Bobby Portis: “OKC gets a lot of whistles, especially Shai. He’ll big shoulder you and still get a foul… It’s the playoffs, nobody feels sorry for you… but I feel for Devin Booker.”
Wait why should the home team get more whistles? That’s so dumb. The only thing the home team should have an advantage of is playing in front of your fans and you get to sleep in your own bed.
I remember an espn article basically broke down the biggest home team advantage across sports is the pressure it puts on refs to make calls in your favor. Analyzed home and away free throws and other things. Theres some additional factors like altitude or the heat/cold, but officiating differences was the biggest driver they found.
Yeah probably people pleasing tendencies is at play. If you make a call that favours 20,000 people you’re going to feel good about them cheering for your call
Avoiding endless boos is also motivating. Thats why I boo every unfavorable call at any sporting event I go to. Gotta train the refs.
It’s working. You guys have insane FT differential.
Crack is wack
Mission accomplished
That last statement is hilarious and true
Gotta go to youth games so the refs get used to it early. I try to make time to go and boo a few youth refs a week. Grass roots booing
I think you need to keep it reasonable. Boo their questionable calls, boo their shit calls hard, but if you bust it out when they’re obviously right then the human response is to tell you to stick it up your ass.
Nah fuck that. You boo every call they make regardless of how reasonable it is.
Occasionally you grimace when you see something flagrant then go straight back to booing.
Even without this going on if the audience all reacts to something on the court it draws more ref attention to it. The crowd doesn’t gasp or yell at a home team foul.
Unconscious bias, all humans have it and we can’t get rid of it all
Perfect for AI
I’m terrified for what that reality will look like
They would never actually do it because it would slow down games
old refs have a strong union
nba would have to go rogue and have their own reffing system
You’re absolutely right, I apologize, when Alex Caruso claimed there was a technical foul that should be called, I hallucinated that he was correct. As an AI I sometimes make mistakes. I will try to improve next time!
All AI isn’t the same, there’s AI that can beat top professional ping pong players now
oh shit link me to that, that sounds amazing
Can’t get rid of it, but you can actually minimize it through awareness. There was a study from 1991 to 2004 that found that Referees had an unconscious bias against players of different races than themselves. Simply making the refs aware of this bias actually eliminated it though. A follow up study in 2007-2010 showed the bias was gone.
The study is called “Racial Discrimination Among NBA Referees” for anyone who wants to read it.
I think he’s saying not that it’s a law, but it’s more common to happen because the pressure on the refs is bigger with the home crowd.
It’s just always been an unspoken rule in all levels of basketball. More-so on levels that don’t have replays or reviews. A call that seems like a 50⁄50 coin flip play/ a bang bang play is where the home team should get the benefit of the doubt. But it’s sports so that doesn’t always play out as innocently as it sounds.
I think he’s just saying you should expect it because the crowd is going crazy and influencing the refs even if it’s subconscious
Hes right let both sides be physical
That’s my whole thing. One way aggression but it leads to more scoring and highlights which is what the nba wants, so it’s not going anywhere unfortunately.
Only Lu Dort is allowed to catch a body
And Caruso. Shai is allowed to shove you go the ground too. God forbid anyone breathes near Chet or Shai though.
I’m sorry you’ve lost all of your braincells. I’ll be thinking of you and yours.
OKC fans are brutal. Why can’t any of you admit your team gets insane calls and it’s not balanced? I still think you’d win the championship regardless but acting oblivious is so disingenuous and just makes every other statement you make seem like total bs.
And saying you can’t breathe on Shai or Chet isn’t total bs? Get outta here
Yeah it’s an exaggeration to make a point. It’s called hyperbole.
Yeah it’s fucking stupid. People use it as an argument as if it means anything.
Probably because we actually watch the game.
Everyone else watches them without the homer goggles
Could have fooled me - there’s a post with all the fouls from last nights game and Subs or flopping all over. Where are these non Homer goggle watchers?
Wow yeah one video answers all the no calls when OKC are by far the most physical team defensively. Thanks for letting me know about it man.
Seriously you guys are so dense.
Suns are crying about this game, video shows their tears about this game are wrong, you’re a professional goal post mover. Sorry your team sucks.
They shot 22 fta attempts to our 25, idk why yall assume we just don’t get called for our physicality lol it doesn’t even make sense
Free throw count is a terrible and either naive or misleading way to compare calls. I think Dort is dirty but so is brooks. I think Caruso gets away with a lot but so can we. My biggest issue is shai has a crazy whistle which can completely dominant a game.
Everyone and their mom knows you’re the league’s golden child. You would’ve gone down 3-1 and likely lost in 5 if the refs didn’t completely bail you out. That’s ignoring you would’ve been bounced in multiple series if you were reffed like 29 other teams.
Look, I’m not asking you to admit how shady every playoff series win was, but at least have enough shame to stay quiet. Anyone watching sees it. You can live in denial. Just be quiet about it or jerk in the Thunder sub how people are just jealous you get carried by the refs every series.
Dear diary
They were. If you watch the game Shai got hounded quite a bit.
Take the whole fouls thing out of it but are the Suns genuinely physically able to be more physical? They’ve got Brooks who can and does body guys but outside of him they don’t really have anyone that’s able to physically defend guys.
I think people forget how many elite physical defenders OKC has. Guys like Joe and Shai don’t get away with defending super physically because they’re not build to defend physically.
Something we all agree on
Both sides played pretty physical last night. This place only gets mad about one side though 🤷
They did. Both teams flopped as well.
Silver told me that only OKC could be physical so gg I guess.
I like how you completely cut out the things he said in the video that don’t work toward the narrative you want to push..
Like?
Nobody feels sorry for you…except me
Good guy bobby
He actually doesn’t say “I feel for Devin Booker…” he just says “I feel Devin Booker with his comments…” as in he agrees/understands why he made those comments.
I think we’re going a bit too far when Booker is allowed to escape accountability for playing really badly.
He also foul baits like crazy.
Bro thos fouls techs and thing I saw were egregious.
Also when refs get in the game early it takes a player out before he can get going
The tech was BS but Booker was complaining up and down the court the whole game before that. No matter how you feel about the officiating if you’re going into games already thinking you’re at a disadvantage it will objectively make it harder to win games.
But the ref’s didnt get in the game early. They called cheap fouls on the thunder for the first half. The suns got bullshit calls go their way all game also.
Just fucking watch a full game. Jesus christ
Bots don’t watch games…
[deleted]
no one is talking about dillon brooks in this thread?
Yep. My fault.
I feel like I’m losing my mind. The Suns shot more FTs last night than the Thunder.
It’s that the refs made a really bad technical call and offensive foul call that people are specifically referring to. Nobody is saying they aren’t getting to the line enough or losing bc of the refs. Hope some nuance can help restore your mind
Okay but why? Why the constant need to find or two plays in a game with hundreds actions and then prop them up at this level with the implication that they are outcome-changing? It’s 100% cope, that’s all it is.
you’re exactly right. It’s 1 or 2 bad calls, but overall they don’t change the outcome of the game. Why is that the focus?
Can you not understand it’s just one of the things being discussed about the game? There are other threads about other topics from the game. This is a sound bite from a talk show that discussed more than this.
Here’s some nuance for you
https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/s/aMijyOrE3y
People always look at quantity over quality. It’s not about the amount of fouls or free throws but the way they are called with timing in mind, momentum, levels of contact, and yes some that will give free throws while others aren’t deemed shooting fouls. There’s a lot more to it than just total fouls and FTAs.
No they say we can’t be touched
That offensive foul was a clear foul. Booker hits Caruso in the face.
If it was his arm it would have been an easy foul. Everyone including the announcers agrees it’s dumb you can get the offensive for sticking your face into the players arms while he’s shooting
SGA got free throws the possession after by extending his arms out way further than Booker did and catching the defenders arms on his way up to shoot. Booker at least looked like he was trying to hit a shot, SGA was obviously trying to draw a foul
I think the framing of it by the refs being an “unnatural shooting motion” is what made people lose their minds. I thought it was an offensive foul but the explanation was pretty bad.
Yeah you’d just have to go back and call a few offensive fouls against the Thunder though if that’s the case.
Yeah I mean it was definitely an offensive foul but it was really in no way an unnatural shooting motion. Then compounded with the literal next play where SGA uses an unnatural shooting motion to draw the foul it was just comical.
He also leans in during his jumper increase the contact and try to draw the foul. If he hadn’t caught Caruso in the chin with his elbow that’s either a no call or a foul on Caruso.
The whole interpretation of the rule is absolutely stupid and it’s why there’s no consistency in how the refs call it. If Booker did that on a 3, Caruso would be in his landing space and he’d get the foul call, but because he’s closer to the basket, all of a sudden, Booker doesn’t have a right to land and Caruso can stick his legs under him, but also because he can get so close, he can now stick his face in front of Booker and get elbowed in a natural shooting motion and get an offensive foul on Booker. Like what are we even doing here?
Shai shot 4 FTs from shooting fouls
And they were down 20 🤣 the game was Never close
Most intelligent Thunder fan.
You’re not losing your mind. This sub is full of fucking whiny losers.
Pot, kettle methmouth
I’ve detected that you mentioned someone shot more FT than OKC, I’m readying my ‘it’s the kind of calls’ goal post movement. If your arguement remain too logical I will have to dig in to the ‘it’s the fouls they get away with, the other team should be shooting even more FTs’ argument.
The suns flopped more than the thunder and played just as physical, if not more so than the thunder.
Of course, only the Thunder fans are seeing this clearly, everyone else is delusional!
Now you are getting it!
Here you go.
You guys aren’t going to make it till June
I’m not even a Thunder fan. I don’t have a team. I just love the league and have been watching it for 40 years. Started watching during the Pistons/Celtics/Lakers era in the late 80s.
This sub is legitimately filled with crybabies who don’t exist in the real world. I’m in the barber shop, open gyms etc every week and I have never heard people talking about the calls OKC gets. Meanwhile this sub is basically dedicated to OKC hate.
Somebody just needs to create R/THUNDERHATE so this fucking sub can be about basketball again and not fouls. The Lakers have statistically received the most biased officiating of any team in the league for years on end and it doesn’t get close to the amount of attention because they’re not as good as OKC.
Honestly, I thought this place would be more reasonable than the NBATalk subreddit. Between their endless Jokic glaze and this endless crying about OKC, I can’t tell which one is better
Shit is insane. Got me longing for the days of RealGM lol
I’m in the barber shop, open gyms etc every week
Sure you are…
Bro made up a fictional story lmao. Anyone watching playoff games is complaining about it. Its blatant. Im glad okc is using some of the money from the fake chip to pay for bots online 😂.
“Anyone watching playoff games is complaining about it.” 🤓🤓
Getting accused of being a bot on Reddit because I don’t agree with people taking over the NBA sub with posts about fouls.
My God 😂🤦🏽♂️
Funny because it’s always weirdo thunder fans who are crashing out on this sub. lol
Looking like a lot of sad Suns flairs in here to me. DW, it will be over soon and we can move on to sad Lakers flairs.
There is always one of you in here with zero proof of what you say. Just spouting “ trust me bro’s”. Show me any Thunder fan in here that is being irrational.
Who else can we hear from about this topic? What does Ja Rule think?
Devin Booker is #4 in career earnings, behind KD, Lebron and Steph, the fact that he’s allowed to dodge accountability and blame the refs despite choking in the playoffs every year is insane
Edit: since people don’t think he’s a choker for some reason https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/devin-booker-elimination-games
Choking in the playoffs?
You don’t actually watch basketball, do you?
Fairly certain most people in this sub don’t
I did watch him turn the ball over 7 times in an elimination game
Oof
How does he choke every year? When they lost no one has ever said Devin Booker didn’t show up.
Devin Booker has been in 4 elimination games in his career, he scored over 20pts once
He dropped 40 on LeBron and eliminated the Lakers. He had back to back 40 point games in the finals. He had Jordan like numbers vs the Nuggets. He’s avg 28/5/5 over 48 playoff games.
Your stat is cherry-picked, just say you are a hater.
How do you exactly “cherry pick” elimination games? choking is not showing up when it matters most, and he did that almost everytime
Again you left out the stats where he’s eliminated other teams, that’s showing up also when it matters most. Your are just telling one side of the story for max hate hate hate!
Thats not an elimination game for the Suns though. Which is what people are arguing.
The elimination game was a line of evidence user was saying to prove that Booker “chokes in the playoffs every year” and i countered with other playoff stats that tell the whole picture. Not denying he’s had bad games where the suns have already been playing poorly and lost 3 games and stand to be eliminated.
But it’s cherry picked, like wow what a surprise he’s not playing well when they are losing. If you have actually watched those games too there is context like he’s injured now and he had covid in that mavs one. One of them they are down 3-0, nobody has pulled their team out of that.
But whatever, it is what it is he struggled in elimination games but also has a lot of great playoff wins to eliminate teams and make it to the finals. He’s not a playoff choker, plenty of dudes that never made it out the first round that more aptly applies to.
Hope you can understand the depth of these things instead of big perk hot takes
How is that relevant to the topic of him being a choker? he’s 0/4 in do-or-die games and only showed up in one them, you’re arguing with a strawman
Hahaha now you are just misusing the word comical.
Let the hate flow through you
He is -37 through the two games this series, averaging 4 turnovers a game. Has taken 31 total shots across both game.
The suns have 38 turnovers in the two games, 4 blocks TOTAL between the two games. But somehow it’s the refs fault.
You have to be some kind of stupid to think people are saying the Suns are losing or turning it over bc of the refs. Just making up an extreme pov straw man for an easy dunk.
Everyone is saying yes okc is better and yes the refs have been ass. Nuance is impossible
Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks implied that shit not “people”. Fucks sake
Implied is doing too much heavy lifting here, nobody said it. It’s hilarious you guys can’t accept that there were a couple bullshit calls
Doesn’t matter what fans think. Your best offensive player hasn’t put up more than 17 shots in either game and -37, your best defensive player let his assignment score 37 on 52% shooting. After the game they didn’t say shit about their own accountability, they both just whined about the refs. And you fans just lap it up instead of pointing out that the team has played like shit led by its two leaders. Suns are going nowhere in a hurry.
tough to play when your opposition gets to literally tell the refs to call fouls on you and the just listen and do it. pathetic tbh
Christ “literally tell the refs to call fouls” from a Mavs fan who used to jerk off to Luka. Grow up
difference being…the refs actually listened. fucking moron
Bro this is disingenuous, we all thought suns would lose by 20 per game and get swept so did suns fans.
That got nothing to do with seeing horrible ref calls that should never be apart of the game.
You cant even say he choked imeven if he did cause the refs interference. And theres clips to prove it thats are egregious.
Yall wonder why no one like OKC, its the calls.
There’s an entire post of all the calls from last game that show you how stupid you sound right now but alright.
This thread is crazy, okc fans are really sensitive to even the notion one or two calls were bullshit.
They are the better team they are outplaying the suns. Everyone with a brain cell including us suns fans sees that.
But they are in here dunking on extreme povs that I’ve never seen anyone remotely say. It’s weird
Very weird, dont worry when their time comes theyll be the number one complainers
Feels like I’m going crazy. I literally watched O’Neal sprint down the court and veer directly into a defender smash him out of the way and throw an alley op to his team mate. The Suns bench went crazy the commentators went crazy, everyone loved it. Went on a 3min tirade about how strong he was.
Shai goes down the other end and forearm shivers his defender away for an easy 2. Commentators have a winge about how he can do anything he wants and it’s not fair.
He’s averaging 13.5 FTA after two post season games my guy, wtf you smoking?
The suns lost game 1 by 35 and were down 26 in game 2 before a classic fake comeback. Can everyone shut up
Okay
Those glasses are doing some very heavy lifting to reduce the craziness in his eyes
Literally that’s all I can focus on too lmfao. I was like ‘Damn Tim Hardaway Jr. looks different rn. I wonder when they’re gonna cut to Bobby’ until he started talking
He got them special anti Crazy Eyes lenses
Yes let’s all cry for poor Devin Booker who has made more free throws then shots in his last 2 playoffs series : clearly screwed by the refs
Why do yall talk about the number of calls and not actually making the right calls?
Because I won’t cry for a player who can’t create any separation anymore without pushing off or foul baiting, but hey maybe poor devin should actually get even more free throws
But you’ll defend SGA doing the same thing? Tf are you talking about
No I wouldn’t, Shai is a foul baiter too, he’s way less dependent on free throws then Booker tho. I just hate the total hypocrisy around those subjects
Your getting downvoted but free throws literally make up a bigger percentage of Book’s total PPG than Shai lmfao
Facts are apparently a problem for this sub currently
It alternates to fit whatever their current agenda is
Shai had two trips to the ft line last night from shooting fouls.
You guys done snitching to the teather yet?
The first NBA player who delivers a proper flagrant 2 on FTA will be heralded as a hero. Make him earn his free throws.
Let’s all watch this video and then discuss where OKC got the rub of the green.
The media, the fans, the clip farmers, everyone is so fucking biased and jjst wanting to generate clicks and attention. Im honestly over it man.
lol flair checks out. You guys are frauds and without the refs won’t be shit
So you didnt watch the link. Got it. Our conversation ends here because nothing out of your mouth is worth taking seriously if youre unwilling to participate in an unbiased discussion.
Nothing unbiased from 99% of the fanbase here. The bias is coming from all those who thunder flairs who can’t even admit their team is benefiting from favorable whistle
Maybe look in the mirror
Bullshit. There is absolutely biased and you know it.
Im willing to admit shai flops and okc plays hard defence.
Be grown up enough to admit the rest of the league does the same stuff.
You watched none of the game yesterday. OKC didn’t benefit from a whistle. Yet here you are running your mouth like someone who knows something when you actually know fuck all
LOL I watched all of the game and I saw what the world saw.
There’s a reason why every fan and even players and coaches are calling your shit out now.
“Rest of the league does the same stuff”.
Not one team gets even close to the level of benefit okc gets. Give me a break
You didnt watch the game. Youre not even willing to watch this link and comment on it. Get the fuck off my comment. Here it is for one last time for you to ignore.
Bro wishing his dynasty was half as cool as yours was.
What?
I’m saying these weirdo OKC fans wish there boring ass foul baiting, flopping ass team was half as cool as the GSW dynasty, which was some of the most exiting, can’t miss, can’t wait to watch basketball that’s ever been played
Holy shit this is so deluded. The warriors were hated. They were hated for illegal screens. They were hated for dirty plays.
OKC’s current hate was the exact same shit the warriors got.
This whole sub is full of children like you who have no idea and talk out of their arse. Its genuinely impressive how wrong you can willingly be
Warriors might been hated but at least they were respected. Nobody respects your fraud ass team
Yeah you must be real young. No one respected the warriors at the time. Even now they have a hard time doing so. Your team took advantage of rules, they added kd to an already championship roster.
No one respected them. Get out of here champ. Respectfully, youve got no idea what youre talking about
Like I said, fucking weirdo ass OKC fans. lol.
Yeah youve got nothing because you know im right. Have a good one brother
Dead last in education. It’s showing. ;)
Not from Oklahoma. But good effort at the least thought out and most over used response ever
FACTS
Man. I gotta respect the okc fans. No matter how bad the calls in their favor look they still hop online and gaslight the fuck out of everybody else with unwavering resilience. Hell of a fan base.
Worry about Portland lol
I can imagine fans of sorry franchises with no future or no championship aspirations but how can a spurs fan be so salty and cry on Reddit with so much exciting potential for their team?
Your boy castle is not slick and he’s not as good as he thinks he is
This is objectively false. We are literally the median FTA team in the playoffs.
It’s about the whistles that are called for your team versus those same calls going ignored for many other teams
Nice copy pasta
I just made that response up organically in like 10 seconds…
Just stating the obvious
OKC is the best team ever. Making all these players and teams bitch and moan about how its unfair. History in the making
Best team ever lmao. I’m assuming last year was the first year you started watching basketball?
They just got internet in Oklahoma
Who the f wants to live in okc
Nobody respects your team. Sorry. Even if you win 5 rings straight. Players, fans, media will all know you’re frauds
You mfs haven’t even won a 2nd championship yet, slow your roll chief
OKC got screwed in game 2 and all big media talks about it how we have a lakers-like whistle lmfaoooo.
Everyone just loves to hate, I don’t think anyone actually likes playoff basketball.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen NBA fans, players, and media more in unison about someone’s reffing other than peak Harden.
Crazy that OKC fans are able to stay so delusional on this to still think it’s just sour grapes. You guys should really just own up to it and enjoy the advantage.
I called Adam Silver and he told me directly to not own up to the pro-Oklahoma NBA conspiracy.
Oh poor Booker, he never gets calls, tragic
This shit has gotten so out of hand. Can we please just talk about actual basketball? Please? I’m so tired
if any actual basketball was being played wed be talking about it
Why use such hyperbole? Where did anyone say he NEVER gets calls? Is nuance possible at all with you guys? Or is it just either never or always?
The consensus is yes okc is better, yes the suns turn it over too much, yes the refs are ass. But you can’t even have that nuance lol.
Oh so we can constantly use hyperbole to describe the fouls OKC gets or how aggressive Dort/Caruso play but when the shoes on the other foot suddenly it’s all “what happened to nuance?” Lmao
I don’t have any comments like that. Again propping up and extreme pov straw man to make your point. Nuance is impossible indeed you can’t make a point without inventing some easily dunked on hyperbolic view point nobody specifically said in this conversation
I don’t have any comments like that.
Well duh, I didn’t personally go through your comment history lol. I based my comment on the incredibly large number of hyperbolic anti-Thunder comments posted on this subreddit and elsewhere just within the last 24 hours. There’s been so so many of them. This conversation isn’t happening in a vacuum.
The context surrounding all of this is related to the large amount of posts claiming that the Thunder are constantly getting away with murder and their opponents can’t do anything without getting a call. It doesn’t take a fucking archeologist to understand the link between the conversation at large and my comment.
I used an incredibly common bit of sarcastic hyperbole to emphasize that this isn’t even remotely as one-sided as the conversation at large has made it out to be. For you to ignore all of that external context and all of the hyperbole contained therein, just to focus solely on my use of hyperbole is pedantry of the highest order; it borders on the hypocritical.
teams down a collective 60 points after 2 games really try to start anything to get back in it. Thunder in 4.
Of course Thunder fans in her with their wharaboutisms.
yea why the fuck would thunder fans post in a thread about the Thunder
Jesus fucking christ the OKC lads in here are so blind. No one says the suns are winning even a game in this series. But when you handicap them from the start, why even play the game?
I can tell you haven’t watched the games and just looked at r/nba frontpage lol
Definitely watch games. Favorite time of year. What about what I said would even indicate that?
Suns players need to work on their game. OKC got giga screwed in game 2 while up 30 points then Silver made the call.
You still just skip past what I said to make it so the thunder look innocent and suns are just ass. The thunder dont need the refs spoon feeding them, is all im saying. Like they can win if they dont call shit. But why deprive a fair competitive game? Its the playoffs, we want to see good basketball
Bobby Portis is a bitch. Hard fouled Cason Wallace for no reason because he was emotional.
So then Lu Dort is a bitch too then, right? Just wanna make sure we’re being consistent here.
Dort can be dirty and reckless, but he’s not a bitch. He’s not gonna go shove a random player because he’s assmad he got cooked.
No, he just takes cheap shots at peoples knees when they’re jogging up the court
He takes an elbow to the head from Jokic pretty much every game they play so I wouldn’t be suprised if he has CTE.
You’re right. He’d never shove a random player. He much more sinister than that, he’d trip em when they ain’t looking or hit em in the nuts when they pass by.