Describing SGA as a foul merchant seems extremely disingenuous.

[Lo Wang]

Huh

This thread is about him being a foul merchant. Poster above said he doesn’t do it. I gave an example of how he does it. I didn’t say he invented it, but he does do it. Obviously

Again, what's your point? Every star tries to draw a foul: some more blatant, some more passive, but to act like SGA is the only one doing it is disingenuous.

I just said my point… the poster said he doesn’t do it. He does it. Nowhere did I say he was the only one who does it. Are you alright?

You implied it. If you were honest, you would have mentioned other stars doing it.

[garrick]

11/14 Free throws game 1

If that's not a free-throw merchant I don't know what is. There's no way you can't watch this man and call it real basketball. Falls to the ground every time you touch him

LeBron and Jordan have both had playoff runs where they AVERAGED over 14 FTAs per game. SGA is at 8.7 in these playoffs.

He does get a lot of calls, but he's not the first or last player to benefit from a generous whistle.

MJ didn't resort to flopping a lot to get most of those calls in an era where the defender got away with a lot more than they do now.

SGA some of the calls he gets he just exaggerates the amount of contact he gets so he's really the James Harden of today.

[Lo Wang]

11/14 Free throws game 1

If that's not a free-throw merchant I don't know what is. There's no way you can't watch this man and call it real basketball. Falls to the ground every time you touch him

LeBron and Jordan have both had playoff runs where they AVERAGED over 14 FTAs per game. SGA is at 8.7 in these playoffs.

He does get a lot of calls, but he's not the first or last player to benefit from a generous whistle.

MJ didn't resort to flopping a lot to get most of those calls in an era where the defender got away with a lot more than they do now.

SGA some of the calls he gets he just exaggerates the amount of contact he gets so he's really the James Harden of today.

No homie, keep up with the copium. The man is on another level.

[OxAndFox]

I'm a huge SGA fan but... watch him. He's a foul merchant.

I turned the game off. It's ridiculous.
And I feel bad because I love watching the Thunder other than him. And I don't even blame him, I think he seems like a very likable guy...But my lawd. It's tough to watch every single time.
Like, be honest everyone, you had to go and have a shower after watching that didn't you?

Someone take me back to the Knicks/Celtics series.
Hoping the Knicks/Pacers series can salvage something from what is going to be a pathetic display of the modern foul merchant.

Maybe you shouldn't watch basketball if the only thing you are concern about are FTs. I suggest taking up ping pong as a sport: less complexity.

Can you point to the part where I said I hate FTs so I turned it off? Yeah. Thought so.

[KyRo23]

Again, what's your point? Every star tries to draw a foul: some more blatant, some more passive, but to act like SGA is the only one doing it is disingenuous.

I just said my point… the poster said he doesn’t do it. He does it. Nowhere did I say he was the only one who does it. Are you alright?

You implied it. If you were honest, you would have mentioned other stars doing it.

Nothing in my post implied he’s the only one who does it. I didn’t mention other players because this thread is about him…

I was directly responding to a poster saying he doesn’t do it. Why would I mention another player when I’m talking to someone directly about SGA? You’re kinda losing it, man, I think it’s bedtime

[RB34]

His game can be amazing and awful to watch at the same time. Perplexing.

His game is incredible.

So good the copium is so high people have to make believe he invented flopping just to rationalize why their teams are getting utterly obliterated by him.

I didn’t say he invented flopping nor did I suggest it. Copium? Are you a child?

[Lo Wang]

I turned the game off. It's ridiculous.
And I feel bad because I love watching the Thunder other than him. And I don't even blame him, I think he seems like a very likable guy...But my lawd. It's tough to watch every single time.
Like, be honest everyone, you had to go and have a shower after watching that didn't you?

Someone take me back to the Knicks/Celtics series.
Hoping the Knicks/Pacers series can salvage something from what is going to be a pathetic display of the modern foul merchant.

Maybe you shouldn't watch basketball if the only thing you are concern about are FTs. I suggest taking up ping pong as a sport: less complexity.

Can you point to the part where I said I hate FTs so I turned it off? Yeah. Thought so.

You seem overly obsessed with his FTs despite the team still winning even if he had zero FTs.

[OxAndFox]

Maybe you shouldn't watch basketball if the only thing you are concern about are FTs. I suggest taking up ping pong as a sport: less complexity.

Can you point to the part where I said I hate FTs so I turned it off? Yeah. Thought so.

You seem overly obsessed with his FTs despite the team still winning even if he had zero FTs.

You're the one that bought up FTs dude.

[Lo Wang]

His game can be amazing and awful to watch at the same time. Perplexing.

His game is incredible.

So good the copium is so high people have to make believe he invented flopping just to rationalize why their teams are getting utterly obliterated by him.

I didn’t say he invented flopping nor did I suggest it. Copium? Are you a child?

The second statement was general, not personal when i said "people," meaning a consensus.

[Lo Wang]

Can you point to the part where I said I hate FTs so I turned it off? Yeah. Thought so.

You seem overly obsessed with his FTs despite the team still winning even if he had zero FTs.

You're the one that bought up FTs dude.

I can appreciate his game instead of obsessing over FTs.

[OxAndFox]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Where’s the foul?

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Shot out of a cannon

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Trips over own feet

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Just flat out flops

These were just cringey AF. Like are you serious?
Add that to the Chet one where he dove to the ground on a drive and a foul was called. Like WTF is happening. And honestly I think the players in the NBA are just literally doing what Harden did all those years ago. Exploiting a loophole in the rules. SGA, like the bearded buddha before him, is just "better" at it than everyone else.
I've seen it in almost every series so far where players are just dropping their knees to the ground and the ref just bails the offensive player out because, how did he get down there? There must have been a foul right?

[OxAndFox]

You seem overly obsessed with his FTs despite the team still winning even if he had zero FTs.

You're the one that bought up FTs dude.

I can appreciate his game instead of obsessing over FTs.

You've literally mentioned it in every post, yet I only mentioned it asking you to point to where I mentioned it. So who's obsessing over it?

[Jables]

Talking about how crafty a player is and how they "deserve" calls that aren't really there, is a good way to get me ranting in any sport. It's the normalization of treating a sport as a product rather than a competition. As fans we should want everyone playing on the same playing field.

Doris Burke puts on her commentator voice, but she was a player too, she isn't being complementary about it by bringing it up. Is it unfair to focus on SGA when a lot of players do similar? Yeah probably, but I'm not unhappy for the spotlight to be on anyone doing this ****.

[Lo Wang]

You're the one that bought up FTs dude.

I can appreciate his game instead of obsessing over FTs.

You've literally mentioned it in every post, yet I only mentioned it asking you to point to where I mentioned it. So who's obsessing over it?

Agreed.

[garrick]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Where’s the foul?

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Shot out of a cannon

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Trips over own feet

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Just flat out flops

These were just cringey AF. Like are you serious?
Add that to the Chet one where he dove to the ground on a drive and a foul was called. Like WTF is happening. And honestly I think the players in the NBA are just literally doing what Harden did all those years ago. Exploiting a loophole in the rules. SGA, like the bearded buddha before him, is just "better" at it than everyone else.
I've seen it in almost every series so far where players are just dropping their knees to the ground and the ref just bails the offensive player out because, how did he get down there? There must have been a foul right?

SGA and Giannis get the most favorable whistles from the refs but Giannis at least doesn't normally flop like SGA.

SGA drops like he got shot by a bullet or something on some very minimal contact it makes it very hard for me to root for him as a player when he gets away with all the flopping and he's been able to get away with it for so long without a lot of people drawing attention to it because OKC was a bad team for so many years that there wasn't that as much scrutiny on his foul baiting.

[OxAndFox]

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Where’s the foul?

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Shot out of a cannon

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Trips over own feet

Read on Twitter

?s=46

Just flat out flops

These were just cringey AF. Like are you serious?
Add that to the Chet one where he dove to the ground on a drive and a foul was called. Like WTF is happening. And honestly I think the players in the NBA are just literally doing what Harden did all those years ago. Exploiting a loophole in the rules. SGA, like the bearded buddha before him, is just "better" at it than everyone else.
I've seen it in almost every series so far where players are just dropping their knees to the ground and the ref just bails the offensive player out because, how did he get down there? There must have been a foul right?

SGA and Giannis get the most favorable whistles from the refs but Giannis at least doesn't normally flop like SGA.

SGA drops like he got shot by a bullet or something on some very minimal contact it makes it very hard for me to root for him as a player when he gets away with all the flopping and he's been able to get away with it for so long without a lot of people drawing attention to it because OKC was a bad team for so many years that there wasn't that as much scrutiny on his foul baiting.

TBH I went back and watch the game (as I did turn it off in the 1st half because of it) and I think the refs somewhat shifted in the 2nd half and didn't put up with it.
And you're completely right. It just makes it hard to root for him. I think he seems like one of the nicest players, like genuinely nice, NBA players in the league right now. He has an amazing game, great footwork, is a mid range assassin etc, and like Harden before him, he will just say he is there to do whatever he can to make is team win, or if there is a way to exploit the rules then why not and some others are doing it too?
Like what happened to Ant getting such a nice whistle last year? I didn't watch the TWolves all the time this year, but his whistle seems to have gone from a 95 rating down to an 80.

[OxAndFox]

His playstyle is Harden-ic and Embiiid-ish; of course it’s frowned upon and even hated.

The good news (for the entire NBA fandom) so far is that both those guys are career losers. Those same playstyles are what has stopped them from going deep into the playoffs and win the title.

An SGA championship will validate that playstyle and of course, the NBA fans does not want that because validation means replication in this copycat league.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Problem is neither of those other guys had this type of quality surrounding them.

On a sidenote, how much do you think the Thunder guys are ribbing him after games? Like Dort realising he would be fouled out in 3 minutes if the rulebook was the same.

[Chanel Bomber]

Slender wing players have more often than not gotten a favorable whistle, whether it comes from a conscious or subconscious bias.

It seems like SGA has understood that the refs will give him the benefit of the doubt if he falls to the floor, or in any 50/50 (even 60/40) situation. And he's milking it to the extreme.

I personally think it's unwatchable. I don't care that he's a great player with a fantastic skill set - the flopping and foul baiting makes for an unwatchable experience.

Brunson - and other players - hunts fouls too but at least he seeks (and gets) contact most of the time. Some of these SGA plays are literal dives.

[Sign5]

I'm super indifferent to him and okc because honestly I haven't watched them a ton over the past 3 years. Until recently this post season and quite frankly he isn't fun to watch to say the least.

It's 100% prime harden level annoying and I see all the freethrow merchant claims being justifed. Its an advanced version of Butler's merchant technique as he does more head snaps and does that slow sudden stop move with his arms out getting the defender's momentum to move in and leans n and draws the foul. Brunson has this same ability but he's more entertaining overall (especially in the clutch).

With Ant cold and seeing him draw like 4 FTs in 3 minutes I just had to switch the channel. It just isn't an entertaining product to watch.

[TheGOATRises007]

You know it's bad when even the commentators were trying their best to hide it.