Post#65 » by coolhandluke121 » Sat Mar 30, 2024 12:31 pm
Hoskins clearly steered his feet left of the base on purpose so that he could easily slide past the base and into McNeil. His entire body weight went into McNeil's lower leg and it was practically an ankle tackle. Apparently he was close enough to the bag to make it legal by the letter of the law, but it's still an unnecessarily unsafe play and if it's legal, then they need to change the rule. If you're clearly sliding to hit a defender instead of trying to slide into the base, I think that should be a penalty regardless of whether you're "close enough" to the bag to make an insincere argument that it was a natural slide. It reminds me of Marcus Smart running under an offensive player just as he leaps towards the basket and trying to draw a charge. Sure, sometimes it kind of looks like he's almost there in the nick of time, but that just becomes an excuse for what is clearly a reckless play.
However, as with Marcus Smart under-cuts, the issue is with the rule and the way it is officiated, and you can't really get mad at the player for trying to game the rule if it works.
Wut we've got here is... faaailure... to communakate.
