I will say it doesn’t help curry that he shot an absolute fuck ton of 3s which hardly get called for fouls on. But his whistle was still insanely bad with all his off ball. But you won’t get as many fts shooting a ton of 3s

It’s wild because during those 2 years, Steph took 20% of his shots inside the paint and he still only averaged 5 FTs a game. Those free throws also include the gimme end of game free throws.

Offball fouls aren’t taken as seriously and maybe the refs go “we won’t call moving screens in exchange for no face guarding/hugging fouls.”

I still find it funny that they won’t even call intentional fouls on him sometimes.

This is why Curry never got hated on as much. If he beat your team, you knew that it wasn’t the refs(unless you are a rockets fan)

He got the moving screens instead of FTAs

especially with all the illegal screens he benefits from

Hack-a-Shaq… same with Giannis, foul them because they suck at free throws.

I’ve always found it curious how little heat Butler gets for being at the line constantly

jimmy got hurt in our play in game in 2024 by trying to slow down and draw a foul on a fast break for an and-1. So many other players would be skewered for this but its not even mentioned with jimmy

I certainly remember some bullshit touch fouls, but 2010 LeBron’s rate was so high because no one knew how to or could guard him downhill and when people tried to, the refs didn’t know how to call it. He was too strong, too fast. It’s the same thing with Giannis. Refs don’t know what to do but call a foul. I think under the rule book the exact phrase is “too small got bodied.”

He would just barrel his way down the lane. It was terrifying to watch Heat LeBron turn into LeBull.

LeBron got calls 15 years ago yes. It’s 2026 last time I checked though. 

LeBron has had a good whistle in his career, it’s just that post 2018 he’s had a garbage one

He also used to lead with his forearm more than maybe any player I’ve ever seen and would never get called for fouls on defence. From memory there was like a 10 game streak where he genuinely didnt get get called for one foul

The frequency of calls is not directly correlated to flopping and flopping egregiousness

You forgot about the enlightened version of that where people say “it’s just because they foul so much on defense and then get light calls” then you look and they are dead 15th in free throw differental. But they feel like it’s different though.

this is disingenuous though… the issue is always HOW he gets calls, not the raw amount.

he gets way too many calls from just flailing in the most un-basketball movements possible, many of which have minimal or basically zero contact, or he created all of the contact more often than not

and then people defend it nonstop by bringing up numbers and saying see, he doesn’t get the most free throws, check mate…. as if that has anything to do with the type of calls he gets and how he gets them and how his team is able to defend physically without getting those same touch calls.

this whole discussion is rough lol, too many people are too invested for the wrong reasons

I think it’s the combo of OKC having a really physical defense that gets away with a lot combined with SGA getting pretty soft calls on the other end. Neither SGA nor the defense are super duper egregious on their own but put them together and it looks really bad.

The hate toward SGA proves that fans would hate Jordan, Kobe, and Wade if they played today.

And they downvote you if you ask.

I get that some of the complaints are hard to test with simple summary statistics but some of the hypotheses being thrown around, like the one I responded to, are dead simple to sanity check with data but that gets in the way of their soap opera. They need their villain to be villainous and their heroes can do no wrong.

Would be better for everyone if they just went and watched reality TV so they can live out their fantasy drama there instead.

shhhh, they’ll just says the whole team beats ppl up & also everybody on the team flops… SGA has clips on f him flopping but they get a spotlight over other players who flop in the same game. again ppl mad he bust their team ass so they root for the next man up. that’s all it is, wemby will get that same shit in a few years if he stay healthy. they hate whoever at the top, curry didn’t get too much hate cus he didn’t really speak, draymond got the heat. wemby talks his shit so once he takes over, ppl will say he so arrogant & hate him too. these mfs in here bipolar bro 🤣🤣

This is how it always goes.

If SGA has more than 10 FTA: “Absolutely disgusting performance, of course efficiency will be high if your misses get whistles and defenders are scared to touch you”

If SGA gets less than 10 FTA, but has a wacky looking play: “It’s not about how many he gets, it’s about how he gets them”

If SGA has less than 10 FTA, but the OKC defense has a particularly good game: “He gets fouled but Dort and Caruso get away with murder on defense”

If none of these are true: “OKC is ruining basketball”

The real answer is there’s no correct answer to what people are upset by because they change the narrative to fit whatever they want

I HATED harden. I think he’s responsible for the shit show that is the Shai flop

Because Shain wins more. That’s the only difference

KD used to spam the rip through a ton back when it was an auto shooting foul and unlike other high FT players he used that one trick only to do most of his foul baiting

The moment they got rid of that his FT rate collapsed down to like 0.37 and never went back up

Rip through. KD used that a shit ton.

KD had that shitty rip through move that was awful to watch. Giannis doesn’t flop but he did run through people trying to set charges which would set people off as well

No that’s being disingenuous now. The complaints are SGA shoots a lot of FT, compounded with SGA flops a lot and gets FT. If this is true, and he flops as much as people say, and he gets as many calls as people say he would be higher on the list.

When this gets pointed out though, suddenly it’s a secret third thing, like ‘oh OKC as a whole can play more physical’. Y’all can never just stick to your point because it’s based on feels which is fine I guess. Sports do that but don’t pretend y’all ain’t moving the goal posts to fit a narrative

hella yappin but got no real valid point ahh take