@DevInTheLab Nah — just Thunder fans blowing off steam. Only difference is 29 other fan bases don’t like em.. they tryna galvanize the troops 😂😂
If he puts his best foot forward, we should get a good physical finals series and whomever wins gets the throne
@trollokie I’d actually say last night showed why he is hated. He put up 35 playing a pretty straight up ballgame.. without all the antics, falling, flailing, and looking for calls.. stick to this and he’ll get the respect yall give him from everyone. Don’t exploit the game
@draisaitlitl of unethical hoops is people calling a spade a spade. His legacy is being tied to this one thing and if y’all want to be the people in the back with the clipboard who says "factually that’s inaccurate" so be it, but in sports perception matters
@draisaitlitl them, but there’s still love because those guys still were great watches game to game. Harden gets dragged yearly for being a playoff shrinker. Luka gets dragged through the media for being a crybaby / not a winning player for his antics. Criticizing Shai for being the face
@BiasedHouston Name one team in the modern era that you can say you’ve watched collectively look to pander and cater to the refs as much as OKC. Eye test.. leave the analytics at home.
Magic/Pistons was a physical series but primarily based on good hoops so nobody sweat it.. c’mon man
@OTownNBA If you want to look up every player and show clips that’s cool, it won’t change anyone’s opinion because we didn’t see it as CENTRAL to their being. Nobody shows Harden clips because we know he BENEFITED from EXPLOITATION while being great it was written off due to playoff woes
@OTownNBA I really want yall to wrap your minds around this — it comes down to intent. When you watch these old clips of former stars like Wade and Kobe, we see it as a crafty, Russ was criticized for being erratic. People believe Shai has made it ESSENTIAL to his game not a part of it
@the_holloway@iowaddced Yes, but due to an unnatural shooting motion which SHOULD NOT be rewarded. In the 1st clip, on most fades the offensive player twists and straightens their shoulders as the body leans towards the baseline… he freezes once he realizes Fox went for a side contest vs his land spot
@iowaddced James Harden’s legendary streak of scoring. NOBODY likes players who willingly exploit the rulebook or use it as a defense mechanism for their slimy play.. that is why OKC is disliked by 29 other teams.
@iowaddced As for the aggressive defense he hooks Castle on the drive where you counted 3 fouls, and as for the full court press they are both creating contact it’s not one sided. If SGA played straight up he’d get more fouls — we haven’t seen a player exploit the rule book like this since
@mynameis_kaylee OKC players playing into it by flopping, and exaggerating contact while looking around as though any foul called against them is a strike against their honor isn’t appreciated at all by novice fans and real hoop heads even more because they are actually very talented
@mynameis_kaylee How you feel. Let’s look at previous champs. Warriors were hated because they were stacked, Nuggets/Celtics cause injuries derailed their opponents, Spurs for being boring.. we have never seen the masses hate a team over officiating since maybe the 99-02 Lakers vs the Kings
@eazilynunu Call it a hard foul if you’d like — I would say that type of foul happens few and far between on fast breaks. As for Castle, I think he’s talking about Caruso doing things to agitate players and muck up the gm.. he isn’t keeping it pure hoops
@dubsonlysports Simple fix. Every possession LOB him the ball in the low post.. throw it high where only he can get it — then kick it back out… get OKC in rotation on defense they haven’t been tasked with multiple rotations at all.. get these shooters cleaner looks and this series is over
@dubsonlysports I actually think it’s his extreme belief in his teammates that translates to passivity on certain possessions. They built this offense around multiple guys being able to impact winning, however, not with him as the hub