Zach Zarba To Be Crew Chief For Game 4
The referees for Game 4 are:
Crew chief: Zach Zarba (#15),
Referee: James Williams (#60),
Referee: Courtney Kirkland (#61)
Replay Centre: Marc Davis
Source:
https://official.nba.com/referee-assignments/
Ppl sayin good for the Knicks as tho they ain’t Savin the extender for g5 😂
I’m just waiting for the potential Brothers/Foster super combo
If that happens New York might turn into the Shibuya Arc.
Forget Shibuya Arc, NYC is jumping straight to the Culling Games with each borough forming its own colony
Damn yea can’t think of anything worse that’s ever happened to New York
Bleach ref?
JJK
Didn’t we get that game 1?
They cancel each other out and the game is perfectly officiated
Foster game 5, extends to keep Spurs alive. Brothers game 6, Wemby gets an unreal whistle in NYC to force game 7.
Wit da game 6 clincher in NY for the storyline and bam drop a clippers verdict the same day during the distraction lol
Why would Adebayo be dropping the Clippers verdict? Does the highest-scoring player in a year become the jury foreperson or something?
Knicks have done very well with Foster, we all rather see him than Brothers at this point.
U won the game with brothers
That doesn’t make his officiating any less outright disgusting. Worst I’ve seen in my life. Every Knicks fan was talking about it and we WON, imagine if we lost
It was truly awful. I’m supporting the Spurs in this series but the reffing in game 3 (which was pretty bad and clearly Spurs-favoured) had nothing on how bad game 2 was. Brothers is such a fucking fraud.
I’m rooting for the Spurs but I’m happy you guys won that game, nobody deserves to get shafted like that.
Off of an unforced error lol.
A dub is a dub though so 🤷🏾♂️
Did you watch game 2? Knicks won regardless of the horrendous calls going against them in that game. It was blatantly in favour of spurs.
Spurs have also done well with Zarba.
Didn’t Foster do game 1?
Yes and shockingly it was the best officiated game of the three
Yeah Foster was actually not terrible this year. Tony Brothers on the other hand… I think Foster genuinely has a hate boner for Harden and CP3, but he’s not too bad when those two are not involved
So why he fucked the Pacers last season?
WE GOT SCOTT FOSTER YALL
The Brothers problem I feel is that he’s very quick with calling fouls for both teams. It’s part of why players like him and rate him so highly (they think they get fouled on every play and Brothers agrees), plus he’s consistent in that so players know what to expect with him and he communicates well with the players. The problem is that this creates a pretty annoying experience to watch as a fan. I don’t think he’s the worst ref technically speaking but from a fan’s perspective of how fun their games are to watch, he might be.
Foster is fine in games 1 and 7. It’s 2-6 where he’s scary.
Brian Windhorst:
If you asked the Pacers and the Thunder that they could choose a Game 7 official, I’m telling you, not saying they would admit this, I’m telling you, they would choose Scott Foster
Sauce
the extender loses his powers when at 0-0 he has no idea who needs to win to extend.
I feel like he gets too much credit for being the extender and not enough “credit” for being a mopey ego freak who holds petty grudges and calls shit that makes no sense just because he’s randomly tilted about something stupid.
One or both of Brothers and Foster will be doing another game this series depending how many it goes. Think we’ll start to see repeats starting with game 5.
He can do more games as called upon.
Bout to get foster and brothers back to back to make sure this shit goes 7 no matter who wins tonight
Think that’s a lot better to lose on the road
Tru
There’s too much money at stake to let it end before game six
Foster game 5 and Brothers game 6 Book it
Both g7
Game 4 would be better though. Because then it’s 2-2, and game 5 doesn’t matter much as far fixing it to go long
If the Spurs win Foster gets game 6. A loss and it’s game 5
Zarba is just a good ref, and I don’t think it’s going to impact that game as much as Knicks stans believe. The refereeing outside of game 2 was pretty much just Zarba ball, so expect more of the same.
I dont even know if im right to be hyped about a ref, but its sad that i am hyped for a specific ref to ref a finals game.
Thats how spurs and thunder fans felt last series. Refs should be consistent both throughout each game, but also between different crews. We shouldn’t know these guys by name and be happy/sad based on who is officiating.
I get there’s a human element that you cant eliminate, but it could be a lot better.
yeah that series was the reason i know who he is, i felt only his games were watchable as a neutral fan.
Yes, game 1 and 6 were the best of the whole series imo.
Don’t worry Adam Silver is going to use AI to fix it all next season. /s
Zarba is a Knicks fan from New York by the way, this is not going to be an objectively called game based on his history.
Officials are selected for playoff and finals games based on their statistical objectivity. Inconsistencies in how they call things for one team versus another get them relegated to the regular season.
You mean like Eric Lewis?
Yes, like Eric Lewis, whose retirement had nothing to do with any statistical bias in his officiating, but rather his violation of the social media policy to which officials are expected to adhere – and who would never again have officiated for any professional sports league were that not the case.
Maybe it’s just me then, I just don’t see any positive reason to make “our crew chief for a Finals game here in New York was born here and comes from a huge family of Knicks fans” a storyline for a sport this big.
Considering that “storyline” here effectively means a handful of reddit comments and stray tweets – and the alternative would have been to replace him with a crew chief that is statistically likelier to officiate in an unfair manner – I don’t really think that this is as big of an issue as you think it is.
Considering that “storyline” here effectively means a handful of reddit comments and stray tweets
No, by “storyline” I mean the main broadcast commentary mentioning what big Knicks fans his family is full of and how he’s from New York during a Knicks home playoff game in New York.
There’s zero reason to introduce that level of bias.
the main broadcast commentary mentioning what big Knicks fans his family is full of and how he’s from New York
Has that happened?
level of bias
Let’s say that we have numbers that represent each of the following:
Is there any world in which you would believe that the sum of these numbers suggests that Zarba is less biased than a less statistically consistent referee would be? Because that is precisely what his selection for a Finals game suggests.
I wonder if refs know this
Thunder fans suddenly Knicks fans in this thread lmao
“Team rooting against team that eliminated them for first time in history”.
I think there’s some bad blood brewing between OKC and SAS. The Hawks eliminated us during the infamous Ben Simmons layup series but I hold no ill will towards the Hawks.
Raptors fans though, oh my god they were more unhinged than even our biggest historical rivals so eliminating them in 5 was so satisfying in 2022.
So it all depends, I think OKC fans have good reason to see the Spurs go down.
As a Sixers fan though I was hoping the Spurs would put them in the dumpster but doesn’t look like it’s in the cards.
Nothing sudden about it lol, they would cheer for the nazi-taliban if they came out of the East to play San Antonio after what the Spurs did to them.
Yes cause you’d totally be rooting for the Thunder if we beat you 😂
HAHAHAHA
Yall are fake as hell, looking forward to seeing how you guys feel next year when you get that OKC level of hate
wait until you find out that the spurs have been successful more years than just this one, then you’ll really be mad
Those teams weren’t dirty as hell like Wemby,
Wait till you find out there will be no expansion lmaooo
I imagine Thunder fans like that Spider-Man meme of Eddie Brock praying in the church lol
You’re trash Brock
Would you cheer for your rivals? Be fr
I wouldn’t cheer at all lol.
The Knicks-Twolves-Thunder Triple Entente
It happened as soon as they lost game 7. Kind of wild. I feel like I have usually ended up supporting the team out of the East in the Finals. I was definitely hoping the Pacers would beat the Thunder last year.
That’s crazy that a guy hit a game winner on you and called you chokers and you still want on to root for them 😂😂
Great. Zarba was awesome so far.
Every time he refs it feels like the refs are a non-story, which is exactly what they should be
that
That’s exactly what we want.
Zarba is in top form. Marc Davis is usually good, but just totally lost control over the physicality of game 3.
Any fans of Eastern Conference teams know that Zarba is a lifelong Knicks fans and he’s a decent ref UNTIL he’s reffing the Knicks in an important game then it’s a fucking disaster.
You won’t be saying this after tonight as a Spurs fan.
Zarba is from New York and his entire family has been mentioned on the broadcast as giant Knicks fans during the series he reffed against Atlanta and Game 2 was an atrocious watch.
Zarba was the best ref for Spurs so far. If you suggest that he is rigged then I will wait with that judgement after the game.
If you’re curious how different he refs a Knicks game go pull up the tape from Hawks vs Knicks G2 in NY.
We lost that game. CJ walked us down again and again and beat us, not the fucking refs.
in that case the Knicks fans point will be proved and league is rigged.
Thanks for the scouting report u/ATLslutstretcher
Voted best ref by the players for a reason. No one will ever be perfect but he’s the best the NBA has right now.
not better than scott foster
Get ready for more prison ball.
At least he lets them play on both ends. KAT might be too strong for Wemby at this point, he’s not like Chet.
No shit ain’t he like 1.5x heavier 😂
Kat is thiccccc
He is Dominican
And he can chat up Anne Hathaway (not that it matters, I just like highlighting that he did)
I’m 6 feet tall and heavier then Wemby.
He’s like 230 lbs.
I like how we are at the point where we are cheering for guys to be able to blatantly hold and foul opposing players because they can’t defend them straight up…what a weird reality we are in
Knicks fans have been complaining about call and they better be careful what they wish for. If they start calling more little stuff it’ll hurt the Knicks more than the Spurs. Wemby gets fouled every play
This is why the whole “Spurs are shooting more FTs than their opponents therefore its rigged for them” argument is ass.
Harper and Castle are nicknamed “The Slash Bros” and you have a 7’4” alien you can lob it up to at any point to a high success rate. Of course they’re getting fouled more, the paint is where most fouls happen.
At first I thought the refs were favoring the spurs. But know I think Knicks fans are just complaining, and there’s so many Knicks fans they can set the narrative in the media
If you watch the games and watch the off ball players, there are constant fouls going on in every possession on both sides. Problem in G3 was they let most of it slide in first half, then started picking and choosing to call some in the second, leading inconsistent calls and players growing frustrated with the rules suddenly changing in the second half. Even the commentators noticed the whistle was clearly tighter in the second half, calling things they weren’t before.
get ready, if Wemby ever puts his hands on any small player, there will be hate threads about him being a big meany
Gotta keep those “back in my day” fans engaged
Hell yeah we do. Physical basketball is much better in playoffs
If they’re gonna allow physicality they gotta be fair in officiating it and they gotta make sure it doesn’t go too far.
They can’t randomly call 4 fouls in the first 2 minutes of the 4th quarter on plays they’d been allowing all game, and then allowed after that.
Random downvotes? I don’t see who could disagree with what I said.
I agree, the pacing of game 3 was fucking atrocious lol
All those fouls were legit and not really valid ones to complain about. Maybe worry about your players having some awareness and not committing stupid fouls at the start of a quarter.
That’s the problem here man. There are a tons of fouls going uncalled, which is what this “increased physicality” is that everyone wants so badly. You can’t take it back for a 2 minute stretch and say “technically those are fouls though” when technically you’ve been allowing fouls all game for the sake of “physicality.” Just be consistent, that’s all I ask.
Allowing increased physicality doesn’t make you immune to clear fouls.
Like there are fouls that will get allowed more when they are allowing more physicality and then there are fouls that are always going to be fouls.
Doesn’t excuse the Knicks from playing dumb during a critical stretch
I think most agree they were fouls. But if those are fouls, a LOT went uncalled during the game. Call it consistently so the players know what they can or cannot do during the game.
The rulebook tells them what they can or can’t do. There aren’t unique rules each game.
He should be upset at the coach for having a terrorist lineup out there to start the 4th that committed all those fouls. A bunch of non-defenders trying to contain the Spurs starting unit, of course, they will be in bonus quickly
I’ve been really enjoying the mauling both teams are doing to be honest. “Nothing easy” is fun to watch when it’s not the team you support and you don’t need to worry about the reffing.
They still bitch about it being not physical enough.
And then you watch these games from the 90s and no one is moving, there’s no hand checking or body bumps. It’s like watching child’s basketball. Crazy what nostalgia does to mf-ers
Basketball was played this way even 15 years ago
I like it. I believe hearing all the flopping controversy through the playoffs Adam Silver instituted “prison ball rulez”
Ain’t no flopp-talk these finals
Best case scenario for the Knicks. Zarba is fair as they come. The miss flagrant on Wemby and the 6 Spurs on the court wouldn’t have went unnoticed under him
Good for everybody he’s the best ref rn
I breathe a sigh of relief every time I see his name as crew chief.
Despite how Games 1 and 6 went for us against the Spurs, I do agree he is one of the best in the NBA
Yeah and maybe Hart would’ve been rightfully ejected for kicking someone and they wouldn’t have allowed KAT to blatantly holding Wemby all game.
The substitution situation was 100% on the refs, so yes it wouldn’t have happened with competent refs but it’s not like the Knicks were wronged in any way.
And half their bench would be suspended
For what? San Antonio called a timeout when the players left the bench.
People keep repeating this whole left the bench thing. you can literally hear the broadcast call out “Spurs timeout” before any of them leave the bench if they’d actually listen to the clip with their sound on.
Wemby would have gotten the second flagrant for closing out on Hart dangerously.
I mean neither the Brunson close out nor the Wemby one should have been called, both times the only reason the shooters made contact is because they unnaturally stuck their foot out to force contact.
Grow up, you guys are that desperate to win that you are afraid for Wemby to be out there? That’s pathetic, the Knicks roster is stacked with vets, they should easily win on talent and experience alone, they don’t need the Spurs to be handicapped
I only said that by the rules, Wemby would have gotten a flagrant call as well. I don’t see what’s so wrong about asking for the game to be called fairly.
No he wouldn’t have, because it wasn’t a reckless close out, and I’m saying that Brunson shouldn’t have been called for one either. Why not focus on that last part instead of begging for more flagrants just so someone can get suspended?
Because Wemby’s was more egregious as he ended up beyond the 3 point line, unlike Brunson who stayed within. Also Champagnie admitted to intentionally looking to step on defenders feet when taking a shot.
I promise you friend its OK to dislike the Knicks. But let’s not do dishonesty here.
EDIT: Aw, I got blocked. Ah well. Enjoy the Finals.
Stop it, you’re embarrassing yourself. I’m the one saying both weren’t fouls, but if we are comparing, Brunson closed out head on, Wemby went to the side. Harts foot landed on Wemby’s leg well within the 3 point line, what are you even talking about?
Also Champagnie admitted to intentionally looking to step on defenders feet when taking a shot.
Cool, and Hart does it all the time himself and clearly did it here too.
I promise you friend it’s OK to dislike the Knicks. But let’s not do dishonesty here.
I’m the one here being fair both ways, you’re the only one being biased here my man. Grow up.
Wemby would have been ejected, Zarba ejected him in the wolves game.
He would not have…the elbow was as blatantly, black and white of an ejection as there is. There was no gray area….
No ref is ejecting Wemby in the finals for a shove lol
A shove on the neck is a blatant flagrant lol
No it’s not, flagrants are inherently pretty subjective. Would it be a blatant flagrant if the player didn’t move as much as Brunson did? Or if his hand was a few inches lower on his back?
Nah a shove is a shove, if Hart can kick and shove Kornet without a flagrant or without being ejected, then this one isn’t a clear cut one either.
Everyone is so soft wanting the refs to eject or suspend Wemby just to make it easy for Knicks, man up.
Wasn’t a missed flagrant. Just a missed foul
The missed jersey grab by Brunson that caused him to need to back the fuck up wouldn’t have been missed during the review either. You guys are pathetic lmao
And maybe half your bench would be suspended for running onto the court after Hart tried to fight Kornet for no reason
Listen to the clip instead of actually just repeating shit. Timeout was called before they left the bench.
Best case scenario for the Knicks. Zarba is fair as they come
It’s the best case for Knicks fans because Zarba is from New York and he’s a Knicks homer.
Hopefully the OOB on Brunson, twice, wouldn’t have been missed so the 6 man on the court would have never happened.
Thunder flairs saying this is good for the Knicks when the Spurs won both of their Zarba crew games against them is funny. Spurs, Knicks, and Thunder are all just good and physical (although Knicks are definitely worse at being sneaky about holds than the other two) the only officiating issue is the disparity between crews not the fairness of any particular crew.
Zaria is consistent for both teams. The Knicks have had a horrible whistle. If the spurs had the same whistle Wemby would have at least one more flagrant
You have been all over this sub the past week just shit talking the Spurs lmao. Being a contrarian is fun, isn’t it?
The reality is the knicks only have 5 more PFs than the Spurs in total.
Game 1: Knicks had 3 more PFs
Game 2: Even
Game 3: Knicks had 2 more
It boils down to this. The knicks are not shooting in the restricted area(where the vast majority of shooting fouls get called) against victor, and the Spurs are shooting in the RA. The knicks are living 8+ feet from the hoop. But people that don’t understand the game of basketball look at the stat sheet(like you are doing) and see the FT differential and automatically assume that reffing has be HEAVILY in favor of the spurs. Just isn’t true.
Btw game 3 would’ve been even in terms of fouls too if the knicks didnt have to foul down the stretch to extend the game.
21 fouls for the Spurs vs 24 for the Knicks last game. The Knicks committed slightly more penalties and were intentionally fouling in the 4th, causing the free throw disparity.
Straight up free throw disparity is an awful stat it’s stupid people bring it up. If you watched the game, anyone should know the Knicks have had a horrible whistle between missed calls and soft fouls. If you want to talk free throws then spurs have shot significantly more than the Knicks over the series but I’m not even talking about that
Thunder flairs saying this is good for the Knicks when the Spurs won both of their Zarba crew games against them is funny.
Zarba is a New Yorker reffing a home Knicks game in the Finals.
Zarba is a great ref when he’s not reffing the Knicks. Game 2 ATL vs NY was atrocious.
100%. It’s insane how few people seem to know this. The lack of real ball knowledge here is real.
Knicks were 7-11 w/ Zarba last 3 years in the post season going into game 2 vs Atl; don’t think there’s anything with the way he calls the game that’s inherently preferential towards New York.
Let them bows’ fly baby.
Well Zarba and Williams were on the ref crew that ejected Wemby for letting bows fly so probably not a good idea
Really surprised at the comments since I think Zarba favors physicality and the Spurs are clearly the more physical team
but he calls things evenly, so no flagrant on a closeout for brunson but no call for wemby, no marginal contact calls for the spurs but not the knicks, etc
Their guards are more physical than ours, but our wings and bigs are more physical than theirs
He’s also the one that gave Wemby the flagrant 2 for the naz neck hit.
Well yea the neck hit is far and away over the line compared to anything in this series and the previous it’d be crazy if he didn’t hand that out
Terrible for the spurs as Wemby is already held and grabbed every play and it’s not called
Zarba refuses to call anything
i think the holding and grabbing and hand checking pretty much evens out. brunson and KAT get mauled, wemby gets bear hugged, everybody hooks everybody else’s arms. let em play physical and let both teams decide how to react to thaf
Actually the best ref for the Knicks historically is Scott Foster (though maybe not when there is a series to extend)
The Knicks have some poor Zarba records though they’ve been good this year. Also I heard rumors from Wolves fans he don’t like KAT but that might be fake
If the Knicks lose tonight Scott Foster game 5 is best case scenario lol
I think they’ll keep Foster for Game 6 regardless.
So they had bad zarba records when they were having worse seasons and they’ve had a good zarba record on their best season? Sounds like a Knicks thing more than a zarba thing lol.
Zarba is a good ref but he single handedly cost us G2 of the WCF against Dallas since he can’t see a clear foul directly in front of him, so I will always hate him.
Was that the play that birthed “The Jaden Rule” where you can now call proximate fouls on out of bounds challenges?
Indeed. Where was that when we needed it lol
Does any ref like KAT?
Foster being the best ref is not good lol. Hes the most corrupt ref in the league
This is a fair crew, if the Knicks get more aggressive inside, then this favors them, if Wemby/Castle get aggressive inside, then it favors the Spurs. Knicks didn’t get calls last game because they’re shooting jump shots, not driving. Been a fun series so far, but weird I’m watching ref crew updates on the daily.
The reffing has generally been solid every game in the series. Maybe in game three the spurs got a little benefit of the doubt but it was generally pretty fair.
The biggest factor is the Spurs go to the basket most of the time while the Knicks pull up for jump shots more often. Partly because of Wemby and partly because of team shot diets.
Sorry, this just should not be allowed. Zarba is from New York. It’s been mentioned on the broadcast what a huge Knicks fan family he’s from. His games reffing for the Knicks against Atlanta this post season were excruciating to watch.
If you sports bet, take the Knicks tonight for sure. It might as well be a lock.
Congratulations Knicks
There will be at least 3 games at MSG
Dolan probably coluded with the refs to ensure a game 6
“It be ya own people”
Knicks fans are going to be shocked when they realize all their legitimate fouls last game are called the same way with Zarba, because they weren’t victims of anything last game lol
Game 2, sure I’ll give them that one, and they won anyway, but not game 3.
Zarba game 4, Foster game 5, Brothers game 6 (if necessary)… oh boy…
About to be the best game of the series, lock it in
This is the guy that did the good games in WCF right?
Cool was waiting to set my fantasy ref lineup.
Can’t believe Zarba was on the waivers
2 team league?
Zarba! I like Zarba.
Get ready for like 10 free throws for Knicks, 20 for Spurs, and a football game tonight
Finally a ref that isn’t terrible
I thought the ref discussion was supposed to stop once OKC got eliminated.
He’s a great ref in my opinion.
I obviously want the Knicks to win, but regardless of the outcome we can at least expect no bullshit from Zarba which is a huge step up from the Tony Brothers and Marc Davis.
Finally, a credible ref! I wish they could clone Zarba and replace the Extender and the Catfish.
Zarba is like the Mike Breen of refs, no one seems to dislike him
Zach zarba is awesome. Say what you want about his ticky-tacky calls occasionally, but Zarba is easily one of the best officials in the league.
Which team is this good for?
Both teams honestly. Zarba has always been pretty consistent as far as I’ve seen.
SOMEBODY HIT SOMEBODY
The fact that we got officiating crew discourse during the NBA finals is insane. Thank you Adam Silver
I sense early foul trouble for wemby tonight to calm us knicks fans down
It’s Zarbin’ time
Knicks in 5, point KAT
There’s no such thing as a good officiating crew. Entire entity needs to be stripped down and rebuilt.
Knicks by 20.
Good for the Knicks IMO.