[Tim Legler] ‘OKC dominated Game 5 by keeping their cool and converting chances; people only blame refs because they hate OKC.’
My favorite thing about NBA discourse lately is people thinking things are only in black and white with no nuance
NBA discourse
“You don’t think innocent children should be killed? THAT MEANS YOU SUPPORT TERRORISTS!”
When the “discourse” is solely about the refs then yes it has become black and white in that sense.
Front page of reddit entirely about flopping and reffing. No discussion on okc winning despite missing key players, wemby and others underperforming. That’s why it’s become “black and white”
I mean, the flopping is directly related to all of the points your trying to make.
Wemby gets held and fowled constantly. SGA falls on every shot and gets a free throw. It’s impossible defender OKC since getting too close leads to a foul.
When SGA has more free throws made than he has field goals made, it’s perfectly clear why thunder is winning despite missing key players.
That’s basically this entire generation of discourse in general. No nuance is ever noted or explored. And if you do so you’re taking it too serious, “it’s not that deep”
Just bad faith bullshit all around.
The internet isn’t about nuance. The internet is for wildly posting and speculating without any information
Specifically social media.
You aren’t allowed to complain about anything, period. Or else you’re a casual who has never played basketball and you hate the entire state of Oklahoma. We can just declare things like that now.
pretending that OKC haters are an oppressed minority is crazy tho
Lmao all people do is complain stfu
This literal comment thread including your comment is just whining
There are even comments complaining about the complaining comments.
When will it ever end!?!?
Is your comment complaining about the comments complaining about the complaining comments?
Theres a difference between a person complaining and a person complaining about a complainer. The latter doesn’t exist if the former didn’t, but the former will exist with or without the latter.
I promise you the latter will still find something to complain about
Likewise, OKC can’t defend themselves without guys like you calling us blind, cheats, etc.
Works both ways
You also can’t think for yourself and only watch highlights on tiktok and instagram. and btw you’re racist too i guess
if you say otherwise you’re just a lying hater who doesn’t like basketball
Literally every thread about them has at least one comment just shitting on Oklahoma, let’s not act like the idea that the people complaining about them hate Oklahoma is absurd.
You’ve made those responsible for the toxic discourse into its victims. Impressive delusion.
These people essentially just pull tactics from the conservative subreddits
This sub reminds me more of those extreme crazy conservative online communities every day, and if there’s one thing us liberal Oklahomans know it’s how conservatives think and act lol.
This place has become an outrage factory just like Fox News is, really sad to see because this was a fun sub ~10 years ago. It wasn’t perfect, and it certainly had toxicity then too, but today it’s just a miserable place.
The craziest thing as a non-OKC native Thunder fan is that I only see liberal Oklahomans online. If that’s not telling about how insulated online communities are, I dont know what is. Seeing as Oklahoma is 90% or whatever conservative.
Yeah that’s been my experience too.
That’s social media. High modality language gets clicks and views. Its sad and worrying that a lot of people only get their news from social media, so they only hear the extreme takes. Even worse is that to contextualise the clip they’ve just watched they go to the comment section which is just filled with even more extreme black and white takes.
And then social media also puts everyone in their own content bubbles where they only hear their views being affirmed or someone who holds the same views going “oh my god look at what the other side believes [insert extreme argument from the other side that isn’t widely held]”
Facebook messed up the algorithm a few weeks back and I was immersed in content I never see, then I started considering there’s a whole group of people who only see this stuff
It was so weird though, it was methed out middle age women dancing with a political “gotcha” statement on screen, trans people raging about the gender they like not liking them in return, “Covid was fake and vaccines are evil” people talking….
My normal feed is Miami sports, tennis, history, geography, and people doing plank dances lol
Back around 2008 I was in a college ethics course for my CompSci degree. I remember the topic of Twitter being bought by Facebook came up.
I spoke up saying it’d be stupid to buy. You cant have a conversation with 37 (or whatever the number was) characters. Twitter was a flash in the pan and wasnt going to sustain.
Probably my worst take ever. But I didnt consider the “clickbait” design that Twitter had. EVERY post became click bait. Nuanced discussion was dead, because everyone wanted to go viral outside their little friend circle.
The internet really changed with Twitter, which begat TikTok and other short form media.
Most people defending okc as far as talking heads and analysts go are the ones being nuanced. (Thunder flair I know)
Everyone else is rage baiting about the league being ruined and painting okc as the only team that gets away with these things lmao.
Because there is no nuance.
The entire state of Reddit
Just NBA? You clearly hasn’t ever had a conversation with my dad
two things can be true. OKC is a great team that executes at a really high level. OKC also flops, foul baits, and bullshits contact countless times throughout every game
It’s so annoying that people don’t understand this. A big reason why people hate the flopping is because the team is too good to be flopping so much
See people are saying this but when I’m watching the games the only guy who is actually deliberately flopping is Shai (and I might get hate but whatever, a majority of them ARE fouls).
To me the spurs and thunder are both pretty even in terms of flopping and foul baiting and even physicality. I genuinely just think a majority here don’t watch games and only watch the highlights and cause they’re mostly about OKC and flopping they think only the thunder flop lmao
the only guy who is actually deliberately flopping is Shai
There is a clip of McCain flopping like a fish on the front page of this sub right now.
What about Wemby flopping on a drive from McCain while he’s a whole foot taller than him
My favorite Wemby flop of the playoffs so far was the one where Randle had his hand touching Wemby’s back on a rebound, and Wemby took a full step forward and launched himself into a full-on dive.
Wemby flops plenty, he just doesn’t get calls because 90% of his flops are extremely obvious flops on non-fouls, unlike SGA and others over-exaggerating contact on plays that mostly are fouls.
You mean the same play where Harper also flopped?
Ya and Harper acts like he got shot in the neck from a forearm to his chest.
Lol found another nephew that didn’t actually watch the game
So we’re going with the both sides argument now? And we have clips of Chet and McCain deliberately flopping.
SGA is the only obvious one. They are very much trained to create fouls to stop momentum, see Chet pushing the Spurs player into Dort.
No what you don’t understand is it’s absolutely ridiculous to act like one team does this? Wemby had 20 points on 4 made FGs and flops too. He also fouls on almost every contest and rebound. Castle fouls Shai on literally every single possession.
It is so fucking stupid and ridiculous discourse that ruins the series just because you have a hate boner for OKC. How about instead we talk about how bad refereeing is across the board?
SGA legitimately is one of the best players in the league but the fact that he flops so much takes the spotlight away from how elite of a player he is.
What frustrates okc fans is this isnt an okc specific thing. Plenty of players on plenty of teams do it. None of you give a shit about them though.
How do none of you get this?
So worse teams can flop then? That’s like saying the fastest runner in a race shouldn’t be allowed to use real running shoes.
That is a horrible analogy
Real running shoes ain’t related whatsoever with cheating.
OKC hasn’t been “flopping” more than SA this series, no matter how many times people try to say it.
I disagree.
I disagree with your disagreement
I agree that we disagree.
Serious question? Why are they get to the line so rarely as a team if they flop and foul bait as much as you are saying?
It’s why the narrative has pivoted to falling down. Free throw stats just don’t back up the narrative so the goal posts are this hypothetical problem.
I have always assumed that SGA falls so that he doesn’t land on his legs awkwardly and injure something. He’s always taking shots from weird angles, and it looks to me like trying to land on two feet would be harder than just falling and getting back up.
This is it, he takes a lot of weird shots with defenders close to his body in which he shoots from odd angles. It also has the benefit of getting fouls called so why wouldn’t you do it? And some are honestly flops, but a lot are just highlighting the contact that did happen.
Made up stats but close enough… Okc attempts to sell calls 80% of the time when the league average is 75% therefore OKC has ruined basketball.
Three things can be true. They aren’t the only team that does those things
Perhaps even 4. Everybody does it, but OKC does it more than almost anyone.
People can’t hold 2 thoughts at once apparently. It’s all very manichean.
I’m a very casual nba fan. But last night the penny finally dropped for me how good SGA really is and how bad the refereeing can be
OKC had like 5 straight possessions early in the 4th when SGA was on the bench that they either shot up a brick or turned it over. Spurs answered with turning the ball right back. They had plenty of chances to cut the lead there and the inexperienced/ sloppy play showed up.
Literally threw the ball away, more than once
Inexperience. Spurs may need to take their lumps, get stronger and come back next year
Series ain’t over lol
True but I don’t see the spurs winning game 7 at OKC not with the way wemby is labouring.
Yeah I don’t think that the Spurs lost because of the refs, but I also think that fans can complain about 70 combined free throws being a terrible product to watch and not be labeled haters
It’s clearly not a terrible product if it’s breaking viewership records
maybe look into how they changed how viewership is calculated before speaking, literally everything is “breaking viewership records”
And advertisement prices continue to surge. Not a coincidence dude.
Yeah if they can continue telling the story of line go up, they can keep charging more. Read up on how Facebook was gaslighting everyone that they were actually serving ads to peoples when they knew they were only serving ads to bots
I swear to God all of you casuals can’t make up your mind. You will bitch and moan about defenders getting away with murder and then bitch and moan that there are too many free throws. You people are insufferable. This is the highest rated WCF ever and all I see on this sub are Karens complaining about officiating.
Maybe Dancing with the Stars is more your speed.
OKC were clearly the better team in game 5. What’s there to talk about really other than the Spurs need to he better in game 6 or it will he over.
I think OKC played superior last night and would’ve won EVEN if the refs didn’t do what they did end of Q3 and beginning of Q4. My friends and I went from saying “Spurs offense is ass” to “Wtf Tony Brothers”.
This is what happens when the referees have too much handprints on the game, they change the legitimacy of a game result.
Trying to ignore the nonsense narrative of OKC being rigged or foul baiting or whatever as much as I can.
But different refs do call different games differently. They interpret the rules slightly differently. They pay attention to different points of emphasis.
A ref like Tony Brothers does let you push bigs around and jockey for position in a very physical manner. It is clear both this series and last that the Spurs don’t respond well to that type of physical defense. It frustrates them and they lose their composure. They get in their own heads a bit.
A ref like Scott Foster doesn’t tend to like that level of contact and calls a bunch of fouls if you try to clear Wemby out of the paint.
One of OKC’s better intangibles is probing how the refs will call that particular game and then adapting their lineups and style to either be super physical or win with more finesse.
Yeeee, it shouldn’t be a factor but unfortunately it is one of the biggest factors. The refs need to fix their shit, as in, become consistent.
“Refs need to stop being human”
Give a fucking break dude. Literally every fan of basketball in the last 100 years has understood that the human nature of officiating crews is part of the game that players and coaches have to adjust to.
This is spot on. Also helps the thunder that they play hard on defense for nearly every 82 regular season game. They know what the refs are like by then, and they’re not just turning on their defense in the playoffs, which it seems a lot of teams do.
Before the playoffs started, I just wanted Dort to not be problematic because so many times our games are great but all the discourse turns into just talking about whatever bs he does.
The monkey paw clenched its fist
Funny shit is they actually called everything on Dort.
I’ll admit I get frustrated during the game too, but with a day in between, I usually am reminded that the refs doing an inconsistent job is the biggest issue, and they are the ones killing the product.
Players can adapt quite fast, but not if the refs switch gear on them every other quarter.
Has Dort done literally anything controversial this entire playoffs I legit forgot
“they” wanted to blame him hurting Fox in the dive but that was kinda BS
That’s what I’m saying, somehow everyone on our team is now problematic except Dort
In the NFL they can call a nearly flawless game otherwise and then do this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjvZHMod_3E and the entire game is ruined
In football (soccer for USA people) the referees can call a flawless game but a bad offsides call or free kick or pk given can literally decide the game
Basketball fans are pretty unique in that they just accept that the referees are going to be complete and total shit MANY TIMES A GAME but if you complain about it you’re just a conspiracy theorist, even though the NBA is the only major American professional sport with a referee gambling scandal lol
Yeah AI said it best. The game after he beefed with a ref, they called traveling/carry on him for like 2-3 possessions in a row to start the game. That in itself tells us that the refs have too much power to manipulate.
Why is that a problem though. As long as each ref is consistent in their calls, it’s unreasonable to expect all refs to interpret everything the same way. The fact that OKC know what they can get away with for different refs is just good management. I mean yes it does leave it open to impact results by which refs are allocated to important games, but even then, why can’t the Spurs handle a physical defense but others can? That’s a deficiency in their capability as a team. OKC have been physical all season, it’s not like they’re suddenly doing something drastically different. They ride the limits of what they can get away with.
I don’t like the flopping, I never have. Unfortunately it’s a generational thing to some degree. Old heads would pretend they weren’t hurt when they were. They didn’t want to give their opposition the psychological advantage of knowing that they’re hurting them and bullying them. So in that mindset, the refs are less important. Today, it’s the opposite. Players sook to the refs constantly about every little thing and expect them to call in their favor. Well, unfortunately the situation we have now is the result.
I mean they only change the “legitimacy” if you believe that crap yourself. Just watch the game dude you’ll see all the “legitimacy” you need. What a weird word - a lot like ethical
I think this is a lot of what so many people find frustrating about OKC. They are absolutely good enough to win without the foul baiting on one end and the overly aggressive and sometimes downright dirty shit on the other end.
Yep Wemby needs to be Game 1 Wemby. 20 pts and 6 reb not going to cut it.
Honestly yeah. Spurs looked lost out there for most of the game, if they don’t figure out their rotations quick this series is done.
duh. wemby came up short in game five and he has to be a bigger factor like he was in game one to win this series.
It also feels like even in games when the refs don’t call things in favor of OKC like game 4 (and I’d even argue game 3) they don’t really get rattled they just kinda try to adjust as best as they can, compared to other teams kinda letting it throw off their rhythm
I understand this sub hates OKC but I do feel like they’re really good at adjusting early on to how the game is being reffed
Yeah and the Spurs act emotional and shit. Got Castle crying about refs in the presser lol. Get a fucking grip
The refs didn’t steal the game from the spurs, that’s a dumb take.
But that doesn’t make SGA breakdancing any more fun to watch.
If refereering is one of the top 3 stories in the game, then I have a problem.
Top 1 was wemby dogshit Top 2 was McCain and others stepping up Top 3 was refereeing but also the lack of pouse by the spurs in key moments.
So I had a problem but it was not primarily why the spurs lost, unless game 2 when the miscalls were absolutely disgusting.
People try to act magnanimous and « unbiased » in order to look smart, or maybe because they are calling the games in the A team on ESPN and are subjected to an obvious conflict of interest.
Fans aren’t innately thunder-haters. 2 seasons ago they were lauded generally for the strength of their rebuilding and how special SGA was. If people dislike them now, it’s for a reason.
Heck, the entire world including the whole contiguous United States are going to root for the FREAKING KNICKS in the finals. Do you recognize how much does it take us to do so?
The officiating was terrible.
OKC played better than us and would have won even if the officiating were not terrible.
But the officiating deserves to be called out for the trash it was.
This could be true if we were all blind and not watching the games
A lot of Spurs fans are blaming the Spurs for playing poorly more than the officiating. But Tim needs engagement so he sticks with the easy talking points.
Sure doesn’t seem like it online
Tim, love you, but the refs were objectively fucking awful. I dont even care to debate if it was fair or not, and I’m only calling this play out because it’s obvious that the refs were just BAD, the non-call goaltend + wrong out of bounds call is just like do your job better?
There were 70 fucking FTs shot combined by both teams, thats is gross, boring ass basketball. Do I think OKC would’ve won if the refs weren’t fucking terrible, highly likely (TOs, 3P%, etc.).
Would it have been more fun to watch if the refs let them play and not use their job as a launching pad into their political career? You can bet the house on that.
It’s also not an incredibly difficult concept that OKC is a legit great basketball team w/o biased reffing. Like the margin to beat them in a 7 game series is already so small without adding in bad calls. And some of the ones OKC gets just drive you legitimately insane.
“Objectively” ???
Mah dude im straight up saying the refs were bad and not that they helped your team win. If you’re against me, are you friends with tony brothers?
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Refs did not fuck over their chances to win if you just said they didnt deserve to win it lol. It’s one or the other
No matter how many ESPN analysts try convince us of this, I’m not buying it. lmao
The refs are bad and OKC is still horrible to watch
Legs knows ball
*insert everyone in the comments hating okc*
I mean, I agree with Legler in the sense that people seem to have really started to get a bit hysterical about OKC’s whistle: there are perfectly normal fouls or plays that a contingent of fans lose their mind about.
At the same time, why do you think people hate OKC, Tim?
Because SGA had the audacity to compete against Jokic for MVP so Jokic Stan’s spammed this subreddit with SGA lowlights which started the SGA is a flopper narrative. Same as they did for Embiid.
Yessir and as a Laker fan you have to be well aware that this same narrative started to blow up when the Lakers got really hot at the end of the regular season. Luka was balling and i started seeing a lot more comments about Lukas “flopping” and “complaining”. The common denominator is when opposing fanbases observe a legit threat to their team, they start to find subjective issues to explain away the threats. For some reason they just cant use logic. Sometimes teams just are better than yours and often its a disparity in skill. And that objectivity is a threat to the ego
Dude do you think Reddit is the only place discussing basketball? Do you think this place is that influential? This is not a this subreddit thing.
Do you know what Gamergate is? Do you know how it started? Do you know the current impact of Gamergate?
“the Serbs did it!”
didn’t hear this one in a while…
The Stan’s did it. Same as the Embiid hate. It was nuggets flairs that started it.
The same reason anyone hates a dominant team. Take the Chiefs for example. Narrative didn’t hold any water at all, and the numbers showed it’s Bills that benefit the most, yet no one hates the Bills. Kinda like no one hates the Patriots anymore. People can’t accept that their team isn’t as good as the dominant team. It’s weak af.
People hated this Thunder squad before they won shit. Again, free throw merchant chants started before they’d even made the WCF
Nobody who watched that game blamed the refs. The refs were shitty but that’s not why the spurs lost.
Nobody blamed the ref? Thats just not true lol tons of people blamed the refs for this game on social media
Multiple prominent radio/internet sports outlets have been highlighting ‘OKC flopping and Shai falling’ more than any other aspect of how they’ve been playing.
cause that’s the highlight.
Doesn’t mean that’s why they won.
Pretty much this. Refs were garbage on both ends, but OKC just played better down the stretch. People just need something to vent about.
How about both
Of course, okc is a fantastic team, so part of the hate comes from that. The hyper physical Defense couple with flopping on offence though takes it to another level.
Wemby had a terrible game but the refs are absolutely to blame for a consecutive sequence of horrendous calls (or non-calls) OKC played well and would have won anyways but no one wants to watch refball.
Spurs has cut a 20 point lead down to 9 I think in the 3rd quarter. Immediately after:
ball goes out of bounds off Hartenstein’s hand - OKC ball
fairly obvious goaltend not called
ball goes out of bounds off Chet’s foot - OKC ball
challenge signaled literally right in the ref’s face - technical on San Antonio
SGA flop for FTs
I knew right then the game was over lol
Soccer was able to fix most of this shit with VAR. The NBA already has this in place but refuse to correct obvious mistakes like out of bounds and goal tends (yes I’m aware that by rule you can’t review if the goal tend was never called in the first place)
Except you’re wrong on a couple of these. The ball off Hartenstein they called jump ball, which the spurs won so it wasn’t OKC ball. Johnson messed up and didn’t ever call timeout, just twirled his finger. Then right after the SGA free throws they called a clear block by Dort a foul and gave the spurs free throws
Not even 24 hours have passed and they’re already trying to rewrite history. Crazy.
What bothers me is that sequence absolutely deleted any Spurs momentum. It’s not a random sequence at 2-2 first quarter you could easily dismiss. I’m not a conspiracy nuts and think refs are just bad but that one doesn’t help.
I love how the general narrative of this swings depending on which team wins in this series any given game.
Damn straight. Suck it spurms.
Why do they hate OKC you suck ups
Spurs played bad. This was the main reason they lost but the refs took out their only chance to come back late in the 3rd quarter.
Same guy who said Harden jumping forward and kicking his legs out on a stepback is his “natural shooting motion”.
Both things can be true
Dude isn’t going to criticize the hand that feeds him.
Now they are trying to gaslight us LMFAO
Two things can be true
did you see chets new move?
the “arm vise” - he grabs arms between his body and his arm and clamps down
he did it to wemby and castle
people hate them for this
they are a really good team, honest
OKC definitely shot the ball better and took advantage of the opportunities given to them. BUT
Basketball is a game of runs and the refs just destroyed the Spurs momentum in the 3rd quarter. The Spurs had battled back from 20 down to within 10. Then this happens: - Kornet has a putback that gets nullified by an obvious goaltend by Cason Wallace. - Kornet then fouls during that same play and sends OKC to free throw line - Spurs next trip down the loose ball goes off Hartenstein’s foot, but gets called on Wemby. - Refs huddle, ignore Mitch’s request for a challenge, let OKC inbound - SGA flops to get two more free throws. - Mitch gets a tech giving a third free throw.
That’s a 7 point swing in under a minute that the Refs just totally botched. That could have made it a 5 or even 3 point game at the end of the 3rd. It’s totally possible OKC still closes out by being the better team, but don’t tell me that those calls didn’t matter.
Didn’t yall get a bunch of calls right after that like the block on dort that was called a foul the missed goal tend on wemby that gave you those points back? Just go on Mrbuckbucks YouTube all those plays are there. When you downvote and ignore every bad call that favors your team it’s easy to feel like the whole world is out to get you every time you lose.
Yes, they got 4 absolutely awful FTs right after this.
Easy to keep your cool when you’re getting the calls
okc didn’t win cus of the refs but they’re still a terrible watch
Now that’s a take I’m willing to listen to
OKC can be great along with the refs being shit and them flopping like fucking fish.
Alot of things can be true at once.
It was funny on the ESPN broadcasts, sometimes RJ would press Legs on what he thought about this or that call, and he wouldn’t answer fully and was being PC, lol.
OKC Weenie Hut Jr crybaby marks in shambles
The haters are upset at OKC fans defending their team because said haters are desperate to create an echo chamber that’s outlawing any sensible takes.
That’s why r/NBATalk was created
I had a problem with Harden, I didn’t hate the Rockets as a franchise.
Similarly, I don’t have a problem with OKC, I have a problem with Shai.
Even then, I don’t even really hate those guys, the bigger problem than either of those examples though is that they do it because that is the meta. The rules have to be better enforced/improved. We’ve had a flopping problem for years and it’s only going to continue and get worse until the rules are fixed and enforced. Shai is just the face of this problem because he has been the most successful.
It annoyed me whenever Jaylen Brown attempted to do this in the playoffs as well, it is not fun to watch.
Are they watching the same game with unbiased eyes?
I’ve never heard Legs be this partisan on any issue but he’s been 120% pro okc pov for this bull
I feel like the majority of people are complaining about the quality of the viewing experience more so than fairness after this game. Like I’m a fan of neither team (I will admit to rooting for the Spurs in this series) and I think it was pretty obvious that OKC outplayed SAS this game and deserved to win.
My beef with the Thunder and the refs is that this flopping stuff is so, so boring and unfun to watch and I can and will blame them for that. I watched the whole of every game before I saw anything about them on social media and SGA and the others are flailing about enough that it’s frustrating. And at the same time I feel good about saying that the refs have not cost either team a game this series.
fuck legler
I mean, Spurs also played like crap, but ok. Two things can be true at once while the refs didn’t contribute to Wemby and Fox not converting shots, which arguably has a bigger impact on the results of the game rather than the refs.
Politicians get paid by Israel, this MFer gets paid by OKC.
Neither team has played well since game 1. The inconsistency of calls makes it very annoying.
Also, the main reason people don’t like OKC is that their brand of basketball is unwatchable garbage. I couldn’t care less if they win or lose, I just want interesting games, and watching teams run up and down the floor shooting free throws ain’t it, chief
I could be wrong, but I don’t see many fans arguing that OKC is winning because of the refs (outside of jokes), but instead is arguing that their play style is near unwatchable and rewarded by the refs consistently. Extremely physical defense that they largely get away with combined with flopping and exaggerating contact, and with SGA at an unprecedented level. They don’t have to play this way to be successful, particularly the flopping, but they do.
There are plenty of fans arguing that OKC is winning because of the refs. Literally was a 2k upvoted post about how refs are influencing every win in this series near the top before it was removed…
game 5 wasn’t determined by the refs. Game 2 was. How is that not still unacceptable? The league will always have vehement “nothing’s wrong, your eyes are playing tricks on you” defenders, but at the end of the day everyone can see that the lack of transparency in the reffing system is the real problem. There is no schema to understand which rules the refs will uphold or let slide on any given day. It ends up with them trying to strike a “balance” of letting certain fouls go and certain fouls make up for missed calls on the other end, which is a ridiculous way to officiate games. The refs should be making NO decisions on which rules to enforce. If it doesn’t make sense to enforce certain rules, then fucking remove them from the rulebook.
OT2 of Game 1 was decided by the refs. It’s almost like every single game of any sport ever played could be argued with a bogus “what if”. Just stop.
Are football games, or hockey games decided by refs this much? No. The nba has a problem, and theyve been ignoring it because it’s the last opaque piece of the game where they have some leverage left.
Yeah, that’s why. This is all entertainment. OKC is painful to watch. It’s not entertaining.
OKC definitely would have still won but at least we can revel in their awesome bench play and critique the spurs main guys struggling
We come out of game 5 talking about the refs. Theres a reason for that
Legler is great with stats but doesn’t understand entertainment
I mean, the game was decided by OKC shooting well and the spurs shooting poorly. Rebounds, second chances, and tossing the ball away
It’s also true the officiating was some of the worst we’ve seen. It’s not either/or.
I legit hate the media trying to cover for that crap. This is when I need my man stan van gundy to call out their crap.
I posted this and it was instantly removed, Adam Silver on the Pat McAFee Show!
Flopping. big conversation. Uh, Mr. Commissioner.
So, um, yeah, it’s it and it’s been a conversation. I would only say that there’s a difference between selling a call, exaggeration, and a true flop, which is where you’re actually fooling the referees. I think sometimes even as I sit in the stands at games, players may be falling down, players may be reacting to a call, but then to me, if they’re not fooling the referees, it’s like, okay, that’s like they’re the players are taught to sell calls these days. I mean, can officiating get bad? Can officiating get better?
Of course. We’re always working on that. Can officials get fooled occasionally? We’re always looking that as well. But I I this the officiating is incredible. I I will also add one other piece to it because I know there’s always controversy out around certain calls.
https://youtu.be/CZN5euXPu7M?t=458&si=7FK55qEad9xKvnmy
It’s true. We don’t like OKC and that’s fair.
But why do they hate OKC Tim?
It’s kind of funny seeing everyone who makes money iff the NBA scrambling to protect it’s image.
Now, why do people hate OKC? Like why didn’t we hate the KD-Westbrook-Harden OKC? Think about it.
“People only call out the rigged officiating because they hate OKC” is the new “people only speak out against ræping kids because they hate Trump.” Maybe, just MAYBE, the thing people are complaining about is the reason they don’t like the person/team.
Why Tim? Why are OKC able to keep cool and the other teams dont? Bruh
Aint that hard to comprehend:
- Refs have been bad for both, but aint no excuse for how the Spurs take themselves out of the game.
- OKC is the reigning champs and are playing like it. They dont get rattled and are more emotionally matured then the Spurs.
- Spurs are really young and when things dont go right, they let that get to their head too much and it ruins their game.
It’s funny that the talking heads who keep pushing the same “people only hate them because they’re winning” narrative are also commentators. Doris, Breen, and now Legs.
You mean people who have watched them play live at court level multitudes of times for the last 2 years?
Let’s not act like Doris doesn’t have a negative reputation for her commentary. This is the same person who thought the term “Free-throw merchant” was a compliment
Is that not at least partially true though? Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t remember this much talk about SGA after the season he averaged 10.9 FTs with 53.5% free throw rate. His team lost in the play-ins. Even Dort was an uncovered gem during the bubble.
People have been calling SGA a free throw merchant for years this isn’t new
Jokes on them I hated them before it was cool.
Comparing the discourse in the threads started today to the game and postgame threads last night is funny as shit.
we hate okc cause of how they play. we blame the refs cause they suck.
honestly both can be true at the same time. OKC’s style is frustrating to watch with all the foul baiting and stopping the flow, but the refs also had some questionable calls that game.
I mean. The fact they didn’t allow a clear challenge is in excusable.
Should have called TO like the rules require
You mean a rule that has been ignored hundreds of times and has videos galore to prove it.
The ref wasn’t even looking at coach Mitch, so how could he see the challenge being called?
When did he call a timeout?
Ya but common sense gets in the way of people crying about the thunder
no logical takes tim legler come on now, the internet thinks Dort and Castle are rko’ing everybody in the opposite jersey
What’s frustrating about OKC is they are impossible to respect because of their play style. If the Timberwolves beat the spurs, that feels deserved and acceptable. If OKC wins, it doesn’t feel that way at all. Which is a bummer because they have the talent to win without the disgusting acting and whining. Idk how you can be a fan of such a team.
The Timberwolves would rather still be playing than be respected.
Lol this guy doesn’t watch basketball and it’s obvious. Wolves aren’t even playing dude.
Blaming the refs is basically victim blaming. It’s not entirely their fault that they are getting tricked.
Preach