[Highlight] Reggie Miller on SGAs “Foul baiting” Are there questionable calls? Absolutely. But He’s attacking the defense every night. Jaylen Brown been calling this out and he just shot 21 free throws last night!
This is why I like reggie. He really stays in tune with what’s goin on in the game. He follows it religiously.
and it’s not even hard to do, specially when you are paid to do it.
Idk a lot of the other analysts make me believe it is hard since they don’t
Unfortunately, sensible and level-headed analysis doesn’t make as much noise as reactionary hot takes and vitriol
i feel even if he wasn’t paid to do it he would. he just loves it that much.
I never agreed with the hate people have for him as a commentator, he’s a cornball that loves the game. He’s endearing in an uncle way
I mean, I hate him as a broadcaster because NBC (and TNT before them) insists on giving him Knicks games and he struggles to hide his bias.
I’m not dumb, and I know why they do this. But, while he’s decent on a neutral game, he’s a total chud when calling the Knicks.
I mean we had to deal with Breen and all of ESPN being biased. Reggie honestly never seems too bad, but obviously I’m not watching every Knick’s game he’s ever done so maybe I’m missing something.
“No pun intended!!”
No pun was made.
Honestly one of his most endearing habits. And boy that’s an annoying habit.
It’s still better than the “welcome to your Kodak moment” lol, I physically cringed whenever he said that. Thankfully he abandoned that schtick now.
Yeah even as a Knicks disliker I’ve noticed he’s hella biased against them so it’s gotta be bad
People can never make me hate Reggie.
i think it’s just his voice tbh. it makes everything sound kind of bad/corny. the days of him being an actual bad commentator are long gone
He still can’t pronounce Wembanyama correctly
He’s the only commentator that is an automatic mute for me. I like Reggie, but he’s annoying AF as a commentator.
He’s good in interesting games that are competitive. It’s boring games and blowouts where I really start eyeing the mute button lol.
He’ll never say something is bad for the game
Reggie literally says:
“Nobody ever said MJ was a foul baiter, and he went to the line 10+ times a game”
“James Harden is in that same category, 10+ Free throws a game”
every single person on planet earth called Harden a foul baiter. people literally referred to Harden as Basketball Hitler
then Reggie says: “Giannis, is in that same category”
MJ and Giannis predominantly got their free throws bc they are 2 of the greatest athletes to ever exist.
Jordan and Giannis don’t have a 3pt perimeter game, they exist on getting to the basket and relying on 1. The Greatest Hangtime ever 2. being 6’11 250 and faster than everyone
the reason they get fouled is because the other human beings literally can’t catch-up. they go to the line bc of their otherworldly abilities, which is why a lot of NBA fans exist in the first place
Harden and SGA rely on deception and distortion of the rules. Shai will instantly pull up from the elbow if he think’s he can rip through your arm and get free throws. Harden is the same way. this is perverting the roles and it’s truly just bad sportsmanship.
i don’t think Reggie even understands the argument bc he’s just spamming FT numbers
At the end of the day literally every single MVP candidate in the history of the game has received at least some amount of help from the refs. Hell, I’m a Spurs fan, but Duncan literally got the entire Mavs frontcourt rotation in foul trouble in G7 in 06, and at least 1⁄3 of those fouls were questionable at best. People should just enjoy the game without hating so much
Yup. Somewhere along the way we decided to stop calling it “super star whistle” and started calling it baiting.
It’s both. Players sell contact now in a way that they didn’t before. There are new techniques for creating contact with defenders that just look worse than what superstars did in years past, even if it’s not any more egregious.
It’s a star whistle for everyone else, just not Shai.
Because he came out of nowhere, casuals legitimately think he was manufactured.
I just tell anyone who thinks the league is rigged for OKC to just come visit us and they will see within half an hour how dumb it is to think that. Lol
Right lmao like I’m SURE the League is head over heels excited for OKLAHOMA CITY to be the powerhouse franchise. I’m sure officials and sponsors can’t wait to plan All-Star meetings in Bricktown or Braum’s.
But think of the ratings!
Surely, rigging it for a Canadian in one of the smallest market teams will make the NBA dozens of dollars (CAD)
It’s undeniable
Mate, OKC had two 7+ FTA/g players back during the KD/Russ days.
Team was second in FTr in 2013.
If that was happening today, I can’t even imagine the kind of discourse happening lol
I remember some very funny convos going on around RealGM at the time.
I stand by my position that the Shai foul baiting narrative is cause of his team, not him. OKC is a team of physical defenders, with the “can’t call them all” mentality. Of course SGAs whistle kinda worse when contrasted with his team.
That’s actually an interesting way to look at it.
And the star whistle has been around for at least 30 years. I remember when MJ started out people freaked when he averaged over 10 FT’s a game. And he didnt come out of no where, over the course of his career people just mellow out. People have to hate for no reason.
SGA isn’t the first guy who’s been called a foul bater lol take it from a rockets fan.
Prob not Steph
Its unfair he has the greatest screener ever
He benefited from how lax they are with Draymond.
lol, fair
What’s extra odd about this is that Steph is so damn likable. Like what could they possibly hold against him to without the superstar whistle
People should just enjoy the game without hating so much
that’s not how social media works any more unfortunately. for anything
This is the correct approach. I almost became a hater of Thunder as a team and don’t really enjoy watching SGA at this point. But what we should criticize (harshly) is the rules, not the players or even teams.
I will only criticize a player who is intentionally trying to hurt people, like planting their feet under people’s feet.
That’s not a player, that’s a fucking asshole
Quitter! You gotta hate the Thunder with passion
100% yet still I don’t remember anyone getting as much hate for it as SGA…makes you wonder why
Embiid did. Makes you wonder what those two have in common.
I know which foul wasn’t questionable in that game.
Maybe no superstar should get that treatment
I think what’s frustrating now is THE WAY the fouls are being called makes it hard to enjoy. Like I know SGA is an incredible player with or without the free throws he gets but some of the calls he gets (and it’s not just him! It’s most star level offensive players that do this now) mannnnnn….. These offensive geniuses have gotten so good at initiating the contact and then exaggerating the contact for a call because the way the game is called encourages them and rewards them to do so. It stinks. It’s not fun to watch and it’s contributing in the fall off in NBA popularity for casual fans.
I noticed something with SGA is that while he’s not insane fast, he plays extremely low to the ground, which makes it too hard for guards to stop because they can’t use their upper body as well. This means they often resort to blocking fouls or holding an arm against his body so he can’t get low.
I dont know how he has such insane flexibility on his lower body, because everytime I see a slow motion replay of him, his joints are bending in ways that would give season ending injuries to most players lol
This is spot on except for one point. He is insanely fast at stop and go. Westbrook was the fastest I’ve ever seen in person on a breakaway. SGA is faster than him with his first 2 steps or on a stop and go.
Yeah, his change of pace is absolutely insane
His ball handling is kinda conceals his speed, too.
Yeah the man’s joints are insane. I’ve seen pictures of him mid crossover and his entire ankle is inverted. Like, how are you doing that without obliterating your tendons?!
I’m being reevaluated in 2-3 weeks for just looking at those pictures.
His off season training making more and more sense the more of those pics I see.
Im glad SGA makes me feel less weird about how I roll my ankles constantly and even use the side of my shoe to plant off and make adjustments on defense.
Its always been hard for me to truly understand how it feels for people that tear muscles and ligaments. Ive been very lucky for the flexibility of my ligaments
After watching him his first year with the thunder, I told my brother that SGA will have DRose knees in a few years because he puts so much torque with his stop and gos.
Luckily he leaned into that and basically adapted nearly all his training regime based on his style of play.
I was worried as hell during his first few seasons for OKC, every fall made me worried.
Now he falls less, is much more coordinated, and controls more and more what’s happening on the court towards his body.
Even when he’s falling it seems like it’s more a part of his plan instead of randomly crashing.
Against the Wolves the other day he had a tangle with Gobert and he just did a semi push up and got back on the court lol. That wouldn’t have happened 4 seasons ago.
Nickeil is the same way. He doesn’t have the deceleration that SGA has, but he looks rubber out there at times.
Save this comment for when he gets a season ending injury like Tatum.
Bro
He is the best player ever in lateral side to side movement. He’s so damned shifty. He’s also the best I’ve ever seen at dribbling past a double.
I know what you mean. Sometimes I’m like “how are his knees not dislocated”
My favorite thing is when he walks on his ankles for like 1-2 steps it’s absurd 😂
People losing their minds about SGA never lived through Dwyane Wade is my guess
And everyone who lost their minds about Dwayne Wade never lived through MJ.
lol.
We didn’t have social media is like 99% of the reason why
Thank the good lord (Steven Adams) that social media wasn’t around in the 90s. The servers that support this sub would melt.
Its hilarious imagining how much slander Jordan would receive if he played in the social media age. SGA is constantly shit for the goofy faces he makes but this mf Jordan was straight up wagging his tongue out every possession lmfao
OK, but Dwayne Wade was one of the most hated players in the league at points
I think it’s less about that and more that Caruso and Dort get highly favorable defensive calls, then SGA foul baits on the other end. It’s one thing to have a player baiting fouls, it’s another when the same team has two guys who foul with little impunity.
That’s exaggerated as well. They are simply elite defenders that know when to use their hands and when not to.
It’s when people see their mediocre defenders on their team attempt the same stuff lazily and getting called that causes a dissonance.
Dort has like 10 clips from this season of him acting with intent to injure & half of them he wasn’t even called a foul for. It’s absurd to say this when they’ve given him a leash longer than Draymond; at least Draymond isn’t out here trying to trip people & close out putting his feet under defenders.
There have been too many cases of him treating the basketball court like a hockey rink to give him the benefit of the doubt. The guy’s brand of defense is committing fouls & being “tough” by trying to be sly with shit like his backfist to joker.
There are absolutely not 10 clips proving Dort intended to injure.
This is the weirdest homer take I’ve heard but okay.
You would think Dort and Caruso have never been called for a foul, the way you people talk. Just the same tired ass narrative over and over.
The “tired ass narrative” is people like yourself being performatively hyperbolic and attributing an opinion I didn’t say. Pointing out how Caruso and Dort get calls is part of the issue in assessing SGA isn’t saying they don’t get called for fouls.
I forgot Reddit is where nuanced conversations go to die.
That was only one game though Jaylen Brown doesn’t shoot that many freethrows in most games
7.3 FTA for Jaylen on the season and 9.1 FTA for SGA on the season. Of course, I’m a little biased, but those aren’t too far apart, especially given how much shai drives to the basket.
For the top 20 highest usage players in the league, SGA is #3 for free throw rate at .460 (Harden is second with .479 and Avdija is #1 with an outrageous .562).
Brown is tied for 10th with Siakam at .336.
ok shai has higher usage i’m guessing? and less turnovers so more posessions to take/get fouled on
I’m pretty sure free throw rate takes into account usage and turnovers. It’s essentially the rate (percentage) of your shots that turn into free throws
No, Brown has higher usage (he’s at 36.2%, #2 in the league behind Luka, while SGA is 4th with 33.5%.
Since 2020, the only players to finish a season top-20 in usage with a higher usage rate than SGA has right now are Harden, Embiid, Giannis, Zion that one year he was healthy ish, and SGA. If you go back to 2015 you add DeMarcus Cousins and one season of DeMar DeRozan to the list.
SGA gets to the line a lot, even for a star player, and really James Harden is the only backcourt player in the modern game who gets to the line more.
I do think his reputation is worse than it would be otherwise because of the Thunder defense though. They are unquestionably one of the most physical defenses in the league but are consistently near the bottom in opponent free throw rate, so the SGA free throws feel like insult to injury.
It absolutely is if you added up over a 82 game season.
That one game really has changed the narrative. Is JB the worst foul baiter in the nba?
In the history of the league. No doubt.
In my opinion, the biggest foul baiters of all time are all Celtics players.
They gave brown a ton of free throws to ruin his argument. He can’t be arguing that SGA is baiting free throws if brown is given more. It’s a smooooth move by the nba to discredit his argument.
Things just need to be called consistently for all players. A push off cant be an offensive foul for one player, and a defensive foul for another players.
T wolves fan who can’t even spell his own team’s name in his username? Or…. what is happening here?
Ah great, a fresh topic on r/nba!
Shai is a little worse at drawing fouls and significantly worse committing offensive fouls than his peers. He is whistled accordingly (middling fouls per drive among top 25 drivers, second worse offensive fouls per drive). So that would mean, since he drives the most over the last several seasons, he would’ve initiated more illegal/ineffective contact than anyone else. Which means the refs will miss and make more calls for and against Shai than for any other player.
Thunder fans watch WAY more Shai footage than other drivers, see him get a tough whistle all the time.
˖
Non-OKC fans see him less often, but witness more subpar contact inititation than for any other player they watch
=
Confirmation bias. Amplified by slow-mo replay clips.
He is one of the most egregious at using the off arm. But as of now thats a legal move in the rules so you can’t really blame him for that. A lot of that probably should be legislated out but it hasn’t been yet.
Shai at least is attempting to shoot or do some kind of basketball plaay on most of his FTs. Its not nearly as bad as some of the Harden/Brunson stuff where they are clearly only playing for the foul and oftentimes intentionally make a potential shot harder by running into the defender.
Reggie, I hated when Harden did it too, so I don’t care how you wanna justify it for one because you’re justifying it for others. Don’t justify it. Get better officiating.
Yes! It’s not just SGA I hated watching Harden do it. I hate watching Luka and brunson do it too.
Do you also hate watching Giannis bowl into people and get FTs?
I find it more enjoyable than flopping. My hatred of Luka Brunson and SGA holds no bounds.
So you hate it when it’s not your team doing it? Got it.
Giannis does not flop to nearly the same level. SGA runs into people and the flys off
God forbid he’s not as strong as Giannis
Thoughts on Deni Avdija?
Players have to foul Giannis otherwise he gets an easy layup or dunk. Players aren’t trying to foul SGA - he pushes them with his off arm or they have their arm out to the side and he runs into it and goes flying like he got hit by a truck.
SGA and OKC as a team don’t even lead league in ft attempts. The team was 15 last year and last I checked near that again.
15? We were 26th last season lol.
https://www.nba.com/stats/teams/traditional?Season=2024-25&dir=A&sort=FTA
The claim is that SGA gets a near Luka-level whistle while the rest of OKC plays “foul so much that they can’t call them all” defense, which creates a stark contrast of the worst of both worlds - other teams either have one or the other.
Wow, it’s so handy people retreat to this non falsifiable subjective argument when they’re presented with actual facts that go against their narrative!
And its also handy to have an easy strawman to prove wrong, so you can avoid the actual argument.
It’s not a “strawman” to ask you for data to back up your claim lmfao
Keep up. The strawman is pretending like the complaint is only about FTA when its not, which is an easy target to prove wrong.
Then show some evidence that isnt based solely on vibes, you loser
Why would I waste my time debating a random OKC bandwagon fan like you would change your mind anyways?
The evidence is in front of your eyes, if you can’t see it thats a you problem.
Ok, here’s my question: where’s your data for your claim of “SGA gets a near Luka-level whistle while the rest of OKC plays ‘foul so much that they can’t call them all’ defense”. YOU put that in this comment section. Back it up, then. Where are your higher level stats on this issue
I’m certainly not wasting my time gathering data for biased fans to ignore. I know how internet arguments work, you aren’t changing your mind and I don’t care if you do or don’t.
The data has been covered ad nauseum all over the internet for years. If you haven’t seen it, its because you don’t want to.
Is it some conspiracy that every team who plays the Thunder feels irritation about the same things, to the point that Reggie Miller and other talking heads have to come to their defense constantly like this?
If it’s been covered ad nauseum, then link it! I’m not biased enough to not believe facts lol that’d be crazy
And you don’t think wildly competitive men latch onto emotional arguments to justify being beaten by a very skilled team? It’s frustrating to play OKC, I would lash out, too. That doesn’t inherently mean their feelings are correct. I haven’t seen them quote data either
No… if you want to discover articles on SGA foulbaiting or OKC playing a very common “foul so much they can’t call it” defense, there are numerous articles + podcasts and youtube videos on the subject. You and I both know it, I’m not playing that game.
And no, people are not complaining about every great team like they do about OKC. So that idea that “everyone will complain when they lose” is not true.
So it’s a strawman to ask for quantifiable data of what you’re alleging….. and we’re also “avoiding the actual argument” by doing so? Do you think you’re god? Lol
Google the definition of strawman I’m not explaining this to every single OKC fan in individual responses.
you obviously don’t understand what a straw man or an argument is.
you’re making unsubstantiated claims and calling requests for substance a straw man.
were you educated in oklahoma or something?
As I’ve said multiple times by this point, and I know you read it because you have replied to 3 of my comments, the straw man is “people only hate OKC because of the foulbaiting”. No. People hate that OKC plays the refs on offense and defense.
Pretending like its just the foulbaiting, is an easy strawman. Now you can point to Luka and pretend like you proved everyone wrong.
If you wanted data you could easily look it up yourself, I’m not going to bother on an internet argument. For the exact same reason that you replied to 3 of my comments and are still pretending you don’t understand what I meant by strawman, you are not here to have a real discussion about the data youre here to fanboy about your team that you bandwagoned on.
but you’re not making a real argument. that’s what the person you’re replying to is pointing out.
If that was the case then other teams could absolutely do the same. Unless you’re one of the conspiracists that think Adam Silver is rigging the game for a small market team that supposedly nobody likes.
Sure, that doesn’t solve the problem that its not fun basketball to watch for a lot of people.
People will say the league has gone soft and they want physical defense back. Then when they get physical defense they will complain. This will keep happening as long as basketball is a thing
Big difference between physical defense + purposefully fouling so much that the refs won’t call them all. Thats a legitimate strategy but its meta-gaming instead of playing enjoyable basketball, just like constantly playing for contact on offense. You can’t really blame fans who don’t want to watch that.
Pistons not getting hate… almost like when you win, you get irrational haters.
Caruso was one of the most beloved players until he joined the Thunder…
Pistons have had 1 season of being relevant give them a little time. And they don’t have a foul baiter on offense which was my main point, OKC games the refs on both ends of the ball.
Anways I hate the Pistons too, that should make you feel better.
Then don’t fuckin watch you dork
I wish I could avoid it but 2 times a year I have to, its painful though
Most other teams fans feel the same way which is why you have to keep defending yourself against the truth.
I 100% agree but fans of those teams won’t accept that answer. They can’t accept their favorite player isn’t as fun to watch for neutral fans as other players. Personally I watch a lot of random games with League Pass, and there are teams I like watching and teams I avoid. I have no biases towards any of these teams, it’s just what I find entertaining to watch and what I don’t. I had the same exact issue watching Harden back in the day.
I wish we could address the foul baiting, push offs, phantom foul calls, etc from an NBA rules perspective rather than people taking it so personally. It sucks to watch regardless of who’s doing it.
Yeah its hard to have this conversation because of team bias.
But I genuinely don’t mind losing to some teams. Its not that frustrating because they play real basketball and are just better at the game, and its still fun to watch.
Some teams, its rough to watch win or lose. For years Embiid 76ers and Harden Rockets was like that, I’d often just turn the game off because I don’t want to watch that whole ref metagame I want to watch real basketball.
Yes, that is the claim. “OKC gets away with a ton of off-ball and in the passing lanes contact, while my team fouls a guy shooting and gets called for it! Make it make sense!”
Like bro… off-ball and in the act of shooting are actually two completely different things! Have you seen how much Shai gets manhandled when he doesn’t have the ball? Have you seen how many fouls Caruso and Dort get when it’s on the shot? Comparing apples to oranges and think they’re smart…
Doesn’t fit the agenda tho
great reasoning… just because one guy had 21ft one night doesnt mean the other guy isnt getting constantly sent to the line. these guys are just like politicians. just stirring up bullshit with no substance.
Shai is 17th in the nba in free throw rate
He’s #3 not #17
It’s no coincidence he got 21 FT after calling out SGA for baiting.
Well he also got 14 FT and almost double SGA’s FT in the game that resulted in him complaining about SGA’s baiting.
Why do you watch / follow a league that you think is rigged? Genuine question
i’m not sure you understand the reasoning.
reggie’s telling crybabies to adapt and pointed to an example of that.
sink or swim.
Relative to SGA’s shot volume inside the arc, his free throw numbers are nothing. You see guys like Luka averaging over 10 threes a game and still getting more free throws, and there’s not even half the same outrage which leads me to one of two conclusions: 1) Luka’s not a threat to win much, so fans don’t feel that bloodrush to slander him, or 2) Racism.
Luka gets the second most hate after SGA if he was on the Thunder he would be first.
Not for his free throws though and you know that. He gets hate because of his constant bitching in an effort to get more FT’s
so fans don’t feel that bloodrush to slander him
Have you been living under a rock the last 2 seasons? Luka is probably the most criticized superstar in the league right now.
That’s definitely SGA.
He’s criticized for stuff like lazy defense or attitude like complaining to refs, not for going to the line. In fact, the criticism is usually like “He’s already leading the league in free throws, why is he whining so much?” completely bypassing the **Why is the guy leading the league in three point attempts also leading the league in free throws** topic. It’s actually funny this happens so obliviously to so many people too.
well slander about his offensive favor. fans definitely do slander him for defensive effort and complaining, but he doesn’t get as much criticism for getting favored offensively
I gotcha and that’s a fair take.
Luka’s not a threat to win much, so fans don’t feel that bloodrush to slander him,
Luka gets plenty of hate here for this exact thing. He gets more of it because he whines to the refs when they don’t call a foul, and he whines to them even when they do call the foul. He was roasted by the national media 2 years ago for this during the OKC playoff series.
Racism.
Just no. They hate him because that’s what NBA fans do. NBA fans notoriously watch clips and not games, too. As a once Curry hater, some times you just gotta step back and admire that what you’re watching is special. SGA will get his flowers eventually too. At this time last year fans were foaming at the mouth over the Jokic/SGA MVP debate and now there’s a general consensus this year that it’s a battle for who comes in 2nd place (if SGA gets to 65 games).
Luka gets plenty of hate here for this exact thing. He gets more of it
You are free to search both Luka and Shai on here and see which posts about foul-baiting have 10x more upvotes, engagement, hate, etc. Its so lopsided that its a waste of time to even argue this point.
As for the point about racism, again it goes back to the straight up ugly vitriol you see for SGA relative to Luka or even Jokic for that matter. Not necessarily on this platform, but you will see racist SGA graphics with high engagement on places like Twitter and Instagram. I’m not going to ignore all that even if its an uncomfortable conversation to have.
Western Conference fans just cannot accept how talented SGA is. I mean Luka flops and cries to the refs a lot more than SGA. But the Lakers organization dictates the narrative to the media and their fans dictate the narrative on social media. SGA is one of the best PG’s in NBA history, no one can deny that.
What a pro wants
Shoe polish. What they gon say now?
The conspiracy theorist in me says the NBA hooked up JB with those 21 free throws to make his argument look stupid lol
This is actually great lol
That would make a lot of sense if JB didn’t literally foul bait and do the rip-through a minimum of 4 times in this exact game.
He’s getting called out for baiting, and the number of free throws is just the first point brought up bc if you didn’t shoot any free throws, you obviously didn’t bait or you are terrible at it lol
Maybe it’s just me but I’ve always directed my anger at the defender for getting baited into the foul rather the player doing the foul baiting.
I’m sure defenders are baiting themselves into marginal contact or forearm push-offs into their sternums regularly like it seems like so many marquee guys do to create space
The point of playing is to win. If the rules are structured in such a way to allow someone to use them to his advantage, good on him!
people hate on reggies commentary because he’s enthusiastic about the game he should just be grumpy like all the other old heads huh
Reggie is the biggest rider the NBA has currently. He always toes the party line.
It’s part of the game and people act like it isn’t because they are too chicken shit to go against the hivemind
Yea, Jaylen Brown shouldn’t be calling anything out.
21 FTs is insane. It’s the calls the refs are calling
Shits soft as fuck
The league have an officiating problem. Don’t even blame players for foul baiting and flopping if the league is going to reward them for it instead of shaming them for it. I honestly have a bigger issue with certain fanbase claiming their player doesn’t foul bait and flop when there is video evidence that goes against their claim. And before anyone do any whataboutism in regards to Brunson, I know he is a foul baiter and flopper. I am willing to admit that and never attempted to defend him for it.
I can’t have this conversation again.
Refs/league trying to build this narrative that JB could get those calls if he “tried hard every night”. Nah this was a 1 game gift to brown, to shut him up about SGA getting calls. It will go back to normal before playoffs start
“Learn and adapt” from Reggie ignores the shit product that “adapting” is for fans to watch. Which, I think, is most people’s issue with how games are officiated and foul baiting.
Using Browns single game at the line is like saying climate change isn’t real because it’s cold today.
Complete logical fallacy
he cited brown’s game as an example of adaptation, which is what he suggests the crybabies do.
the diff is SGA literally foul baits and does non-basketball movements to draw fouls. JB just attacks the rim aggressively and gets hit. He just does it over and over again.
Do NFL fans latch onto one singular negative topic like this for entire seasons? Why do nba fans seemingly hate everything about it.
sga and lu dort are a disgrace
The issue is that fans want games to be more phisical. This goes against that.
No fear going into the paint. The loose whistles of the officials. Add them together and it’s an offensive players wonderland.
Forgive me Reggie for time and time again I have slandered your name after a braodcast
We did say this about James harden tho…
Lol Brown shot 21 FTs once
Smoooooth move by the NBA and refs. Give Brown a ton of free throws to completely railroad his argument.
We should not be encouraging more players to foul bait just because it works and that’s the way it is. It makes the game worse
As they learn to take advantage of the whistle, we learn to watch other sports. Sports where people play for the spirit of the game, not the spirit of the rulebook.
Enjoy adapting NBA. Lmk when you realize your love for free throws has misled you.
Nobody is forcing you to watch, this isn’t clockwork orange
I just wish fans would stop taking it so personally when their favorite player is mentioned in this conversation. Maybe this will help:
It’s lame and boring af to watch [player] who is crazy talented, drive into the lane to get and sell contact rather than score. [Player] has amazing games that are very entertaining to watch that all their fans will eagerly point to, followed by games with flopping and 20+ free throws.
I hate that playstyle. All players do it to some extent, but a handful do it to the point where I, as a neutral NBA fan, always get bored or annoyed while watching their games. It’s not personal, and if I was a fan of that team I’d probably be defending them too.
People hate Kerr but he was dead on when saying it’s an NBA rule thing, not a specific player issue. Foul bating sucks, doesn’t matter whether it’s your favorite player or mine that’s doing it.
Edit: The immediate downvotes prove my point. I’m just saying foul bating sucks, but people are probably replacing [player] in their head with JB, SGA, Luka, Harden, etc and taking it personally.
JB had a lot of free throws but that’s an outlier. Just cause he has some games here and there where he gets the whistle doesn’t mean it’s consistent. Shai consistently gets that whistle that no other players get.
Fuck this take we know exactly what foul bating is. SGA doesn’t need to flop, when the defender is doing everything not to foul and he initiates the contact on the drive he doesn’t need to flail backwards and throw up some wild shot he’d only taking because he knows he’s going to the line. He is already an elite finisher, he’s already an elite mid range shooter and his offensive weapons are near endless. Why does he feel he needs to pretend to be fouled? He gets a free practice shot that often goes in bc of how wildly talented he is then he gets his team a breather on the line. He also gets plenty of true fouls because defenses literally can’t handle how well he drives. The other shit is completely unnecessary.
This a putrid take Jaylen Brown leads the league in drives per game.
NBA.com tracking data has JB first in drives per game this season at 19.0 and Shai 3rd at 18.6. Prior to this year Shai led the league in drives per game each of the last four seasons starting in 2020-2021.
Given that information I’m going to assume you don’t have a problem with the number of fouls Shai draws, since he drives so much
Only if your willing to admit Brown is right when he says he doesn’t get the same whistle as SGA, and that this is a garbage take by reggie, and that SGA embellishes contact in order to draw additional fouls Which is specifically what brown is complaining about.
JB says these things because he knows y’all are guppies and complaining about the MVP are your lil fish flakes
He says it cause hes right. You flail you get more calls.
SGA has 19 games with over 10 FTAs. Brown has 10.
There is absolutely nothing similar between the way JB and SGA draw fouls
Really? I just saw this guy get ejected for arguing a call he flopped on.
Attacking the defense = throwing your head and arms back as soon as you feel contact.
it works though man, they’re trying to win games and the referees are calling it. the problem isn’t with his play it’s with the officiating
I completely agree
I agree that this is the problem I don’t blame him. I blame the refs. It’s just that the nba will never do anything about it. So people end up criticizing the player.
The issue is that SGA is also getting away with uncalled fouls he is committing on defense. Refs are calling his game like he is MJ, way way early for this type of officiating.
It seems to be coming from the league marketing department or Silver to create a star.
It feels like the Ja becoming a star backfired and the league is propping SGA for it…
Or maybe just a fun small conspiring mind hehe