Scott Foster Has a Bloody Lip After LeBron James Hit Him

Referees are usually pretty good at getting out of the way of things. A basketball court is so big, and there are 10 pretty big humans playing the sport at an ultra-high, ultra-focused level, that the refs have to find a way to get in a position to see everything at the same time. being mindful of the fact that players might not see them.

Guys running into umpires aren’t especially common, though we did have a high-profile meeting of the minds Saturday night during Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals. At one point, LeBron James tried to move up the court to provoke a fast break, but he ran into a problem: Scott Foster. The referee was standing on the court, and when James turned and started to run, the two collided.

As it turns out, this actually caused Foster to bleed quite a bit, as James presumably collided with him while he had his whistle in his mouth, resulting in a cut.

Foster had to go get tended to for a second, but he was able to stay in the game and continue to do referee stuff. As for James, we’re assuming he got to live an NBA player’s dream by bumping into Scott Foster and staying out of trouble.