ESPN’s Jay Williams: Thunder’s foul-baiting strategy makes it impossible to root for them
· Yahoo Sports
The Oklahoma City Thunder are the defending NBA champions and are currently locked in a battle to return to the Finals for a second straight season. They have developed a reputation for being the best team in the league and a force to be reckoned with.
They have also developed a reputation for being at the forefront of “foul-baiting,” a strategy in which a team initiates contact or flops in order to draw foul calls. Two-time NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is often called out for this practice and is currently leading the postseason with 9.8 free-throw attempts per game.
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ESPN NBA analyst Jay Williams agrees with the sentiment that the Thunder employ this strategy so thoroughly that he can’t root for them to succeed.
Jay Williams says he can’t root for the Thunder because of all the foul baiting:
“As a fan of the game, I just want to see the game respected. There are times where I watch OKC play, I don’t feel like they respect the process of the game. It’s too much foul baiting. When you… pic.twitter.com/0dMJx6aKrg
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“When you watch OKC play, every single call, every single time they shoot, SGA is landing in somebody’s region, he’s falling down,” Williams said on Friday’s Get Up. “And you’re just like, ‘how do I root for that? I see why I can root for [Victor Wembanyama]. I can’t root for that.’
“As a fan of the game, I just want to see the game respected. And there are times when I watch OKC play, I don’t feel like they respect the process of the game.”
Fellow ESPN NBA analyst Brian Windhorst offered a rebuttal, arguing that the Thunder are simply doing what they need to do within the context of the rules.
“But as a competitor, you understand that the Thunder are doing what works for them and what wins,” Windhorst said.
“Sure, sure,” replied Williams. “But when you fall down, 95% of every shot that you take in the fourth quarter at some point. And I’m glad that the refs are not calling it. I get psychologically exhausted. It makes me check out of the game.”
The Thunder’s WCF battle against the San Antonio Spurs has turned into an existential crisis for NBA fans like Williams. However, so long as it’s within the rules, it will be hard to deny that OKC isn’t doing what it thinks it needs to do to win another championship.
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