For all the fans today, the NBA promoting betting platforms like DraftKings and FanDuel during every game seems like a regular occurrence. But just 17 years ago, in 2007, the NBA was struck by a huge betting scandal involving veteran official Tim Donaghy that put a huge stain on the league’s reputation forever. While Donaghy faced the consequences of his actions, Scott Foster, who was rumored to be his partner, remained unscathed. After years of not staying in touch, Donaghy made a special and hopeful request to Foster in a recent interview.

Following a thorough investigation by the FBI, Donaghy was found guilty of betting on games he was officiating and giving insider information to other bettors. Because of that, he was booted from his officiating job and even sentenced to 15 months in prison. However, when the FBI released Donaghy’s call records, it revealed that he had received nearly 200 calls from Scott Foster during the tenure of his betting scandal. Despite the allegations, Foster was cleared by the FBI a year later and remains an active official in the league to this day.

But after that incident, Foster completely cut off from Donaghy despite them sharing a brother-like relationship for a long time. In a recent interview with The Athletic, Donaghy expressed his desire to mend his relationship with Foster after his officiating career. “I’m hoping at some point when Scott steps away, we can talk. And I can apologize to him. You never know; maybe that friendship can be pieced back together. I’m not sure.” However, it seems highly unlikely because a rekindled friendship, could put Foster back under the spotlight and ruin his reputation.

Scott Foster is still dealing with the allegations

While Scott Foster was found innocent and did not face any legal or professional consequences, it did tarnish his reputation around the league. Many still believe that the league put all the blame on Donaghy and used him as a scapegoat to hide a much bigger issue. And Foster’s response about the 200 calls he made to Tim did not seem convincing enough for many to prove his innocence, “That’s how we communicated in 2007… I had a Motorola Razr, which, if you wanted to text ‘Yes’ in a text message, was 23 keystrokes or something crazy like that.”

Blaming the significant number of calls on the early days of cell phones when it was not easy to communicate through texts, Foster shrugged off every allegation. But there are still signs that people don’t believe his story. Just recently, Wolves Center Rudy Gobert taunted Foster with a ‘money’ gesture with his hands after the official called a foul against him. The league did not appreciate Rudy’s gesture and they fined him a whopping $100,000.

Yes, Scott Foster has spent nearly three decades in the NBA as an official and is arguably one of the best to ever do it. But he might never be able to completely wash off his name from the scandal in 2007. What do you think?