby

21 | 6 hours ago

Will it over occur to you people that the game is just genuinely too fast to call with your expected level of accuracy? If someone is widely considered the best in the world at something and you say they are bad at it, doesn’t that just make you a moron?

frogfood24

1 | 6 hours ago

I’m watching a Tony Brothers crew this minute. Can’t even think straight right now.

eajacobs | Cavaliers

1 | 6 hours ago

I feel like he’s in charge of every game I watch! How???

AutographedSnorkel | Rockets

-13 | 6 hours ago

There aren’t any good NBA refs, just a few that are slightly less terrible than the rest

LordBaneoftheSith

10 | 6 hours ago

As someone who used to only watch the NFL, NBA officials are superhuman lmao

True-Noise9176

6 | 6 hours ago

The problem is that a call in the NFL is far more likely to drastically impact the game. There’s nothing even close to the equivalent of a TD being called back for holding in the NBA

LordBaneoftheSith

1 | 4 hours ago

Yeah. So not only are the officials like a quarter as accurate, their calls are 10x more impactful. NBA fans are absolutely spoiled by the quality of the officials and mistake the league’s idiotic guidelines for referee incompetence

Old video of Behind the Scenes with NBA Referee Zach Zarba. Zach Zarba was ranked as the No. 1 referee in the NBA. Zarba is the only official ranked by players in the Top 12 by every single team in the league.