{"id":2207,"date":"2026-06-02T16:06:37","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2026-06-02T16:06:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T16:06:37","slug":"curtis-blair-for-the-1st-time-is-among-the-12-referees-set-to-work-the-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2207","title":{"rendered":"Curtis Blair, for the 1st time, is among the 12 referees set to work the NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 Curtis Blair spent all day Friday checking his email. And Saturday. And Sunday. The list of referees that were selected to work the NBA Finals was about to be revealed by the league, and the waiting was brutal.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2205\">Police respond to reported shooting on Summit Avenue in Raleigh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvery two minutes, I\u2019d check,\u201d Blair said.<\/p>\n<p>Friday, nothing. Saturday, nothing. Sunday was mostly gone and Blair was driving home from a weekend visit to his parents\u2019 home in Virginia. As he pulled into his driveway, he realized that he had missed a phone call.<\/p>\n<p>The caller was Albert Sanders Jr., the executive vice president and head of referee operations for the NBA. Turns out, that call was the email that Blair had waited years to get.<\/p>\n<p>Blair called Sanders back and got the news: For the first time, he\u2019ll work a game in the NBA Finals. He\u2019s the only first-time selection in this year\u2019s group of 12 referees who will officiate the title series that starts Wednesday between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVery emotional moment, very emotional moment for me, because I\u2019ve been right there on the doorstep for so many years,\u201d Blair said. \u201cYeah, very emotional. This is my 18th year and one thing I had to realize going through this journey is that everybody has their own journey. Everybody has their own timetable. You become a referee, become an umpire, you get to the first round, the second round, third round. You just have to worry about yourself and your journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The league released the full list of selections on Tuesday. Scott Foster was picked to work his 19th finals, the most among current referees. The other selections besides Foster and Blair: Tony Brothers (15th finals), Marc Davis (15th), James Capers (14th), Zach Zarba (13th), John Goble (10th), Josh Tiven (7th), James Williams (6th), Courtney Kirkland (5th), Sean Wright (3rd) and Tyler Ford (2nd).<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2203\">After escaping the Taliban and years in exile, the Afghan women\u2019s soccer team rises again<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The league typically reveals the crew that will work each game around 9 a.m. EDT on game day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing selected to work the NBA Finals is the highest honor for an NBA official, and I congratulate them on an outstanding and well-earned achievement,\u201d said Byron Spruell, the NBA\u2019s president for league operations. \u201cWe are grateful for their unwavering dedication to the game and pursuit of excellence in their craft.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Blair was a second-round pick by the Houston Rockets in 1992, though never played a regular-season game in the league. He played internationally before starting his referee career and has worked more than 1,000 NBA games since 2008.<\/p>\n<p>Finals referees get special white warm-up jackets, only given to those selected to work the title series. Blair already has two of those from 2021 and 2022 when he was an alternate, but the one he gets this time will have much more meaning.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is so funny,\u201d Blair said. \u201cOne referee called me and he said, \u2018I know you got two other white jackets, but they had an asterisk on it. So, you can throw those away. Now you got a real one.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2201\">Congress asks NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to testify about league\u2019s embrace of streaming services<\/a><\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 Curtis Blair spent all day Friday checking his email. And Saturday&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2206,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Curtis Blair, for the 1st time, is among the 12 referees set to work the NBA Finals - Raleigh Moving News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/raleighmovingnews.com\/?p=2207\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Curtis Blair, for the 1st time, is among the 12 referees set to work the NBA Finals - Raleigh Moving News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SAN ANTONIO (AP) \u2014 Curtis Blair spent all day Friday checking his email. 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