Notice how he doesn’t blame the ref at all so he won’t get fined

I don’t feel like I’ve ever seen an opposing team player or coach give SGA a compliment that wasn’t backhanded

There’s a saying in boxing that you can’t leave it up to the judges.

That said, it’s really fucking annoying to watch. Some of their games are just unwatchable.

Generally I think the “Shai’s a free throw merchant” narrative is fairly overblown, though last night’s game was a pretty bad example of him being pretty much unable to find his shot outside of going to the line. He was really struggling all night, but when you can get 16 points off FTs it doesn’t matter. Makes sense how frustrating that is for the Knicks who actually played great defense on him but got no reward for it.

All this to say teams (and Shai) do this because it works. They’re playing to win. I don’t like watching it either, but these guys aren’t playing for my viewing experience, they’re playing to win the game. If it didn’t work they wouldn’t do it.

Probably the most eloquent way I’ve seen someone call Shai a flopper

that’s the thing about OKC, they get all the following calls:

SGA star player soft calls

Lu Dort, Wallace, Caruso flopping on defense while navigating the screen

Hartenstein getting away with Draymond Screens

Chet, Hartenstein get away with murder in the paint where they will get stops that are all blatant fouls because they are bonified rim protectors

Their perimeter guys get to play tackle football because of their defensive reputation and at the same time their guys also have “great hands” which leads to “Clean” steals that lead to easy transition buckets

Not to mention the amount of boards they get because they just get to hold bigger players because they have a bunch of 6’6 guys who are not allowed to get called for fouls while going against bigger players.

Most teams get 1-2 of these calls at best, OKC get ALL OF THESE in their favor

Didn’t he say this exact thing before? I’m having major déjà vu here.

This team can has so many likable personalities and not enough dogs. From the top down

If you don’t like any of the calls then challenge them. Instead, he challenged an out of bounds call that gave OKC the ball anyways

The OKC/SGA hate train is so wild. People just be saying anything cuz their team isn’t as good. OKC/SGA are elite. No excuses why. They just are

Brown also made the dumbest fucking challenge yesterday and crashed out on the most obvious foul imaginable. I get complaining about us and all, but it was genuinely hilarious how poor he was at trying to point out this supposed favoritism.

The Knicks have such massive loser energy. First round exit incoming

Loser talk

Brunson would never.

Nobody sells more than angry r/nba kids though.

I genuinely don’t give a fuck if Shai is a flopper anymore, can we talk about literally anything else? Ever once?

Mike Brown is soft

Crybaby. They’re also very good in basketball. That kind of helps.

Bam shot 43 fts in a game

My only thing with this take is literally every NBA team does this. OKC might be the best at it, but they’re all guilty.

lol bitter ass

If you watched this game and DONT think Brown just got out-schemed and out-coached, then IDK what to tell you…

He challenged an out of bounds call where imminent possession went to OKC, regardless of the outcome!

I like coaches who don’t make excuses.

if it’s so obvious other why aren’t other teams doing it?

omg he coaches brunson

Even if they get a good whistle, I gotta respect them for it. Is it annoying to watch? Yes. But that’s not on them. That’s on the league. As a competitor, I’m doing whatever I can to improve my odds of winning

Caruso gets away with murdering your entire family

Has a coach that immediately complains about calls after a game as consistently as Finch and Brown actually win a championship?

Poor sport.

lol … why aren’t your players good at gaming the system? That’s a coaching failure. Knicks ain’t winning the Championship with Brunson as their best player.

Head coach in the NBA.. 10 million per year.. Only 30 spots available.. World pop of 8.3 billion and the best of the best is guys taking no accountability? This is literally a losers mentality. I don’t think this man could win a chip if he had SGA, Luka, Jokic, Wemby on the same team.

The way this narrative has infested everything you’d think OKC was first in NBA in FTA by a mile, not checks notes 14th

Luka has about 60 more FTA than Shai with one less match, but I never hear complaints about him. Is he really not doing it, or has it just become such an easy scapegoat to blame Shai foul baiting when they can’t beat OKC?

This OKC team is the Arsenal, of basketball

So it’s all about getting the officials to THINK that fouls are occurring. Cool, so it’s a skill, and why doesn’t Mike Brown and his team do it then? Is he stupid? Does his team suck?

²⁹⁄₃₀ coaches in the NBA are now clowns. This is tiring af.

Sga could do no wrong a few years ago, now he’s public enemy. Same shit happened to Luka for a couple of years now. Maybe that will help diminish the Thunder fans on every pro Luka thread, they are starting to know how they feel lmao. Who knows, a truce might be on the horizon for both fanbases.

Do you think he just doesn’t remember that he coaches Jalen Brunson?

Yeah, this team isn’t winning anything with Brown.

Didn’t he say something similar like a month ago about SGA? Or maybe that was Finch. Or Carlisle. Or both/others?

It’s hilarious that Mike Brown has two technicals this year and both came in games against OKC.

They’ve convinced the league that it’s just their style of play.

I watched the game from like 99-96 or whatever it was to the end. In that deciding stretch everything seemed pretty normal honestly. I find the Thunder flopping and foul baiting talk kind of overblown at times. Not saying it doesn’t exist, of course it does. But it’s also unfortunately part of the NBA now unless referees start doing something about it. I saw Shai make 3 excellent plays none of which was foul baiting in that stretch where the pulled away. But maybe I’m just trying to not get bogged down in the mud and naive lol.

Does he complain every time the knicks lose?

Brunson is a foul merchant.

Finch did it right. Bitter betsy post game is lame

Boo hoo

I get it, but Mike, my man, you coach Jalen Brunson and KAT. Maybe sit this one out.

If I wanted to watch someone acting I’d just watch a movie, not interested making it’s way into the league

Hahahahaha please follow suit coaches. The backhanded compliment so you don’t get fined is 👌👌

Lmfao

He’s 100% right.

This kind of flopping and foul baiting is killing the league.

extreme ownership

James Harden in his prime was better than SGA at this

Quality passive aggressive shade there

This is one of the reasons Mike Brown is always employed - yes he’s a quality coach - but he’s super professional. This is a masterclass of saying something politely and still making a point. He’s not giving OKC positive credit here - he hates this style of basketball and he’s putting in on record in the most professional way possible.

Maybe if refs did there jobs and called fouls when they occur you wouldn’t hear how OKC skirts the rules make them adjust not the refs common sense.

https://youtu.be/TEtmW8L_M-8?si=HWZJIIRb_w7ziEs3

🤔

He used his challenge on an out of bounds claiming the Knicks weren’t out of bounds and incorrectly gave the ball to OKC even though OKC got the ball off the save attempt. Challenge was successful but Thunder get ball through imminent possession. In either scenario Thunder get the ball. This is who is complaining. A guy who won’t use his challenge on things he thinks aren’t fouls but one who uses it to reverse a call where they still don’t get the ball. Just wasting them then bitching

If you can’t beat em, blame the refs.

Instead of this roundabout verbose speech where he blames our team for 50% of it, I would love if every coach just highlighted the way they are not officiated the same as their opponents.

If I was a coach I would legitimately be on social media posting the clip of the OG phantom foul, the KAT “offensive foul” after Chet hacks him 4 times on the drive uncalled, the Josh hart “foul” that was really just dort running through a screen. Go ahead and fine me. Fix this garbage product.

You have Brunson on your team bruh

OKC hate boner has been dialed up 1000% this last week.

Saying this when your star player is Brunson is fucking crazy

I love to see it

All he’s saying is that gee the game sucks to watch ho hum hats off and wow pay me