NBA Officials Make Announcement Before Conference Finals

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Dean Koutouratsas | Last updated May 20, 2025 12:20 AM ET

The NBA Western Conference finals start Tuesday when game one of the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves series begins at 8:30 p.m. ET at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

The Eastern Conference finals kick off on Wednesday when the Indiana Pacers play the New York Knicks in game one at Madison Square Garden in New York City at 8 p.m. ET.

The league announced a list of 20 officials who will oversee both series after officiating the first and second rounds of the postseason.

Here’s a look at the officials selected to officiate the conference finals:

Curtis Blair

Tony Brothers

James Capers

Marc Davis

Mitchell Ervin

Tyler Ford

Scott Foster

Pat Fraher

John Goble

David Guthrie

Bill Kennedy

Courtney Kirkland

Mark Lindsay

Ed Malloy

Kevin Scott

Ben Taylor

Josh Tiven

James Williams

Sean Wright

Zach Zabra

The NBA today announced the list of officials who have been selected to work the Conference Finals of the 2025 NBA Playoffs presented by Google. pic.twitter.com/eMZ0TWStS0
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 19, 2025

Alternatives, if necessary, include Nick Buchert, JB DeRosa, Brian Forte and Gediminas Petraitis. In April, the NBA announced 36 officials that would oversee the first round, but now 20 remain.

Nine of the officials have officiated 100 or more playoff games heading into this postseason, namely: Foster (255), Davis (204), Brothers (201), Capers (189), Zarba (159), Kennedy (151), Malloy (143), Goble (139) and Guthrie (110).

The NBA referees operations management team selects playoff officials based on three specific criteria assessed throughout the regular season, including NBA Referee Operations grades and ratings, play-calling accuracy and team rankings.

Individual game assignments for officials are announced at 9 a.m. ET on the day of each game and posted on NBA.com/official.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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