Suns' win over Warriors brings beef between Chris Paul, Scott Foster to Thanksgiving

Fans and the NBA media got a new taste of Chris Paul’s and Scott Foster’s longtime beef for Thanksgiving.

Before the Phoenix Suns' eight-point win over the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, Phoenix showed its Welcome Back pregame tribute video of the Point God during the previous three seasons when he helped revive the team's winning culture.

Then the 19-year veteran was unceremoniously gone by halftime after he was thrown out by the 30-year NBA referee. Paul finished with six points, a team-high six assists, and two rebounds.

The ejection happened while Phoenix had a 16-point lead in the second quarter's closing seconds. Foster called a blocking foul on Paul as he minorly bumped Kevin Durant on a drive from the top of the key.

Paul scowled at Foster, quickly flailed his arms as he yapped at Foster and was given a technical foul. As Paul continued to angrily run his mouth, Foster warned him to stop, blew another quick whistle to T him up again and intensely pumped his index finger for Paul's ejection.

Paul was incensed, yelled at Foster something NSFW, and was held back by Steph Curry (16 points) from charging after the official crew chief.

The ejection added another major footnote in this rivalry that has become an NBA social media legend. Foster's name always trends on X, formerly known as Twitter, whenever he referees games that Paul plays in, including before last night's tipoff.

Paul notably has a 3-17 playoff record in games that Foster has officiated since 2008, including 13 straight losses, per ESPN Stats & Information research. That streak was broken on April 18 when Phoenix beat Paul's former team the Los Angeles Clippers in Game 2 of last postseason's first round.

Golden State coach Steve Kerr was angry about the ejection and was given a tech as he defended Paul. He said after the game that Paul deserved the first tech but not the second and didn't deserve to be tossed out.

Kerr also acknowledged he's aware of the Paul-Foster rivalry and that losing Paul was a big loss, which impacted his team being down by its biggest deficit of 23 points in the third quarter before Golden State's late fourth-quarter comeback.

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Paul was traded from Phoenix to Washington for Bradley Beal in June, then was flipped to Golden State shortly thereafter.

Paul has started in seven of Golden State's 16 games and is the team's assists and steals leader at 7.6 and 1.6 per game in those categories.

"It was a big deal. We need him obviously without Draymond (Green, who's serving a five-game suspension), without Gary (Payton II), and Chris knows that," Kerr said. "So it was unfortunate, but again, to me it's about our guys consistently competing together and they have a really good connection."

After the game, several of the Suns including Devin Booker (25 points, game-high 10 assists) and Josh Okogie (12 points) both said they weren't surprised by what went down between Foster and Paul.

"I saw one coming. I was standing right there," Booker said. "I couldn't really hear the back and forth, but obviously there's a history there. It escalated quick."

Kevin Durant (game-high 32 points) mentioned what he saw: "I looked up and they were talking for a little bit longer and I kind of felt like it wasn't a warm exchange. ... I knew it was something different."

Paul explained in the postgame that this goes beyond the court between him and Foster and that's known throughout the league.

“It’s personal. We had a situation some years ago. The league knows, everybody knows about the meeting and all that," Paul said. "It’s just the situation with my son. I’m OK when a referee talking, saying whatever. Just don’t use a technical to get your point across, you know what I mean? So I got to do a better job of staying on the floor for my teammates, but that’s that.”

Paul was vague about the "situation" that propelled the issues between them because he said he didn't want to be fined by the league for any criticism of Foster.

He further claimed that his acrimony with Foster largely stems from something involving Paul's son when he was with the Los Angeles Clippers from 2011 to 2017.

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Paul added that he's met with the league's front office about the perceived conflict of interest from Foster's alleged vendetta against him. Paul revealed that there was a private meeting attended by himself, his father, Paul's son, Foster, former Clippers coach Doc Rivers, and retired official Bob Delaney in an attempt to bury the hatchet.

But that obviously isn't the case.

After well over a decade of their animus toward each other, this beef will continue to cook. If the league steps in to simmer it down, then that would be well done to finally stop it.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Chris Paul, Scott Foster continue feud in Suns' win over Warriors