The officials for Game 7 between the Celtics and Lakers on Thursday night will be Joey Crawford, Scott Foster and Dan Crawford.
The NBA makes the announcement each morning of game days.
Joe Crawford is one of the most experienced refs in the league, which means he's got plenty of stains on the resume. In recent years, he assessed Tim Duncan for not one but two technical fouls, simply for laughing on the bench. He also famously missed an obvious foul call in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals in 2008, one for which the league later apologized. Joey Crawford is also the author of the YouTube sensation from this year's playoff, in a video that has simply come to be known as "The Worst Foul Ever."
Both Dan Crawford and Scott Foster have been linked in some way to disgraced ref Tim Donaghy. Dan Crawford was accused by Donaghy of having a bias, particularly against the Dallas Mavericks. Foster, meanwhile, was on the other line of 134 phone calls with Donaghy.
For what it's worth, Joey Crawford worked Games 1 and 5 of the Finals (a Lakers win and a Celtics win, respectively), Dan Crawford worked Game 3 (Lakers win) and Foster worked Game 4 (Celtics win). Game 1, you'll remember, was interrupted with fouls seemingly every trip down the court, with 54 personal fouls called.
Despite all of this, you have to think that with the league's marquee franchises squaring off in a do-or-die Game 7, the referees will do all that they can to not be a part of the story.
Well, at least you hope that's the case.
