Eddie Rush has been assigned to work Game 4 of the NBA Finals.
The referee was last seen by Celtics fans in Orlando for Game 5, when he quickly slapped Kendrick Perkins with his second technical of the evening and seventh of the postseason, thereby disqualifying him for the remainder of that game and the next one.
NBA league officials, because they had eyes, rescinded the technical foul, thus allowing Perkins to continue playing without suspension, but it was too late to replay Game 5 with Perkins in for the second half.
If Rush is quick on the trigger on Thursday night, Perkins will finally receive that seventh technical and will not be allowed to play in Game 5 of this series.
The crew will be rounded out by Scott Foster and Greg Willard. Foster was reported to have received as many as 134 phone calls from Tim Donaghy before games, and Willard was part of a Rush-Donaghy-Willard combination that turned in "the most atrociously officiated game of the [2007] playoffs," according to Bill Simmons, so really, what could go wrong on Thursday night?
Of course, being condemned by Donaghy isn't a guarantee that any funny business was taking place, especially not with such rock-solid explanations of the phone calls in question.
"I'm on the road 150 days a year," Foster told Sports Illustrated in November of 2008. "It's not atypical for officials to play phone tag from time to time. Just today I've talked to two refs twice and two refs once. We go back and forth. I get to the airport and I'm in the security line, I'd give him a call. I'd be watching SportsCenter, I'd give him a call. It's constant water-cooler chatter. That's how we work out here. You have one or two buddies who you bounce things off of and share experiences with."
Just that day, he talked to two refs twice and two refs once! Innocent!
In any case, the refs have been every bit the story that the players have through the first three games of the Finals. Friday morning, we'll probably be talking about them once again.
