The NBA will have its most elite officials when the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs square off in the 2026 NBA Finals. The NBA announced its officiating crew for the Finals on Tuesday, and two of the more well-known veteran officials will get the call for the event.
Those two officials are Scott Foster and Tony Brothers. For Foster, it will be the 19th time he’s been a referee during the Finals. For Brothers, it will mark his 15th time officiating during the event.
Here’s the entire list of NBA officials assigned to the Finals, including how many times they’ve worked the event:
• Scott Foster: 19
• Tony Brothers: 15
• Marc Davis: 15
• James Capers: 14
• Zach Zarba: 13
• John Goble: 10
• Josh Tiven: 7
• James Williams: 6
• Courtney Kirkland: 5
• Sean Wright: 3
• Tyler Ford: 2
• Curtis Blair: 1
Blair, who served as an alternate in both 2021 and 2022, will make his NBA Finals officiating debut in 2026.
The NBA Finals officiating team is selected by the NBA Referee Operations management team. That team uses grades, rankings, play-calling accuracy and team ratings when deciding which officials will be chosen to work the NBA Finals each year.
This time around, it appears the NBA Referee Operations management team mostly got it right. In May, the NBPA released a player survey in which NBA players ranked officials.
The NBPA broke those rankings into three tiers: Elite and Top Performers, Solid Performers and Needs Improvement.
According to those rankings, there will be nine “Elite and Top Performer” officials at the 2026 NBA Finals. Those refs include: Curtis Blair, Tony Brothers, James Capers, Marc Davis, Courtney Kirkland, Josh Tiven, James Williams, Sean Wright and Zach Zarba.
Scott Foster is the only Finals official from the “Solid Performers” tier.
Both John Goble and Tyler Ford were listed in the “Needs Improvement” tier by the players.
This story will be updated.
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