Was Surprised How Close Fans Were To Harper on The Final Play
Even as a Knicks fan this is wild to me. Orange shirt is like blocking one side of the court
What’s crazy is the refs didn’t do shit
This is legitimately bullshit, home court advantage due to noise/distraction is one thing, but physically crowding/restricting movement is way too fucking much imo
Again though. Where the fuck is Mitch Johnson. Defend your players.
It took me watching the latest RDC to see how much of the blame the coach should have/be getting possibly. I’m not the sharpest tool but damn…Mitch Johnson is going to be playing the next game(s) like his job depends on it.
He’s obviously earned another year to grow given how much they overachieved this year, but he makes so many blatant mistakes so often..never adjusts..and Hammon is like..a phone call away. If he’s better next season great, but can’t waste too many Wemby years on him.
I suspect he’s going to end up a great coach. The guy is 39 years old and coaching in the finals. The guy on the other sideline out coaching him was wasting LeBron’s early years in Cleveland at the same age. Took him until his fourth head coaching job to seemingly put it all together.
Pop himself didn’t win a championship until he was 50 years old.
Obviously, any 39-year-old head coach is going to have a lot to learn. Remains to be seen how high his ceiling is or how quickly he can get there. I wouldn’t blame San Antonio if they decide to move on. Hammon, like you said, would be a very interesting option. But I suspect even if he gets fired on Saturday night, he’s going to end up making someone else look smart for giving him a second, third, or fourth chance down the road.
Maybe San Antonio gets tired of him just in time for the Seattle job to exist again.
He didn’t even substitute one player during the entire fourth quarter run. It was like he just froze
I think Mitch has a mild case of hands in pockets syndrome
Hamham: somebody calls me?
This pissed me off last two games. Rude fans. So quick to get near the court, so quick to get in the court. Affluenza
I swear to god if I was rich I would still respect my favorite sports. Makes me constantly not believe these people are real fans and it’s all marketing
There have been so many moments in this series where I’ve wondered where Mitch Johnson is.
The player should have said something. Or the coach. That is a legitimate complaint.
20 year old rookie with one year of college ball.
Dude was in high school 2 years ago and now he’s in the finals. That is a crazy ride.
Yeah how are a few of them allowed to even leave their seats and crowd him. Unreal.
Edit: Watching more, they’re sharing court space that belongs to the players. Like fine if the refs don’t make them push their seats back or something, but to not even enforce the players’ rights is insane. I wanted the Knicks to win but that’s messed up; it definitely affected his throwing motion.
After seeing the rules, def if someone asked the refs to tell the fans to sit in their seats I think they would comply. It’s like a, hey if youre cool with it I am too?
Especially in such a clutch moment, like no doubt spurs shouldn’t have let it get that close but this is taking it too far for real
probably some big ass celebrity or billionaire. and if you request order from one person, you have to request it from everyone. from the other side I can see ben stiller taking video and taylor swift going wild. I wanna see ref who would have balls to talk down fing taylor swift in last seconds of NBA finals
If I’m a ref I would love a legitimate reason to say something to Taylor Swift. That ref will seem so impressive to his daughters or grandkids that he talked to Taylor Swift.
I mean they could have just ask the dudes right beside him to take a step to their left/right to give him some space. Completely reasonable. They don’t have to demand the whole stadium sit down, just give some space for the inbound play.
I’ve never really been on board with how close they let fans get to the court. I feel like there should be a barrier or some sort of buffer.
A barrier seems excessive but if I take my fandom aside for a second, I’d probably be livid if this was allowed against my team. Genuinely the fans are like a foot away from the inbounder. You gotta give them some space to operate.
ya this shits unacceptable straight up, orange shirt guy and black shirt guy are literally inches from his side, and orange shirt guy is literally closer to the baseline. they are 100% impeding his range of movement. its no wonder the pass was tipped, it was entirely predictable what his motion was going to be because he literally could not move left or right with his elbows.
this really needs to be highlighted, Harper is entitled to some space and the ability to pass left or right
this was bush league
This is a stark contrast to the bubble where OG’s game winner was only possible because lowry had a few feet to step back to get an angle over tacko fall on the inbounds. That shot doesn’t happen in this arena
Why is a barrier excessive? Every other sport has a barrier.
Even Euro ball has some form of a barrier
cause mfers cant fathom anything beyond a certain scope of what theyre used to. the lack of barrier in basketball and ringside seat shit has always been fucking disgusting and stupid to me as someone who only follows basketball secondary
Ya a barrier is excessive probably. As a player I wouldn’t want opposing fans within grabbing distance of me though, and being this close in the video is crazy.
There should be a minimum amount of space. Sounds like the floor seats are particularly close to the sideline in the Garden, but there should be at least 1.5-2 feet of space for inbounders
It doesn’t make sense. I remember LaMelo injuring his ankle stepping on a fan’s foot sitting courtside.
You’ve also forgot Larry David injuring Shaq
(For the uninitiated)
I was surprised that the players didn’t advocate for it to change after the amount of space they got during the Bubble.
Even the Olympics has TONS more space.
It’s not safe and it’s just inviting interference.
Give the athletes space to dive for balls, at least. Even 6 ft would be … something
One of my favorite things about the bubble was how much breathing room it gave the baselines without all the courtside seats right there. Definitely wish we could move back toward that
People say the bubble was a fake championship but it felt like one of the most pure championships I’ve ever seen. No fans, no travel, just two teams going at it on even terms. I enjoyed it very much, reminded me of going to tournaments as kids
it was pure ball, literally the best basketball ever played league wide.
They all have actual seats. They should just make all of them sit down like a normal game.
In today’s day and age it’s only a matter of time until something wild happens courtside
Yeah like what if Harper wanted to make side pass or lean to another side. You gotta give em room to operate. Only could go up, which almost worked for that alley oop…
I feel like a vet would have been on the ref about needing some more space, really strange call to have Harper inbound.
I think if he throws it directly into the fan in orange, it is supposed ti be an automatic technical.
The crowd would’ve killed the ref if he called that, but I feel like Chris Paul would’ve just had a teammate run to the corner 3 spot and then he would’ve just thrown the ball into the fan in the way until the ref called the tech or made him move.
Chris Paul absolutely had the gamesmanship anything to win mentality to take advantage of the rule and either get some technical free throws out of it or at the very least speaks up to the ref beforehand and insist the crowd be moved back. If that guy in the blue shirt would have been called for interference it would have been Steve Bartman level hate coming at that guy.
We lost a game because Chris Paul got the ref (Scott Foster) to call a technical foul for an untucked shirt with 1.1 seconds left
CP3 would rocket it off his big ass forehead
This is where Harper shows his age. If it was someone like Rondo or Westbrook, they’d be using their elbows to clear out some space.
Yup, and yelling to the ref to do something
Fans can get a T, saavy vet is shooting a free throw here.
and cant you choose which sideline to inbound from?
isnt that why Kyle Lowry got to inbound from the scorers table side?
theoretically that has less people crowding the inbounder since theres a table blocking out some seats right
And KAT ended up getting a piece of it.
Maybe orange shirt man was the MVP all along lol
He paid 6 figures to be on the floor with his team. Got to be part of the winning play. Charge it to Mastercard
If I paid an entire college tuition to watch a basketball game I’m feeling like I like want to get my money’s worth.
It’s on the Refs and security to keep them in line.
Late in the 4th multiple fans were almost on the court getting up cheering along the baseline
I was kind of astounded security or someone wasn’t pulling them back
He’s also blocking another fan, not even in front of his own seat
Dude is cheering like a GTA npc
It’s mindboggling to me how this is allowed lol, anyone over there could easily ruin the moment and no one would be able to stop them
Bro the whole game knicks past players were pretty much touching the base line on the court. Let alone Spike Lee on the court screaming at refs. What the fuck do they let them do what they please?
When you’re a star, they let you do it.
Gram em by the bussy
Jeannie Bussy
Wrong finals series.
Still crazy to me how he really became president again. What is wrong with people?
Stupidity and racism
To millions of Americans that statement made him more relatable and likable. People like me and you just didn’t realize how many of our peers were such shitty humans
Rules are only for us poors
Hello, it’s me. I’m the poor.
Moneyyyyy. If they could put seats in the middle of the court they would sell them too.
Seats under the court
Yea that was John Starks somehow this dude managed to convince the refs Castle stepped out of bounds and they just believed him
Iman Shumpert was ridiculous the other night wearing his bright orange suit basically running on the court. Like sit down dude, he looked more hyped than he did when he was an actual player playing in the finals for the Cavs.
fat joe should be on the stat sheet for how many minutes he spent over the line
Ever play a game of pickup in NYC on a busy court, its cultural lol
nobody on that courtside has played a game of pickup in NYC other than Adam Sandler
what’s with online culture of confidently saying things as if they’re not just making it up
The cost of the tickets just surrounding Harper basically just paid for the next year of Brunson’s contract. They don’t gaf
Yeah as a football fan this is crazy to me. Could you imagine fans this close in the World Cup? Nuts
I think it’s one of the great things about basketball and the intimacy of it. Old baseball stadiums had that feeling of 1000 fans breathing down your neck but that’s gone too, especially with the luxury seats that reduce the number of fans. How close people are to the action is an amazing thing about basketball
Oh I fully get that and I love it as well I’m just saying push the seats back like a metre damn haha
Fr, courtside is fun until you get a 7 foot, 260lb human running at you full speed while going for the ball
Michael Bloomberg acting like he got jumped by a big scary black man in Game 3
I mean, I can’t believe this is going to last more than one more Malice at the Palace. All it’s gonna take is the wrong guy throwing the ball in, and one drunk SOB in Philly, New York, or Boston saying the wrong thing, for the fuse to light.
If the Spurs force a Game 6, and it’s not a Knicks blowout, that game is gonna be tense. I love Castle, buuuuut…I’m glad it’s Harper throwing it in there. Steph is a bit more reactionary.
This is a bit too close though. Orange shirt guy’s feet were inches away from Harper before he threw the pass. The inbounder is not allowed to move, but they’re allowed to jump…so if he landed on someone’s foot it would’ve been really bad.
It’s mindboggling to me how this is allowed
It’\( a my\)tery
These people are so rich that money is no issue to them but sitting court side at the Knicks game is something that can easily be taken away from them permanently and there is no replacement for it they can buy.
Mariska hargitay pushed the ref during the inbound. How is any of this allowed? It’s clear as day on Ben stillers video.
These celebrities think they’re on the team it’s so weird
The referee failed to take control of the situation
He’s supposed to have a 3 foot window on either side and should be allowed to back up if he wants to. Didn’t seem like the refs allowed that for him.
Those fans were intentionally trying to box him in, and the refs didn’t do shit
Kat signaled the guy in the orange t-shirt to get closer too.
How did you catch that 1 second in? impressive
Theirs a better version going around on X where you actually see him do it
Yeah, holy heck, wtf
Yeah like others said he could only throw up which is partly why KAT got a piece of it. This is terrible
knicks fan would have beat him up
The Law and Order lady was literally pushing and hitting the referee in that play. He was holding the people back.
In the National Basketball Association, the games are represented by two separate, yet important, groups: the players, who play the game, and the courtside fans, who attempt to influence the game. These are their stories.
DUN DUN
The Law and Order lady 😭
In this house we respect Captain Benson!!!!
I spotted her during Game 3 and was hoping that SVU had set up a sting to arrest a bunch of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates while they were all in one place. Then I remembered that show is fiction and that in real life rich old men who molest teenage girls are never more than mildly inconvenienced by the enforcement of laws they don’t feel like following.
the refs got bullied by the fans all night. alvarado’s flagrant not being called was the biggest example.
An elbow might have handed the situation as well
That referee literally had a fan hugging him on his back 😆
thats actually kinda crazy. realizing i never really paid much attention to the inbounder. is this common or just coming with the territory of the knicks fans this series?
Im actually very confident if that fan made contact with him it would be a technical foul against the Knicks, which would have made this game even crazier.
It’d be Steve Bartman times 100
X1,000,000. Cubs fans are one thing. The Knicks fans are lighting people on fire, fighting each other, and egging the opposing team AFTER A WIN.
Nice try, we tried to light someone on fire after a loss
Guess you didn’t see the video of the lady who got her hair lit up lmfao.
I thought that video was after game 3
https://www.reddit.com/r/NBATalk/s/ZrgLw07VrY
They took down the video but you can read the comments.
Only beat the 5 Guys cook yesterday and hit him with chairs. No biggie
Whoever did it would get murdered. Like legitimately murdered.
Wait, so a Spurs fan can secure courtside seats and dress up as a Knicks fan to secure a clutch tech?
And as you’re getting escorted out by security, as soon as the Spurs shoot their tech, take off your Knicks shirt to reveal a Spurs jersey underneath.
That fan would be hung and quartered in Times Square
And rightfully so!!
Whoa, shit. Ive been rooting for the Knicks, and I think its changing me.
Now we are thinking
The reason for not doing this would fall under “self preservation”
if they even made it out of that arena alive, they would be ID-ed and their name plastered over every news feed in America by the end of the night
Escape from New York
And good luck getting out of there alive
And it’ll only cost $100k!
Spurs organization can take 0.2% of Fox’s annual salary and invest into this plan
Also would likely be banned for life from nba games
and that fan would not leave NYC alive
And we have enough video evidence to not doubt that
Chris Paul is salivating at this opportunity
Taylor Swift could have done the craziest thing
Would have been elite ball knowledge if Harper made contact with him to get the tech
i don’t think it is. if it was, a smart play would be to have a spur run to the corner and have harper throw a one handed left handed pass to the corner. that would’ve been guaranteed contact with the fan in orange
MSG has particularly close court seats.
I’ve seen it often in the playoffs and march madness
Uncle Paulie is closer to the court than the inbounder, that can’t be right. At a certain angle he’d be throwing it over him. That’s wild.
If you look up the old Trae young highlights when the hawks beat the Knicks those fans were practically smothering him (yes this is a bit of an exaggeration).
Thats why the no-fan years were so interesting. Inbounding was a whole different sport. I really do hope they push court-side seats back 1 row (it would cost them too much money they never will) just for the sake of allowing for better in-bound plays
The refs should have cleared them a little bit. I would be screaming “THRE FEET BITCH!”
The refs are literally holding back Taylor Swift and Ben Stiller in the video.
This is a surreal comment
lol I did not see Ben craning his neck around the ref at first
They should have more space and I’m rooting for the Knicks.
lowry to OG gamewinner over celtics comes to mind
Back 1 row is like millions of lost dollars for this game.
Why not charge the same amount for what would now be the new courtside seats?
Wouldn’t they not be losing the money from the courtside seats but rather they’d be losing the money from that row that was previously behind the courtside seats?
The experience will be different. So what? they’ll still have the best seats in the house. And the only ones who will know are people who could have afforded courtside seats in the past anyway 🤷🏿♂️
I dont understand why people think removing the first row = loss of that rows revenue.
You are spot on, the “new” first row would sell for the same very high price. The loss is the number of seats that you lose at a mid to lowest ticket price range.
This is insane, how is that even allowed
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Didn’t look like Harper was complaining. This is probably more of a non-issue for players than we think. Literally never heard a single player complain about it, including last night in the post-game interviews.
When was the last time you’ve seen Harper complain about anything?
Duke fans are known for this and nobody complains
That’s actually insane, way too close
Agreed.
Wait that’s actually fucked. That shouldn’t be allowed
Also crazy when you consider you are always taught as the inbounder to take a step back from the sideline or baseline to give yourself a better angle to pass. Could argue this was the difference between KAT tipping the ball and not
you’re right on, KAT ain’t dumb, there’s a reason you can see him signalling for the orange shirt fan to come closer to Harper lol
‘vet move’ as some would call it
Shouldn’t have a rookie inbounding the ball right there. Any vet makes a fuss about that setup.
It’s like a reverse of the Drake “part of the team” meme
Imagine if somebody contacted him for a tech lol
Somebody like Chris Paul would have absolutely fished for a tech there. And the crowd is so damned close to him that I couldn’t even blame him for it.
If this was how Chris Paul would’ve gotten a ring, it would be talked about forever lmaoo
Lowkey it would be the one CP3 gamesmanship bs I would’ve supported. If the home crowd started it by crowding him, he gets a pass to pull his rulebook technicality bs haha
Wouldn’t even be a fish, take one half step on the line
Harper should’ve started swinging his elbows to catch somebody in the jaw for an easy tech. There’s no reason anybody in the crowd should be allowed this close to the play as it directly interferes with a player’s ability to execute.
That’s some bullshit. He should at least have a couple feet between him on all sides between the fans. No wonder KAT ended up getting a piece of it
This is lame as fuck lmao
They helped him guard him. 6 on 1 on Harper is wild af
Lol dude in the orange was basically another defender. He got the full experience paying those tickets
KAT told him to move closer too lmao
Fans further back are actually ON the court. Not that they’d affect this inbound, but still crazy.
Orange shirt guy is standing in front of another fan parallel to Harper.
I’m surprised that over the years nothing really really bad has ever happened with the fans being this close. It’s really crazy.
Orange man bad please upvote.
How is there a row of fans in front of the first row of seats?
I think the high IQ move for harper is to make sure the orange fan directly interferes with the ball and try to get a tech called
That’s worse officiating than any questionable call during the playoffs.
I’ve never actually paid attention to how close they allow fans to get on these types of inbounds, but this seems fucking outrageous
Reminds of those photos of old soccer matches where the fans were spilling onto the pitch.
They did the same thing in the NBA after big games until the 1988 Finals.
In Game 7, the Pistons are down by 4 with like 15 seconds left when Lambeir drains a prayer of a 3 pointer to cut it to 1. The Lakers then inbounded it and Magic almost got stuck in the corner, but he whistled a full-court pass to A.C. Green for a layup on the other end to go up 3 with like 3 seconds left. Fans and media start surging onto the court. Lambeir is trying to inbound it and there are literally cameramen in front of him, on the court, snapping photos. The ball gets inbounded and Zeke races up the court only to get clotheslined by Magic - no call. Lakers win the championship and the fans absolutely mob the court.
It’s a pretty zany ending, definitely worth watching - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIs_G4zpjis
A lady legit had her hands on the refs waist as the play was happening. Was a wild scene
A lady?? You mean MARISKA HARGITAY. Enjoy prison, buddy
Ref was like “I’ll allow it”
Absolutely unacceptable by the NBA. We are talking about the last shot of the NBA finals game 4. Honestly if I were the spurs I would be outraged - enough to complain to the NBA for a rematch. Obviously they wont but this shit should not be normalized and there has to be acknowledgement that it’s wrong.
Olivia Benson had her hands on the ref’s shoulders while the play was going on.
The Spurs coach using Harper on the inbound is yet another example of the terrible coaching he’s been doing lol.
KAT actually told the fans to move closer to Harper 💀
I’m sorry I’m a Knicks fan but that’s INSANE. Courtside fans should sit in their damn seats for a major play like that. There was a lowwww chance of spurs even doing anything useful on that play, but it’s not for the fans to decide that. That’s extremely annoying and the nba better lock it down if it goes back to MSG
Yeah. I’ve seen refs back people up more in grade school gyms. Fucked up honestly.
Yeah the refs and security have to control that. What is that?
Watch the guy in orange get closer and closer to harper at the beginning of the clip. Harper should have asked the official for more room.
It’s because kat literally asked them to come closer. In front of the referee.
This is insane
That looks terrible - why would they allow that? He can’t move up and down the line at all.
There are ridiculously close, but He’s not allowed to move up and down the line anyways. You’re only allowed to do that for inbounding from the baseline out of bounds after a made basket.
He’s not allowed to
That’s Bullshit. Where’s the tefs
That is absurd. Ref not clearing him any room ???
Got to save this thread whenever this sub says nba fans should be more like Europeans.
Maybe this is why Cleveland has a raised court
Im absolutely leaning to the side to get interference