Im sorry, I thought this was Surly. I thought “laughable” was a pretty mild ad hominem attack.
Anyway, I guess the general sense I got from the posts was that OKC doesn’t deserve this, aren’t a great team and somehow won 68 games and the finals by gaming the system.
The bolded above sounds like sour grapes. And you can put it on loop from opposing fans complaining about every dominant defensive team in college and pros, basically ever. I caught myself doing it re: UH basketball this year. But it makes it seem as if the other 29 teams care too much about the integrity of the game to stoop to such tactics If they had the defensive talent to play like OKC, all 29 other teams would. They are good enough to hold contact before the guy gets by them so the foul isn’t obvious. This is something that is taught the same way DBs are taught to subtly make contact with receivers in a way that avoids a PI call. They are hardly the first team to use their athletic ability to their advantage. Defenders may try to do it to SGA but he’s already by them so the contact is clearer to the refs. And sure, the MVP, as has historically been the case, gets some whistle benefit.
This team was really good. SGA is a legit top 5 player in one of the most talented eras the NBA has seen since the early 90s. Just weird to see them shit on is all. They deserved this. I am hardly an OKC fan at all (Rockets), and frankly found myself rooting for Minnesota against them, but to my chagrin, the Wolves never had a chance. And I guess I’ve also never found OKC boring.