Hall of Fame guard Chris Mullin was not happy with Scott Foster’s decision to eject Chris Paul from the Suns-Warriors game on Wednesday.
“The league office, much like they review player’s conduct, should review that and there should be some action taken,” Mullin said on the NBC Sports Bay Area postgame show, speaking to Foster’s successive technical fouls on Paul.
Mullin went on to question Foster’s integrity as an NBA referee.
“The fact that the general public knows there’s a dispute with Chris Paul and Scott Foster is the first problem,” Mullin explained. “That’s public knowledge, right? So there’s a history there. Oh, yeah, Chris Paul probably deserved the [first] technical foul. Maybe he said something. He didn’t deserve [two technical fouls].
“Well, [Paul’s] frustrated. Yeah, as a referee, you’re supposed to understand that. Much like when a player understands an opponent might be frustrated, you give the guy a break. So I thought it was unprofessional. His personal agenda got in the way.”
The pair have a long, heated history and after the game, Paul explained that it is personal between him and Foster.
Paul’s old Suns teammate Kevin Durant also spoke on the wild incident.
“I didn’t see it coming, but I looked it up and they were talking for a little bit longer,” Durant told reporters after his Phoenix beat the Warriors 123-115. “I kinda felt like it wasn’t a warm exchange.”
Durant was the one who Foster said Paul had fouled, which was when things started to get heated.
“I knew after I saw a couple of extra minutes of them talking, I knew something different. I didn’t get to hear what was going on, but it was this crazy sequence of like, three or four technical fouls, Chris getting thrown out of the game. You know the history that he and Scott have, it was definitely a weird ending to the half, but I’m glad we got points out of it.”