The reason Chet’s not getting any hate is because it’s pretty universally accepted right now that he has completely bitched out in this series and is too scared to even move.

Absorb is the right word. I saw him get heckled by a hater at a press conference…Shai simple absorbed the verbal hits and fell to the floor with hardly any of it bothering his mental state. It was incredible basketball.

It’s clearly a directive from the coaching staff so Mark should really be getting more heat for this.

Nah the entire team deserves hate

The only time I hated chet was during the ROY race with him and Wemby. Other than that, he’s a really good player 99% of the time.

That 1% where he is a non-factor and non-impactful… is against Wemby. Chet has been unrightfully compared to this MVP level dude who’s faster, taller, stronger, and more talented than he is. To make matters worse, Wemby himself rides this fabricated beef, and actually wants to kill Chet anytime he could. Wemby is the single worst matchup nightmare for chet. I feel bad for Chet because he’s not some scrub like what people says. Dude is DPOY-level and all-NBA star. Bro is a baller!! Outside playing wemby dude is a problem. Him being compared to such a generational talent just because they’re both tall players is a disservice to him.

But I’m not gonna lie, chet also played into this fabricated beef early on in their careers. FIBA U19, the rookie race, the DPOY race, winning the NBA title first, etc. Chet was in wemby’s throat and was winning more. I remember last year, Wemby was recovering from DVT as Chet was celebrating an NBA title. Wemby had his own fair share of misery.

So yeah, Chet really tried and challenged wemby a couple times before. Bad news is, Wemby doesn’t forget and he has become a totally different monster now.

i must have missed chet winning back to back mvps

Football had Neymar, who despite being one of the highest-paid and most revered athletes, literally had the entire world clowning on him. To the point that even people who were not interested in the sport were making memes about him, because even if they did not know him, they knew what the memes were about.

Some of the photo shops were genuinely super funny. (but that was before AI boom so it required actual creativity and not a paid subscription to online service)

….and honestly, I do not know what to think about it

Not sure if the same thing is on its way for the NBA… but I can bet that other teams will adjust to it. All they want is success, so if OKC’s strategy, and the way their captain and best player uses the rules to their advantage, keeps working… everyone will copy it.

Yeah we can say he’s good at leveraging the rulebook while also saying it’s super lame and annoying to watch at times.

Embiid easily, and fuck it I’m putting Pelle Larson above him too

And he does it so much it’s just become his natural reaction any time anyone is somewhat close to him. Here’s a great example of him going jelly legs for no reason with no contact.

Might have been able to make the shot if he wasn’t worried about selling a non-existent foul.

https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1tmv0gp/highlight_shai_gilgeousalexander_misses_the_tough/

I really would. But I don’t bet and don’t want to start now.

Shai is due for a “friendly whistle” game and a good shooting night

That Game 1 was so good without Tony there. Then in the next game he’s reffing and immediately all the bullshit calls come roaring back. It’s so easy to trick that bozo.

I surely hope not.. that guy bets $$$ on OKC winning… 100%

OKC game 5 via refs Spurs game 6 via refs Then the refs will let a fair game 7

NBA is going to milk this series(granted, I loved all 4 games)

Knicks will likely be the real winners lol

OKC win, have multiple injuries BUT they are a harder match up for the Knicks IMO even with Dub and Mitchell out(i think he returns for finals if they make it)

Spurs win, they fatigued with minor injuries(that can blow up any minute) but if I’m NY, I’m taking spurs. KAT will contain Wemby to a degree or at least have him gassed.

Man was right lmao

No need for an agenda. I’m upvoting because this is true.

I mean it’s a fact.

That’s more like it

Whatever else you want to say about him, he clearly doesn’t care about media noise

Its literally not possible for him to destroy his PR lmao. He might be the most hated player in the history of the NBA because of the time and place and the current culture around the NBA and world where hating is more profitable than anything.

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Harden walked so SGA could run

Shai scams the refs, insults the fans, and this guy says its not shais fault that hes exploiting a flawed system instead of just not exploiting it.

It’s like being expected to not get mad at congress for insider trading. They’re technically just leveraging the rules too.

Harden even at his prime wasn’t this level of bad, he’d embellish and draw contact but he would also actually get fouled a lot. SGA legit just throws himself around and takes dives like he’s prime Neymar even when nobody is close to him

Not a day goes by I dont hate on basketball terrorist James Mossad Harden

Is it something in the water in OKC that turns men into generational floppers?

james harden and that rockets team are patient zero for half the complaints about the modern game.

when the game gets tough you know where to find sga!

First on the ground, and then at the free throw line

edit: aww the (unflaired) thunder fans are in their feelings 😭😭

Brother what is that pfp 😭

The best part is there was a wemby post recently about him snapping his head back, that was massively made fun of. Well the head snap was just crazy exaggerated due to speed changes in the replay lmao.

And for Thunder fans saying Wemby does the same, from the same article:

Yeah, the math was already done earlier and SGA falls on 17% of his shots while Wemby falls on just 4% of his shots. Any Thunder fans trying to compare them are insane.

Kinda makes sense tbh. Lakers did not have guys that could stick with SGA on defense = he rarely had anyone close enough to him to even be able try to sell a foul on. Meanwhile, the Spurs are playing great defense - ie they’re right up on him to contest his shots - so he falls because he can make it *look* like a foul occurred when the defender is in his face. The one on Fox was a hilarious example.

Tom Haberstroh kind of stumbled into this question and ended up doing some of the best actual journalism I’ve seen in a while

Because he was the 5th option on the team for the Clippers and attempted 8 shots

SGA was an elite foul drawer in college, he’s always been good at it

But when you become a first option you get the ball more u draw more and he’s obviously a flopper, he’s always flopped even for the Clippers he just didn’t get a chance to do it as much

It’s coached that way. The thunder coach has never played basketball himself, he doesn’t understand the spirit of the game. To him it’s all numbers and advantage, even if it goes against sportsmanship.

Adam silver is a shit commissioner thats why, and all these flopping gets people’s attention and gets talked about on social media which probably boosts nba’s views in the short term. Long term wise, nba is going downhill if this shit continues which he probably doesnt care. I mean just looking nba’s stance on betting now, david stern will punch adam silver in the face if he’s still alive to see this shit

People complain but it doesn’t matter since they keep getting more viewers

Because over reactionary redditors do not hold any weight into changing rules or nba policy.

I’ll probably get downvoted for this, but the real reason they are “ignoring” the issue is because it is actually very rare for something to be a 100% flop. Those 100% flops get a lot of attention on here, and rightfully so, but the overwhelming majority of the time there is some amount of contact.

Now, should that contact always result in the person falling to the floor? Absolutely not. But now it is immediately a subjective rule, and subjective rules suck.

Knicks fans are about to lose their minds on the refs lol

SAS was defending him the other day, something tells me that might change very soon.

And their own 1st team all NBA merchant

Kobe would start fouling him for real for real.

Kobe is rolling in his grave. He’d think flopping around like a fish is soft as baby shit and he’d be 100% correct. As an all-time Kobe hater, even I can’t deny that he wasn’t charmin soft, he’d pump fake, get you to leave your feet, then use the space to score instead of playing bitch refball.

Harden was doing this EXACT shit when Kobe was alive and in the NBA

Imagine SGA playing the bad boys, they would punish him

It’s also undercounting. Even when Shai doesn’t actually hit the deck, he almost always at least stumbles. He will always give the refs a reason to blow the whistle

When times get even tougher, SGA goes to the bench for the entire 4th quarter.

At this rate , the probability of that happening rises every game 

Screen Actor’s Guilgeous

Luka flops like crazy lol

However Luka is CONSTANTLY whining to the refs while SGA does not. The delusion here is fucking wild