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00:00Here's what I see when it comes to officiating and the physicality of the series.
00:04To me, there's two different things.
00:06The officials have a very, very hard job in this series
00:09because there's a foul seemingly by every player on every play.
00:14And the physicality, flat out, is what it is.
00:18You have to deal with that.
00:20These are adults. This is professional sports.
00:23You can't be over here being like, stop catching me.
00:26You got to deal with it.
00:27And the Warriors are dishing it as much as they're taking it.
00:30There's no doubt.
00:31We have Draymond Green on the team here in the Bay Area.
00:35So there's no complaining about physicality and touching.
00:39But I find there to be one set-aside
00:44that is a little bit different than the general physicality of the series.
00:50And it comes from this.
00:51And did you hear Stan Van Gundy say this on TNT last night during the broadcast?
00:59He's watching the game.
01:02And I think it was when Steph hit that three where Van Vliet had his arm around him.
01:09And Steph did that motion where he looked at the refs.
01:13And he's like, he's pulling my hip.
01:15Listen to Stan Van.
01:16Boy, I really wish we could have guarded like this when I had to coach against Steph Curry.
01:22He just put his left arm around his hip on that play and took him down.
01:27He could have done this.
01:28It would have been a lot easier.
01:29Okay.
01:30He's exactly right.
01:32And Brian Anderson at one point, the play-by-play man on TNT,
01:36Steph Curry put up a three and made it.
01:38And Anderson goes three and he's fouled.
01:42No, he wasn't.
01:43There was no foul.
01:43And Anderson goes, my bad.
01:46I said it wrong.
01:47And Stan Van goes, no, you didn't.
01:48You said it exactly right.
01:49The refs just didn't call it.
01:52It's very clear to me that the Houston Rockets, it's not just a general physicality.
01:57There's a very specific thing that they've been told to do to Steph Curry.
02:02And it's arm bars.
02:03You watch Dylan Brooks do this.
02:05This is what you watch it, youth ref.
02:07Yep.
02:07This is what little kids do when they try to defend.
02:10They don't understand about moving their feet.
02:12And so you stick your arms out and you stick them out in this motion where you're making
02:16a V in front of you and because you're trying to stop the person who's in front of you from
02:21being able to go anywhere.
02:22Now, if you're more sophisticated at it, like Dylan Brooks is, you put your arms out in your
02:27arm bar and then you keep pulling them back.
02:29You keep pulling them back, back, back and making it look like, no, I see.
02:32I'm not touching him.
02:33I'm not touching him.
02:34They're grabbing him around the waist.
02:36Every single play.
02:41He is being tackled.
02:43He is being fouled every single time.
02:47And that is, to me, a very targeted strategic plan of the Rockets.
02:53And it is not legal.
02:54And so from that standpoint, if I'm the refs, if I'm Adam Silver, if I'm watching these games
03:02and thinking about big level basketball and one of the faces of my league, I am saying,
03:08hey, this is something that we need to address.
03:12We're not allowing the Rockets to strategically put arms around his waist on every possession.
03:20And that's all.
03:22Yeah.
03:23Okay.
03:23I mean, that's great.
03:25And I'm not going to refute that notion.
03:28And I don't know if you have the sound already, but we can do a dibs deep dive on what I've
03:34unearthed about like players to Steph and the free throws that they get that he doesn't
03:40get.
03:41So before we do the deep dive, I'll just say this.
03:44Steph played for 16 years and this has been a problem for 16 years.
03:48So if it's a real problem, and I'll share some numbers with you that indicates it is
03:55an actual thing, what are you going to do about it, lawyers?
03:58Because what you've done, it doesn't work.
04:01It's not their problem to deal with.
04:03I don't think that they can.
04:05I don't know what, you know what I mean?
04:06But it is their problem to deal with because...
04:08It's not.
04:09It's a problem.
04:10The league is clearly, they've shown you over 16 years that they are not going to address
04:15it.
04:15I'd argue that this is another level.
04:17I guess that's what I'm saying.
04:19You're not wrong.
04:20This is the way Steph Curry gets defended and we've had this conversation and our listeners
04:25have tapped into it and all of that.
04:28This to me, and maybe I'll be open to the idea that maybe it's just the emotion of the
04:33series and the playoffs.
04:34But to my eye, this has moved to a new area code.
04:39In terms of beating up of Steph Curry literally at the midsection.
04:45It's not a general thing.
04:47It's not just like, let's trip him and let's hit him in the head.
04:50It's strategically placed arms at the waist.
04:54Constant, illegal, and very rarely, if ever, called.
04:59Yesterday, we were talking about it being off ball.
05:01It's not just off ball.
05:02It's on ball also.
05:03Right.
05:04They tackled him multiple times when he had the ball yesterday and no call.
05:10And Stan Van Gundy, who's coached in the league, literally just said it.
05:13He said, wow, I wish we could do this to him.
05:16We couldn't do this to him when I coached against him.
05:19That's from a coach, not a broadcaster on the Warriors flagship station.
05:23Right.
05:24This is from a man who coached in the league.
05:26I get it.
05:27And again, I'm not disagreeing with what you're saying or what Stan is saying.
05:31I'm more puzzled by the idea of what can the Warriors then do about it.
05:38Because it's clear that this is happening.
05:40And you can send clips into the league office and we can have a last two-minute report.
05:45And we can sit here on the radio and talk about it ad nauseum.
05:48But it's been 16 years of Steph not getting calls in general.
05:54And so, at some point, you've got to decide to take different action.
05:59And it reminds me of an old neighbor I used to have that had a dog that barked constantly.
06:04Constantly through the day, the dog is barking and the owner was negligent.
06:09And so, at some point, you go to the owner and say, hey, could you maybe take the dog out of the backyard?
06:14Or can you do something with the dog and you do this?
06:17And the dog still does it and it's year after year.
06:19Or at some point, you've got to try a different approach to get this dog to not spend its entire day yapping and barking and basically ruining the quietude of your neighborhood.
06:30Yeah.
06:31I mean, listen.
06:32I totally get it.
06:34I'm not disagreeing with you either.
06:36This is not a new issue.
06:38I just think it is now at a different level and it is heightened because we're in the playoffs.
06:46And you don't have a whole lot of Steph Curry playoffs left.
06:49I'm not over here advocating that the league call some sort of meeting and do a special waiver for Steph.
06:55But we actually see stuff like this all the time.
06:59This isn't something new.
07:01You'll see sports leagues every year or even as you enter certain portions of the year.
07:08And they'll say things like, hey, we're cracking down on this.
07:12Points of emphasis.
07:13We're going to emphasize this over here.
07:15Baseball did it recently, a number of years ago now.
07:18But if you've watched baseball for a while, you know what used to be called the neighborhood play at second base.
07:24There was a double play and you throw the ball to the second.
07:26Whoever's catching the ball just didn't even be in the neighborhood of second base.
07:29Well, in the age of replay, they're like, we can't do that anymore.
07:33We better actually enforce your foot needs to be on the base when you catch the ball.
07:37And if it's not, dude's going to be safe.
07:39They emphasized it and you watched athletes go out there and make changes.
07:43It's time.
07:44I'm sorry.
07:45I'm sorry.
07:46Because this, not because we've suddenly just arrived at a moment where I want it or you want it.
07:51We've arrived at a moment where it's now gotten pushed up the staircase even further.
07:55This is too much.
07:56He's getting tackled.
07:57Yeah, but they don't care.
08:00You think it's been pushed up the staircase, but it really hasn't.
08:03And you look at the history of Steph Curry in the association and he's never gotten to the foul line commensurate with other players who play the way he does.
08:14And so my deep dive was looking at players who shoot threes at the rate that Steph does.
08:20And I just drew a couple of examples.
08:22In Steph's career, 52% of his shots are three-pointers.
08:27And so that's a lot.
08:29And at that, he shoots four free throws a game on the average.
08:33Another player who's very similar is James Harden.
08:36James Harden shoots 47 of his shots are three-pointers.
08:40So a little bit more driving to the basket.
08:43He shoots almost twice as many free throws a game.
08:46He shoots 8.2 free throws a game.
08:48So you've got to ask yourself why, and they've almost taken the exact number of shots, by the way, in their career, over 18,000 apiece.
08:57And so James Harden shoots almost exactly the same way that Steph does, yet he shoots four more free throws a game.
09:04You've got to ask yourself why.
09:06Is it because he is more of a complainer, more of a flopper?
09:10Is he better at embellishing and drawing contact?
09:13I think that one, yes, yes, and yes.
09:14The last one for me, he's way better at embellishing.
09:18I think it's all of it.
09:19He's also better at inviting content.
09:21He seeks it.
09:22And he actually made the league change the rule about the rip-through.
09:27Because James would, you know, you get your arm near him, and he would rip through, and he'd make it seem like he was shooting a shot.
09:33And now that's no longer a shooting foul because of James.
09:36I have an idea.
09:37Go ahead.
09:38You want to know something I think he could do?
09:39Yep.
09:40First, you're listening to 95.7 The Game, KGMZ FM and HC1 San Francisco and Odyssey Sports Station.
09:48Always live on the free Odyssey app, and now coming to you live from the Laughing Monk Studios.
09:53You ever seen, like, a real soft-spoken parent just finally stand up at the dinner table, slam their hand down, and say,
10:04Hey, enough!
10:07And all of a sudden, those kids are like, whoa, you just got my attention.
10:14Because this person, now some parents do that all the time, but this person just stepped out of character.
10:20And that really gets people's attention.
10:23I'm drawn to the idea, and I don't know that we're there yet, but maybe.
10:27We'll see where this series goes next.
10:28I don't know if Jimmy Butler's going to play, and I don't know how well the Warriors are going to play.
10:33If you come out, and you're playing well in Game 3, and you've got a flow, and you're comfortable with what's happening
10:38because you're getting a home whistle, I don't know how it's going to go.
10:42But if what I've seen, as far as very targeted, strategic style of physicality that they feel helps against Steph Curry,
10:51which is illegal, if he comes out on Saturday night, and they're doing that, and they're getting away with it,
10:58and they're winning the game, especially if Jimmy doesn't play, Steph's going to have to be next level.
11:03The ball's going to have to be in his hands even more, and he's going to have to play more minutes.
11:08So it becomes very important in this game.
11:11If I'm Steph, I'm going to look for a way to go get a tech.
11:16I'm going to lose my ass.
11:17Because it would not be like a Draymond Green tech.
11:23It would get their attention because it's Steph.
11:26We watched this in Brooklyn.
11:29It was a regular season game.
11:31The Warriors are down by 22 points before you got your butt warm.
11:36And I don't even think Steph, did he get a tech for that?
11:38He didn't even get a tech.
11:40He got a foul.
11:40But if you remember, if you're a Warrior fan and watches all the games,
11:45Steph was furious with what Brooklyn was doing to him.
11:48And the Warriors were down like 27-5 in the first quarter.
11:53And Steph simply took a simple inbounds pass.
11:56He's underneath his own hoop.
11:58And he turned around and drove his shoulder into the defense
12:02so that an offensive foul could be called so that he could turn to the ref and go,
12:08that's enough of that.
12:09That's the crap that they're pulling on me in the other end.
12:13And you better fix it.
12:15You better start doing your job.
12:17And my God, wouldn't you know it, it got their attention.
12:20Because nobody ever sees Steph do that.
12:22So all I'm saying is we may get there.
12:25You keep proposing the question like, what are you going to do about it?
12:30And I don't know how much the Warriors can do.
12:32That's the only thing I can come up with.
12:34Lose it, dude.
12:35Lose it.
12:36Punt the ball into the upper deck.
12:38Lose your mind.
12:40Because that's so not you, I think it would shake the entire arena.
12:44Maybe to get somebody's attention.
12:46It might.
12:46And I'm just looking at that clip that you're referencing.
12:50And they were down 21-5 with 5.5 to go in the first quarter.
12:54And before he even gets the inbound, he's being bumped and harassed like he always is.
13:00And you're right.
13:01He gets the inbound and he just turns and just kapow.
13:03Dude, it's a shiver.
13:05Oh, yeah.
13:05Yeah.
13:05And, you know, Steve Kerr actually got the tech because after that happens and Curry's kind of going off like, you know, how much longer you let this go on?
13:14And Steve Kerr has his back and he goes bananas and Kerr gets the tech.
13:17But I do think that we've reached that point.
13:19And if you've got a defender who is putting their arms around you or on you and you don't have the ball, you take your hand and you slap their arm away.
13:28And you slap them away and you slap them away.
13:30And maybe it gets into a little bit of a confrontation of sorts.
13:34You know, no one's going to haul off and punch the chef.
13:37No, but shove him.
13:38Stand up for yourself.
13:38Yeah, shove him.
13:39And that's what I'm saying.
13:40Shove somebody into the Rockets bench.
13:42I'm not even kidding.
13:43No, I'm not either.
13:44And I think that we're long past the need for this to happen and it's not going to affect his reputation.
13:50Nobody's going to, oh my, oh my God, kids, we have to, we have to give away your Steph Curry jersey because he pushed Dylan Brooks into Ime Udoka.
13:59We can no longer revere him.
14:01No, it's time for Steph to self-advocate.
14:05And I know he shouldn't have to.
14:07I agree with you.
14:08He should not have to, yes.
14:09Here we are in year 16 and the whistle that he gets is not even the same whistle that Trey Young gets.
14:16Trey Young gets seven and a half free throws a game and he shoots more twos.
14:22His percentage is much lower than Steph.
14:23He goes to the hoop even more.
14:25But Tyler Hero shoots about the same number of threes as Steph and he gets the same whistle as Steph and he shouldn't.
14:32Steph's a star.
14:34You're right.
14:34But 16 years in, you can't just sit and wait for the refs to, shout out Spike Lee, do the right thing.
14:41And I'm not even fully, not that I'm not, but I'm not sitting here just advocating for give Steph a different whistle because he's a star.
14:48I'm saying give him a different whistle because I see him as defended differently.
14:52I really do.
14:53I think that the league has decided because one thing Steph is, when you compare him to Tyler Hero and Trey Young, you know what he is?
15:00Way freaking better.
15:01He's way harder to stop.
15:04He's a way better player.
15:06And so I think we've reached a spot where certain defenders especially, but all of the league, they're like, this is our best chance.
15:13Our best chance is just to totally just keep wrapping his waist, tackling him, grabbing him when he's off the ball, when we're not, when no one's even looking.
15:23Let's not let him get to his spots because he's a devastating player who can ruin your year if you let him go off.
15:31Unlike almost anybody other in the league.
15:33He's that elite, obviously.
15:35So this is the approach.
15:37It's strategic.
15:38It's illegal.
15:40And if the referees are not going to watch, despite all of this attention on it, yeah, man.
15:47I mean, we had this conversation two weeks ago and I was like, no, Steph still needs to be Steph.
15:52I don't know.
15:52It's the playoffs.
15:53Maybe you're right.
15:55Maybe you're right.
15:55Maybe Steph needs to throw a mouse piece off of an official's face.
16:00Well, that's suspendable.
16:02Maybe.
16:02We don't want to get that.
16:03I'm kidding.
16:04I know you are.
16:05But I'm not.
16:05Exactly.
16:06Dude, get in someone's face and get their attention.
16:12Because he can like no one else could.
16:15Right.
16:15And if he does that and maybe he gets a tech.
16:18And if it's a game for your point, like maybe it's game three or, yeah, it's game three and you're down 97-74 early fourth quarter.
16:29And it's like, okay, if the Warriors don't make a push here, then we're going to pull the plug and we're going to go to the reserves.
16:34At that point, maybe that's where you blow your stack because the tech is not going to hurt you.
16:38And you send a message because if Steph gets upset and gets a tech, well, it's going to be global news.
16:46Completely.
16:46And then the message is sent much stronger than while we've sent in four or five clips that indicate that he's being held.
16:53And I'm not mocking Steve Kerr and the gentlemanly approach of the Warriors.
16:57It's why we love the Warriors.
16:59But at some point, when you've asked your neighbor for 11 years to take your dog inside or quiet them down, at some point, you've got to call the authorities or you've got to do something a little bit stronger to try to get things right.
17:13K-Way on YouTube, Super Chat, $5, make a holla, take a listen, take a page out of LeBron's book.
17:22The refs called game two very differently than game one for the Lakers.
17:28Yep, I'll buy that too.
17:30They did.
17:31Now, in the end, you know, game one went to the Timberwolves because they shot the hell out of the ball.
17:37And game two went to the Rockets because Jalen Green shot the hell out of the ball.
17:40So, I hope everybody doesn't hear this and think either one of us are trying to rob credit away from the game last night.
17:48The Rockets won the game.
17:50The Rockets won the game.
17:51And one of the Warriors stars got hurt.
17:54These are all facts.
17:55But what I see with Steph Curry, something has got to change.
18:00And I don't really know who's going to take the lead.
18:03And if the league won't, if I'm Steph, I would think about maybe doing it myself.
18:07And the only way to get attention at this level is to do something completely out of character.
18:14So, yeah, pump the ball in the stands.
18:16If need be.
18:17Yeah.
18:17And to K-Way's super chat point, game one, Minnesota got called for 21 fouls.
18:24The Lakers got called for 10.
18:26So, the game was officiated more tightly in game two.
18:30But game one was a very Laker-friendly whistle.
18:34They were only called for 10 fouls.
18:36Game two, 46 fouls.
18:38It was almost an even split.
18:39Lakers were actually called for two more than Minnesota.
18:41But I do think that when you get into game three, the Warriors are going to want it called much more like that second Laker-Minnesota game where you're going to want a lot of fouls called in that game.
18:53We're going to go to the phones, but I just want to let anybody know.
18:56Anybody who thinks the Warrior-Rockets series is the only physical one, the Knicks and Pistons have already had to be separated.
19:04Tobias Harris and Carl Anthony Towns.
19:07The score is 3-1.
19:09Late second quarter?
19:10Less than two minutes into the game.
19:12Less than two minutes into the game, and twice already, players have had to be separated.
19:17So, this is them playoffs.
19:19Anybody throw a towel in someone's face yet?
19:21Not yet.
19:21All right.
19:22Get me posted.
19:23Put it on your bingo card.
19:24We've got a long way to go.
19:25Buckle up for a long night.