Mike Greenberg on SGA style of play: “Watching him play is agonizing. It is not fun…. You have to understand that for the rest of us, watching this style of play is not like watching Steph, it’s not like watching Michael Jordan. It’s just not.”
Crazy how quick this series went from “incredible” after game 1 to now every game since then has been deemed unwatchable
Game 1 went to double OT. Every other game has been a 9+ point loss. As a neutral fan that’s why Game 1 was incredible in comparison.
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Free throws matter a lot to a shooter’s confidence over the course of a game. It settles their form and mind.
They also matter a lot to the defender’s approach. If a defender has multiple fouls already or if they know that the refs are calling soft fouls, then they’re going to play less physical and less aggressive defense (or they might be out of the game entirely). That additional space opens up the court and makes life significantly easier for the offensive player.
Wym? Silver said the quality and reffing is great so it must be!!
Hartenstein v Wemby was game 2. Hartenstein barely played game 1
Hart and wemby was game two. They had Caruso on wemby g1
this is exactly right. they let teams play tough in the first game and then ticky tack foul whistles started…
Thunder are 3-1 in the series after the tick tack whistle started
It still feels incredible as long as the Spurs win
It will feel like relief if the Spurs win the series, not excitement from me. It should be excitement and i just can’t even force myself to care as a neutral. I just don’t want this crap to be rewarded with another ring.
Seriously, relief is all it’ll be, that the foul-baiting team full of complainers doesn’t win the series.
As a Knicks fan, I just don’t want to watch an OKC series, even if the Knicks end up winning. Though in that case it’ll be refball
Fta per game Game 1 : 48 in double overtime Game 2 : 41 Game 3 : 66 Game 4 : 50 Game 5 : 70
Regular season average 23.5. playoff average 24. Series average 55. MORE THAN DOUBLE over five games.
Game one was double overtime and was close throughout. I think games since are wearing on people.
Its on the refs and the league. They can adjust. They created this.
It’s not an either or thing. I’m a neutral. This is a great series. Unless it’s the finals, I usually don’t follow playoffs between teams I’m not interested in. I’ve seen all of these games and it really is a great competitive series. OKC’s style is maddening and the the NBA really truly needs to find ways to disincentivize this style of play.
One isn’t incompatible with the other.
It’s a compelling series but it really hasn’t been a great series outside of game 1.
>NBA really truly needs to find ways to disincentivize this style of play.
except they already have a way to disincentive this style of play. enforce the flop techs post game, have the game watched again by people looking for uncalled flops, it only takes 7 to be suspended for one game in the playoffs, SGA and the crew would all be missing time.
Game 1 was officiated correctly. Now flopping and daring the refs to call every foul dominates and it’s boring.
I feel the same way about modern sports television.
Seriously. Why they gotta yell at us the whole time?
Because we have literally thousands of other ways to consume our time now.
Podcasts, streaming, Long videos and clips.
The days of turning on espn and that being your basically only way to get highlights are gone and done.
Sportscenter with Olberman and Patrick was peak television. I would just leave it on all night.
I’d personally prefer Scott & Eisen but generally agree.
I feel like the 90s and early 00s is going to sound like a fever dream in another 20 years. The Matrix saying humanity peaked in 1999 seems more prescient by the day.
Because we love it. Look how many comments on this thread. Look how many posts on the front page of this sub talking about SGA and free throws.
The algorithm encourages controversy and bullshit cuz controversy and bullshit drives more engagement. The debate shows will continue until that changes.
Who is watching these shows? Why do they keep getting posted on here?
Didn’t we all decide about a decade ago that watching ESPN is basically the same thing as rubbing your brain with steel wool?
Edit: I’d go so far as to say the only person employed by ESPN that I think is actually watching more games of basketball in a year than me is Legler.
This sub is controlled by the NBA to a certain extent so they force this crap in here
Reddit since IPO
Add sports radio to that. Unsportsmanlike is completely unlistenable they talk about the dumbest shit that has nothing to do with sports
Just don’t watch first take. There are still good sports shows. First Things First and Good morning football are entertaining.
GMFB has been AWFUL since Nate, Kay and Schrags all left. Now it’s just that idiot Kyle Brandt yelling.
Imagine any commissioner going on a sports talk show and advocating for selling calls to the refs. This is in the face of one of the most competitive series in years and that’s with a reffing controversy. What a complete joke.
I feel like if Silver didn’t have the “For Life” moment getting Donald Sterling out of here he would be universally viewed as the worst commissioner in sports - especially in my category of “did you make the sport more entertaining and appealing” that is more important than collective bargaining, financials, etc. If the sport is more fun to watch the money will come. The NBA has, through intention or neglect, allowed the on-court product to degrade significantly. Flopping and foul baiting is the prime example, but the rot is deeper. Couple years ago not having team intros on the playoff broadcast. Marquee players resting for big games. Requiring a fan to have 8 subscriptions to watch every game. Traveling. Ask any NBA fan and they probably have a list of grievances against what the product has become.
People hate Manfred for his comments about “just a hunk of metal” - but the reality is the MLB has mad massive, sweeping rule changes to preserve & improve the watchability of baseball and has seen viewership and attendance grow during his time. Three True Outcomes baseball is effectively dead, stolen base attempts are up, and they regulated the shift away all in response to fan feedback.
Goodell has been around so long I think people just don’t realize how much he has been around for major changes. Besides constantly tweaking things like pioneering video review and coach chanllenges, he expanded a very America-only sport internationally, and does a good job making sure the NFL’s stars are marketed and relevant.
The MLS has exploded in expansion and ticket draw, and the NWSL has similarly grown significantly fast. Both leagues are much younger but the MLS has iterated multiple times on it’s rule structure to cater to the fan experience, including shifting the schedule to now align with the international transfer windows which will hopefully make MLS more relevant on the world’s stage.
Bettman for the NHL is the only one that would be in Silver’s wheelhouse imo. He’s been around for almost 30 years and the NHL has declined in viewership, lost major TV deals, and had a lot of team relocations which is never good for the stability of the league. I think the NHL has made some recent changes that are positive though, like the Olympics success recent and the 4 Nations cup replacing the ASG. The NHL similarly has (imo) improved the watchability of the sport with changes to OT.
If it wasn’t for Steph and the warriors blowing up NBA viewership numbers during their run, Silver would be deemed an absolute failure. He hasn’t done anything to grow the game significantly he just coasted off of the Steph vs LeBron hype train
Gambling has grown the game - in a terribly unfortunate way. These playoffs have been the most watched playoffs in the last 20 years. They broke records last season too.
He is the worst commissioner is sports. The Donald Sterling situation was such a layup, he doesn’t deserve much credit for making the obvious decision imo.
Modern day NHL is where the NBA is headed. NHL in the 90s until around 2010s was a popular sport in the US. From what I read, in 2025, NHL had WORSE ratings than the WNBA. I dont know how that could be possible but if that’s the case, Bettman definitely deserves the crown as worst commissioner since he built the NHL into a top product then destroyed it
NHL’s problems go beyond Bettman though, there’s a fundamental issue with the cost of the sport itself and its limited global appeal. Anyone can pick up a soccer ball, a baseball bat, or a basket ball. Hockey is a $10,000/year cost for a kid at anything beyond house league, involves a lot of parent travel time, and has diminishing places to play.
The decline of hockey is a combination of global warming, immigration patterns, and cost. There’s less Canadians playing hockey now than 20 years ago.
WNBA has Caitlyn Clark, the new car smell, and its an instagram league that feeds off of drama. It also is – for the moment – affordable.
I can’t see the puck on tv
Shit man at least we have HDTV now.
Back in the bad old days of standard def they might as well have been mimes playing sport for all I knew.
The ESPN+ deal in hindsight will be viewed as one of the worst media deals in modern sports
I personally am not watching the finals if OKC gets in. But silver knows that less people are going to watch OKC-NY vs SA-NY
I’m boycotting now. I dont care to sit in front of my TV for hours just to see curated theatrics rewarded with a bunch of free throws the whole time. If that’s what Silver thinks is “entertaining”, than I’m wasting my time watching his product.
If i keep watching, the problem wont be him but me.
James Harden flopped so that SGA could fall
It all started with Harden….he is the OG foul bait drama queen.
Harden may have been the first superstar to make it a part of his game, but Manu was having Onion articles written about his flopping before Harden even came into the NBA.
around the same time as Harden, the other 2 players that were horrible foul baiters were Lou Williams and DeMar DeRozan. The league giving Lou Williams the 6th man award in 2014-15 was them signing off on his style of play. DeRozan in the 2015 playoffs averaged 23 points, but over 10 points per game from the free throw line. Thats around the first time I started complaining about that shit, the league should have stopped it then
Some would say Ginobili was a great flopper..
Manu started it, Harden perfected it
This. SGA just does it a LOT tho and is successful with it. Add all that up and it’s just hitting critical mass. But yeah it’s been a problem for a while.
The reason everyone is pissed is the way that OKC flops. They look stupid doing it and are still getting calls. More importantly their best player looks ridiculous doing it. You wanna sell calls be my guest just make it somewhat believable and the officials need to stop falling for people looking like buffoons trying to draw fouls. I want my players to look cool not like fucking idiots falling down every trip down the floor flailing like a cat that just got its tail slammed in a door…
This is not magic that everyone has decided to hate SGA and OKC. SGA is a very likeable person but he looks completely uncool flailing around non stop. Deal with it.
Also the NBA has a decades long legacy of manipulating games. They handed championships to stars like Jordan and Kobe and many others. They have a culture that went from trying to help home teams win to sell tickets. Then it became make sure stars win for TV. Then the officials thought okay I’m supposed to manipulate games why don’t I bet on games I manipulate. The entire culture of officiating in the nba is rancid and gangrenous. Fix it or the nba will die.
Does it matter? He’s runnning a business - whether it’s good or bad for the league in the long run, all he cares about is increasing profits year over year.
Except if you made the product better you would also increase profits but you would also create a loyal fanbase to your product that isn’t only reliant on diehard fans passing on their allegiance
That’s the problem with him and most of corporate America. They are only focused on short term gains and while that is super successful for a while. It alienates the loyal customers you had and eventually leads to everyone leaving and unless you can replace them fast enough you go under
However most venture capitalists don’t care cause they have cashed out by then and I imagine Silver and a lot of these new owners are the same. They know they are running the league into the ground but he will have retired and they will have sold for huge profits by then
Which he is doing very handily. I don’t think he or the owners care about anything else
Has the league actually suffered?
The NBA is making more money than ever now, which is the biggest concern to the owners
I feel like Silver not only skirted through this issue but offered a pretty lame fix for helping officiating with AI, which ironically doesn’t even address flopping but moreso determining out of bounds calls. This was a big missed opportunity to demonize flopping in the league, and also remind players that techs can be called on such actions.
If SGA’s winning back-to-back ‘chips (or at least back-to-back finals trips), what incentive is there for him to change his style of play. It’s obviously working out for him.
Edit: Also, I wish I didn’t comment. This is from that shit-tier ragebait/engagementbait farm masquerading as a TV network called ESPN.
I dont think anyone is even talking about the series anymore, just the flopping plaguing the league
Which is a huge problem.
Not “flopping”, but that the media can’t talk about the series.
There is plenty of media out there that focuses on the actual basketball being played. The problem is the “fans” of the league don’t want that. They want to rage together into the void about all the extra bullshit.
The biggest discussions all year have been flopping and tanking. If the NBA is ok with this i wonder what topic really scares them (gambling?)
If you listen to a lot of Adam Silver interviews and press conferences (and I don’t blame anyone for not, they’re boring as fuck) it’s clear that he is extremely disconnected from the actual sport and relies heavily on engagement analytics, especially on social media. To him, any controversy that makes people “talk about the league” is good, even when everyone is bashing the product and talking about how it’s worse than ever. He’s so out of touch he isn’t capable of realizing how much he doesn’t know. It’s a perfect example of why MBAs and JDs need to be kept in their fucking place at an advice level and not put into leadership positions.
No hes specifically talking about sga, nba pr team is trying to deflect making this the top comment lol
Good way to put it haha. And for the record- worth it
To be clear - I would ignore my family all over again to relive that.
When all yall gotta do is just watch the highlight no need to watch the game. Idk why people watch these games they clearly aren’t enjoying
found adam silvers burner
Because the flops are showing up even in highlights too now lol
And it’s so enjoyable when reffed correctly. Game 1 of the WCF should be somewhat of a blueprint for the league when it comes to reffing and what playoff basketball should be.
And that game 1 crew hasn’t ref’d another game in this series (until tonight). Instead we got 3 games of Tony brothers or Scott Foster. This league is a joke.
People really over complicate things but this is the problem. Game 1 was a great game because it was reffed well, and those refs aren’t being brought back. Instead we get the Tony Brothers show. Sometimes when everyone is complaining about the same thing it’s not just social media echo chamber it might actually just suck
seriously, and being someone who was rooting for the spurs, i still felt that regardless of who was going to win that game, both teams played their asses off and deserved that win. it was just a pure display of competition.
Agreed that game was pure cinema.
Totally agree. I know people are tired of having the same conversations but there is a reason people are talking about it. Nobody was complaining about game 1 and I actually saw people comment about how they liked the officiating. Sure there will always be some people complaining but the overall reaction was positive to game 1. Clearly there is a way to ref and manage a game that people enjoy.
i was just about to say this, nba media doesn’t actually like nba basketball lol
No NBA media says whatever gets the most views. Controversy = views. And that’s only gotten worse over time with social media and whatnot.
It doesn’t add up, cause ratings are the highest they’ve been in years.
I get that SGA foul baits, but Harden and Embiid has been doing this their entire career. This style is nothing new.
That’s largely because they moved it to a far more available channel
But yeah SGA is an extension of the same problem
Yep. Last year the WCF were all on ESPN (except game 3 which was on ABC). This year the games are all on NBC.
Network games are always going to get more viewers than basic cable games, so “ratings are up” doesn’t really say much.
I think the reason that the thunder and SGA get more hate than Harden and Embiid (who did get their fair share of hate, and rightfully so, IMO) is that Daigneault and the thunder have pushed the envelope so much farther.
They have basically weaponized the rule book. It’s not just the star scorer, it’s the entire team. The star scorer is just the most egregious example. They play so overly physical and past the line of what is normally allowed on one end of the floor and basically say “you can’t/wont call a foul on every play” which normalizes the contact. And then on the other end they look for every little “letter of the law” (rather than spirit of the rule) way to draw contact, exaggerate contact, and sell contact.
As an example, Jared McCain didn’t really flop at duke or with the sixers. But now that he’s in OKC we see the viral clip of him coming on the floor and giving the forearm shiver to the throat, getting past the defender and putting on the breaks to draw the trailing contact and then proceed to fall to the floor. No trying to steady himself or regain his balance or anything like that. What he’s doing here has nothing with trying to create a basketball advantage to get a better look to make a shot or open up a teammate. It’s explicitly trying to weaponize the rulebook to sell a foul.
Hartenstein does a ton of this stuff as well with the aggressive arm bars and flopping that he never did at any of his other stops. Dort, Jaylin, Chet etc all came up in the system so we don’t have any frame of reference but all of them do the same shit.
It could be solved if silver had any balls and actually enforced the existing flopping rules. Or the existing offensive contact rules that were in effect for like 3 months at the start of the 24 season. Or cracked down even harder on both.
It’s just such a shit product to watch.
harden and embiid are regularly called out for their style of basketball, and if they were as successful as SGA and the thunder the complaints would be equally as loud.
This style is nothing new.
What is new is that in the “good old days” nobody had HD instant replays in slow motion that they could distribute to whinge about their team losing.
Also, back in the day the media was bedfellows with the league and had vested interest in propping it up and maintaining positivity, now with the ease of self publishing and social media getting clicks is the most important goal, and negativity gets more clicks than celebration does.
The kind of ragebait trash these people are putting out today would have had you blacklisted by most of the league in the 80s and 90s, you wouldn’t be able to land any interviews and would be out of a job in short order.
People bitch about refs, VAR, diving, parking the bus, ugly football, just as much if not more for soccer.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more for soccer.
I mean the nba has been an awful product the last 5 years so I get it
Basketball is always fun to watch but there’s no way the product the last few years has been better than what it was before
Okc is an incredible team but I just can’t stand watching them play and flop like crazy
What changed in the last 5 years? I’ve heard the “awful product” thing for years. Whether its the “Streetball” of the 2000s or the super team era or 3 point shooting and Cavs/Warriors finals nonstop. Now we have more parity than ever and its still an “awful product”.
NBA fans never have and never will be happy.
Watching basketball always sounds like a great idea. Then you start to watching it and quickly get turned off by the flopping, foul-baiting, non stop 3 point shooting, the piss poor officiating, and so on.
Honestly it reminds me of how I feel with nba 2k and playing rec.
me spamming the c-stick in smash bros
That Pikachu down C stick was mad PP
DK grab to throwing you off stage
The Mortal Kombat reverse leg sweep
Mother fucker is like Eddy Gordo from Tekken 3.
Great analogy because SGA’s push-off actually is unblockable (except by Wemby sometimes).
It’s an institutional teaching in OKC. They teach their players how to game officials on both sides of the court.
That’s the thing is their whole team does this shit but obviously Shai at a higher volume since he has the ball more
It’s much bigger on the defensive side. They teach their players where they can be more Physical and not draw fouls.
I don’t even think it’s about “not drawing fouls” they play as if they know they won’t be called for obvious fouls. Dort, Caruso, and hartenstein should be fouled out every game, but they know the refs can’t/wont call them all.
It’s institutional in the NBA and has been for decades. They coach players in development on how to better get to the line by creating and selling contact. The league, as a whole has just sort of inflated how egregiously they do it as refs are calling it less and less in the name of keeping the flow of the game consistent. There will always be some of this to a degree. There will also be rules to try and mitigate it. Right now it just is what it is as “part of the game”, albeit, not a very pleasant part of the game.
Also because it takes him from 27 ppg (great) to 31 ppg (wins the MVP).
i just don’t understand why referees don’t adjust? stop giving him the benefit of the doubt.
And how Steph never got that whistle in his career. Steph would’ve avg close to 40ppg with that same whistle
It’s so weird how the refs have zero pride when it comes to floppers. In any other profession, once someone knows that a person is constantly trying to trick and fool them, they give that person less leeway and and bec ome more critical of them. Judges don’t allow lawyers to just lie to them and move on because it is in the past.
These players regularly make the refs look bad by purposefully fooling them, and the refs apparently just do not care.
And we know refs have memories, as we see every time any player criticizes them. Jaylen Brown is probably being called for push-offs while hanging out in Cancun.
Harden everyone hated it but at least you could say that shit doesn’t work in the playoffs
I wonder why SGA still gets a very favorable whistle in the playoffs when harden wasn’t allowed to get away with it
The fact that I heard this being talked about on every talk show, now Pat Mac even asked Silver about the flopping and of course Silver dodged it so hard with a lame excuse.
He didn’t dodge it though. He added fuel to the fire.
He basically said that it’s part of the game now and to fuck off and adapt.
This is an issue because even though the refs are fully aware of the shenanigans, even just 1 critical call on a flop play in a critical moment overrides the outrageousness of 20 previous calls. You open the opportunity for Murphys Law to happen in basketball, and that’s just not entertaining to watch. Nothing will change until their profits do.
Yeah Adam Silver stating players are taught to sell calls these days, that there’s a difference between selling a call, an exaggeration and a true flop, where you’re actually fooling the referee. Holy Batman.. unless the NBPA stands up to this, we’re all screwed until Silver is replaced
Silver is only executing the owners’ wishes. He won’t be replaced by anyone better.
He didn’t dodge it though. He added fuel to the fire. He basically said that it’s part of the game now and to fuck off and adapt.
And that’s a huge problem. It’s a Manfred level of not understanding the sport, the game, the fans, or even the basic spirit of competition and integrity. Of course some pasty fucking nerd who has never seriously played sports doesn’t get it, and the fact that the he’s in this kind of a leadership position is extremely concerning.
He’s only there because he’s corrupt and greedy. He was in the room when the FBI investigation into donaghy, scott foster et al was leaked and likely spearheaded the torpedoing of it. Absolute scumbag. Why would this guy care about anything happening in the NBA as long as his profits increase every year. People need to stop watching.
It’s just disgusting watching SGA destroy the game like this
If that’s the league Adam Silver is not just confused on how to fix - but ACTIVELY ENCOURAGING - I am not going to continue to be an avid fan. Can’t put up with this much longer. It gets worse every year.
Basketball is entertainment, if we are not entertained then it is USELESS to us.
Speak for yourself. As a Wizards fan, I watch basketball to get pissed off
Shai deadass has a beautiful offensive game outside of the like 5-6 flops/flails a game.
Absurd mid range, handles, driving game. Good decision maker and 3 point shooter. Also a defensive disruptor.
It’s insane that this kind of player is the one the nba community has decided to collectively hate
Thunder have a lot of good players and could still win without all their bullshit.
That’s genuinely part of what bugs me the most. They don’t need to be doing it. They choose it, theywant to do it.
They do anything that gives them a competitive advantage. They aren’t flopping for the love of the game
The faces he makes while flopping ain’t helping him
Go watch Luka and AR.
It’s annoying when they do it, too.
Imo it’s the contrast. What OKC is allowed to do on defense vs. what fouls get called for SGA is the most maddening part. You can’t even get near the guy but Caruso and Dort are allowed to play football because they are small? That is the worst part and SGA is just the head of the snake
Are you actually watching the games? You don’t see how castle is literally holding him and grabbing his jersey. Saying you can’t get near him is just false
Ridiculous take. Castle has been doing a lot more than “getting near the guy” every single game, hilarious to say that OKC is playing football when he’s the one that most meets that description.
Whenever someone says this I just know they aren’t watching the games fully
Nobody hates the NBA more than NBA fans and the media.
People can certainly hate those warriors team cause they were good and had heals like Draymond, but you can’t say it wasn’t beautiful basketball to watch.
I’m imagining Draymond with Mercy’s wings and healing stick
there is a reason they brought in so many casual fans and steph still sells the most jerseys all these years later
Steph Curry being one of, if not the most, electric players to play the game is kinda tough competition
I never got the complaints that Steph and Klay “ruined the league” by relying so heavily on making 3s.
3 pointers are still a valid part of the game. Falling to the floor to make it seem like incidental contact is egregious is not.
heels*
Not going to edit cause its funnier with the typo lol
Almost forgot all about the 50 illegal screens per game
It was ethical unethical hoops
So many illegal screens, but they also let Steph get manhandled all over the court.
Remember the nickname D - Whistle because he averaged 16 FTs in the finals ?
We definitely hated that at the time.
I’m tired of people just counting free throws to make a point. Getting legitimately fouled driving to the hoop and doing what SGA is doing are completely different things.
Wade was a notorious flopper though. Dude even got fined for flopping in the finals against the spurs.
It’s hilarious. Wade was the first guy I remember doing the “pump fake then jump into the defender” move. This stuff has been happening for the last 20+ years.
Yes and Wade still gets shit for it. Just like SGA will.
Just because it’s been happening for 20+ years doesn’t mean SGA isn’t doing it more than others. People will ALWAYS remember guys like Wade, Ginobili, Smart, Harden, Embiid, SGA, etc. for embellishing contact. And there’s a reason they get “singled” out - because they’re actually doing it at an egregious level
Lmfao. Go watch the 2006 footage
It’s interesting how much this point has been parroted recently. That is another egregious example that got a lot of shit at the time as well.
And literally still does lol
Mavericks fans fucking hate Dwade and bring it up all the fucking time. Why do people think we just didn’t care at the time?
“the sport has had egregious floppers in the past so you can’t complain now that an entire team is built around it”
I hated it and wanted it legislated out of the league when Harden was the main purveyor of it. The fact that it’s still in the league, and arguably is even worse, only means that I should hate louder this time.
Fuck Adam Silver.
Here before the insensitive OKC fans start their usual lecture.
Not you, anyone else but not you with that flair
Anybody but you (a fan of a team with a statistically different whistle than everyone else) should make this comment.
SGA is far more bearable to watch than 2018 Harden…it was exhausting every possession. But I’ll say OKC as a whole is just unbearable because literally every single one of their players does it. At least with the Rockets it was just Harden & CP.
Blame adam silver who allows this.
I agree. The game is just finding ways to be more efficient with the rules. Like when steph proved it was more efficient to shoot threes and you could just win with math, everyone did it, because it was a requirement to compete.
Now Shai and the thunder have proved, even more than threes, gaming the officials is the most efficient way to play. Gaming the officials will lead to more wins than playing the game because you get FT’s and if the other team isn’t willing to flop as hard as you are…you win. So…the slope here is that teams will turn the game into a flopping competition until Silver stops it and he has no incentive to change anything until league rev starts to drop. So far, its not dropping, so why change anything? We’re just whiners on reddit. Paying customers determine change. We’ll see when they decide to stop paying.
Im starting to feel this way too. Just hoop man, stop falling.
he’s won two straight mvps, he has no incentive whatsoever to stop. he is rewarded handsomely for it.
It’s the biggest issue of it all. He keeps being rewarded for it. With personal accolades and team accolades. The reason why the conversation surrounding Embiid and Harden(their MVP years) wasnt NEARLY as loud was because either their whistle wasn’t the same in the playoffs and/or they weren’t being rewarded for it as a team.
I legitimately just turned the game off last time when McCain got a foul call from just dropping to the floor AFTER elbowing Harper. Shit’s just not enjoyable
Omg the discourse around this is just not fun. The playstyle can be annoying but it’s not worth acting like it’s the end of civilized basketball. They aren’t even discussing the actual games anymore it’s just hopping on the foul baiting train.
Reason# 1,457,467 why NBA media and discourse is the worst out of the 4 major sports.
There’s been a new OKC hate thread every 5⁄10 minutes on here. The media are just responding to what the people clearly want to see.
Every time I open my app it’s a new post shitting on the Thunder / SGA. I’ve never seen anything like it. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills
I’ve started noticing the same usernames in thread after thread after thread on here.
If this was a counselling session, they’d be receiving warnings about an unhealthy obsession
It’s cause NBA fans actually eat this mainstream media slop up.
Exactly, look at this miserable ass sub. No one here seems to enjoy the sport
I remember when this sub used to be largely about discourse showing the game in a positive light and actually teaching me so much about it. Now the game has become so narrative and drama based that I feel like fans and the media would rather destroy the league’s reputation instead. It’s exhausting.
Try being a Kings fan, then tell me how “bad” it is to watch OKC.
I mean that’s the point he’s making. For thunder fans it’s great. But for everyone else it sucks.
I very much agree here. I’m not a fan of OKC nor am I against them. I don’t care who wins at this point. I just want to see grown men who are supposed to be to notch athletes not fall over when they are barely touched. I miss seeing the battle for position, and the grind players had to endure to score.
Me on watching ESPN’s Get Up in the year of our lord 2026: “It’s agonizing, it’s not fun”
watching steph used to piss me off because i wanted lebron to win. Watching Sga makes me not enjoy basketball.
Same reason I don’t like embiid is the same reason I don’t like watching shai. He’s too good to be falling on the floor constantly looking for fouls and him being rewarded for it. To make it worse the whole team plays like it and gets rewarded for it. I can think shai is a good player, the roster/organization is amazing and also think the thunder play a brand of basketball I don’t enjoy. Edit: The whole roster is too good to be playing like that and that’s what makes it frustrates me the most.
There is no way these people watch the games. This Spurs OKC series is probably the most fun I’ve had watching as a neutral since 2016. Sure the flopping is annoying but unless you spend all your time looking at social media it doesn’t impede the enjoyment of watching the game at all.
It’s genuinely fun watching both teams adjust to each other and plan around SGA/Wemby after every game, it’s really not been agonizing for me at all 😭 the coaching chess matches have been great!!!
Shai isn’t helping himself by scoring more free throws than field goals this series.
It’s loophole basketball. He’s found a flaw in the way NBA games are ref and exploiting it. I hate it but I think the NBA has to step in this summer and implement some new rules or penalties for there to be change. OKC isn’t going stop until they are forced to. I really think we need to start shaming the NBA as that’s where the change is gonna be not OKC or SGA.
This sub fucking blows. Just a constant hate circlejerk.
I’d love to hear what Mike Greenberg thinks about listening to these sports media shows.
lol without hyper fixating on one single player I do still enjoy watching the game of basketball, SGA, Luka, Giannis, Wemby, Steph, still give us so much entertainment. SGA is unbearable if you’re just sitting on the edge of your seat the entire time looking to see when there’s a whistle and calling out how it’s wrong.
I’ve been saying for a while if this play style isn’t curbed it will kill the league. More people will try it and play like it and fans will leave. It’s a disgusting style of play.
Ok the contrarian in me is shifting sides. This shit is getting annoying. I’m rooting for the Thunder now.
The egregious, unacceptable root of the current flopping is the ridiculous interpretation of the rule where you can jump forward into a player and get a foul call. If someone tooj the bait and jumped towards you on your pump fake, and you jump straight up, then it should be a foul. But if the defender jumped straight up and you jump forward to bump him, that should be an offensive foul, and I’ll never be convinced otherwise. You’re initiating the contact, if you didn’t, there would be no foul to call.
I’ll die on that hill.
Do people really think brunson is much different?
It’s the whole damn team. Flopping and flailing all over the damn place.
MJ - (Career Averages)
People forget how many 7-23 or 7-21 games MJ had. When his shot wasn’t falling, he always got his 30 points by getting to the line. Same as Kobe.
easy solution, ignore the floppers, let them flop.. don’t call it. make basketball physical again, everyone is so fucking dainty now, these are grown men… such a contast from football and hockey