Scott Foster, the 'other man' in the NBA ref scandal, speaks to the press

November 5, 1:34 PMSports ExaminerPaula Duffy

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Scott Foster at NBA Finals

We have known about Scott Foster for less than six months. He has had to live with the knowledge that he was implicated in the Tim Donaghy ref scandal for a year longer than that and has finally been able to speak his peace.

On Monday he met with journalists and said his predicament has been unfair. Until now, months after Donaghy was imprisoned for wire fraud and transmitting wagering information across state lines Foster has not been entitled to speak. Guilt by association is what he calls it and of course he is right.

When Donaghy's phone records were released to the public, we discovered that Foster and Donaghy called each other more than 300 times between December 2006 and April 2007. The only reason the calls stopped was Donaghy's arrest, Foster has been investigated and cleared by the FBI as well as the NBA and remains a league referee in good standing. So much so that he worked the NBA Finals this past June.

The reason for all the calls, he says was a friendship of more than 15 years. They were close enough for Donaghy to serve as godfather to one of Foster's kids. He knows that when a federal investigator or a league official says that no evidence was found to implicate him in the illegal activities surrounding Donaghy, the public is skeptical and wants to hear it from the person involved.

He has now had his opporuntiy to speak thanks to the strong recommendation of the NBA's independent investigator. But what he has to say may not make a difference to the general public and that is what he believes is unfair. When he was implicated in the scandal his name was in the news for weeks. When he was cleared there was a brief mention of it for a day and we all moved on with our lives.

I have news for Foster. He still has his job in the NBA, no one who truly matters in his life (family, friends, employer) believes he engaged in betting or transmitting betting information with Donaghy and he is in good health. Frankly that 's the best all of us can hope for. Many of us deal with strangers' perceptions about our actions and our lives and know that we can't convince anyone who doesn't want to be convinced. I'm happy that he got to get it all off his chest. Now I'd like him to stop speaking to the press and move on with calling fouls on multi-millionaires.