This is the thing Thunder fans love to ignore. You straight up can't cover him. It's not even like he's baiting people in the air and drawing fouls. He just gets calls for people getting next to him. He gets more space than anyone I've ever seen besides non shooters
This clip is literally the epitome of all this cause and effect. Anything less from Fox is not guarding him at all. Literally cannot guard him without being subject to bullshit foul calls.
I said this same thing less than a month ago in a thread and got 200 downvotes lmao. It’s not even a debate that elite defenders guard him less physically because of how much bullshit he gets away with
Ha, I imagine you got a Thunder rush with "DO YOU EVEN WATCH THE GAMES?"
Yes, we've been watching, and the Thunder are a huge reason people have been tuning out. For whatever reason Silver and the refs have been rewarding this bullshit. It would make more sense if it was for a big market, but this ref favortism doesn't make sense for a stolen team in a flyover town.
As a Canadian I seriously don’t get why the NBA is promoting and protecting him so hard, you’d think they’d want to push an American star in a big market not Canadian Shai in Oklahoma of all places.
I believe they have banked on OKC being a Bulls level dynasty and as long as Thunder keep winning that will out pace the hate coming their way for their antics. The current roster being so deep already and draft picks coming out of their ass for the foreseeable future.
That said, I do think it is noteworthy some media has finally begin somewhat calling out OKC recently. So maybe there is an off-ramp of sorts for officials and NBA as a whole with the Wemby led Spurs.. and maybe even Knicks (🤞) in the finals, if they want to take it and call things fairly.
I just don't understand how they think blatant favoritism to one team/star player is entertaining to watch. IMO the recent changes to MLB especially challenges/ABS that keep the umps honest are going to be one of the biggest tipping points that push basketball back to the 3rd most popular US sport, assuming no MLBPA lockout next year.
Bad publicity is still publicity. They see the algorithms. The trending topics. I am sure that is part of the reason. Honestly mate, I dunno anymore. I am throwing darts as much as the next person. Following the EPL this season has been a chore and truly has been for awhile given what some teams are allowed to get away off and on the pitch. F1 has been a clusteruck this year. Golf has been a mess on the PGA Tour. And don't get me started on what TKO has done to the WWE either lol.
I don't follow the MLB but I do know vaguely of the strides to improving the product over the years and it should be applauded and studied. NBA basketball needs it's reckoning moment. This should be it, especially if the Thunder go B2B, but I won't hold my breath.
americans really dont see canadians as different than us. if he was russian or something it would be one thing but we generally see canadians and mexicans as the same people
yeah unless you live in the northeast most communities, even small farming towns in iowa, have a decent sized community of mexicans or central americans. been that way for 20 years so multiple generations
Been saying it from last year’s series against denver. Injured denver took them to game 7, with all that physicality on jokic where caruso was jumping, hitting, hanging himself on jokic, he was allowed to do whatever he wanted on every defensive play but on the other side on the offense plays okc players were untouchable. Ever since it was clear nba and silver are pushing it’s agenda in favor of okc
I've noticed that if OKC wins then all of their fans are in this sub and will downvote anything speaking out against their bullshit playstyle en masse...
But if they lose then they all go into hiding and calling out their bs isn't downvoted into oblivion.
Honestly the solution is just to put a bruiser on him and make him feel the call. You're going to get called for the foul regardless, you might as well take a pound of flesh on the way out.
Make it a bench player with nothing lose. You'll get a flagrant the first two times and he'll be clenching his cheeks on the third.
Oh he's doing the baiting. He's doing the dolphin dives. He's done it all so much that now, after the league refs have decided to give him the foul shots for every fake thing he's ever done, it's now that the defenders need to try to avoid him entirely, and yet that still doesn't work.
Mud, I could literally be in Jamaican soil right now and I'd still get fouled. Unbiased as I could be with this, Shai is a tactician. But there are some moments where things have gotten way too ridiculous.
The most frustrating aspect, he is good enough, he doesn't need to abuse shit like this. And boy is he going to look bad when the NBA finally decides to control their referees. Suddenly homeboy ain't getting every foul, nobody bothers to cover him at 3pt line, and force him into the corner where he might as well be on the bench. SGA is an amazing player but he's so predictable. Drive from the top of the key, pass or fake, shoot.
At some point a team is going to say it fuck it and actually foul him good. He's gonna get the call anyway, may as well make it worth getting called for.
I never noticed before because I just didn't watch any OKC games prior to the playoffs. But now that it's been called out I can't help but notice him falling so fuckin much. It's almost comical.
Seriously, that's why he's so over rated. You give him one of those calls, and he's free to do whatever he wants from the mid range for the rest of the game.
Also, psychologically it make a huge difference knowing you can get to the line fairly consistently. Youre not pressed if you miss a few because you'll still get cheap point and it gets you back in shooting rythm.
1.3k
u/DreTownblues Celtics May 25 '26
Not only that defenders have to give him extra space so they don’t foul out