Did Jason Kidd Accuse Scott Foster Of Rigging 2025 NBA Finals Prior To His Ejection?

On Saturday night, tempers were flaring as Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd was ejected in the opening minutes of his team’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls. The ejection came after Kidd had a heated argument with referee Scott Foster, who disallowed a coach’s challenge that Kidd wanted to raise.

While most viewers saw the hostile body language of both Kidd and Foster, some netizens claimed to have read Kidd’s lips as the TV broadcast showed a replay of the argument.

“You cheated the Pacers all the way throughout the Finals last year. Don’t cheat me, dumb***,” Kidd allegedly said to Foster.

The question is, did Kidd actually utter those words?

While this “transcript” has made its rounds on the internet, no major media outlet has confirmed that Kidd accused Foster of officiating shenanigans in that tense moment on Saturday. Reporter Clemente Alamanza went so far as to ridicule netizens who believed online accounts making that claim.

“That’s not what Kidd said lol,” Alamanza tweeted. “Not even the best lip readers in the world could decipher what was said, much less some random Twitter account.”

If anyone is wondering why Kidd blew his gasket, they need only to review the footage of the moments leading up to his verbal altercation with Foster. With 5:44 left in the first quarter, Mavs guard Max Christie was whistled for goaltending, a call that Kidd didn’t agree with. 

When the Basketball Hall of Famer signified his intention to raise a coach’s challenge, Foster refused. Apparently, the brief window for challenges had lapsed, as the Mavericks had already been given the ball for the inbound. This drove Kidd to hurl some heated words at Foster; allegedly, the Mavs head coach used some profanities in his tirade.

Assistant coach Frank Vogel went on to coach the Mavs for the rest of the way, but the team wound up losing to the Bulls 125–107. Vogel happened to be a longtime head coach of the Pacers back in the 2010s, adding to the bizarre irony surrounding the words supposedly uttered by Kidd to Foster.

Does Kidd truly believe that Foster did the Pacers dirty in last year’s Finals? There’s no way to know for certain, but for some reason, some netizens have put words in Kidd’s mouth.