The Thunder’s Whistle Is Getting Ridiculous

I just watched Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. This very well could be the swing game in who wins the NBA championship this year, as a lot of people do think whoever wins this series will end up beating the New York Knicks in the Finals.

I won’t go as far as that yet, because the Knicks have been playing excellent basketball, but that’s besides the point. This is just a huge game in terms of who’s going to have a chance to win the championship.

And the reffing I saw on display tonight in this game was absolutely atrocious, and I think Adam Silver and the NBA should be ashamed of themselves for what I saw.

The whistle the Oklahoma City Thunder are getting is absolutely ridiculous at this point.

And I’m not someone who tries to complain about officiating. I’ve actually tried to support this OKC team because I think they’ve built it the right way. But I don’t know what they did or how they did it, but the whistle they are getting compared to other teams is starting to become impossible to ignore.

This was the first time it legitimately pissed me off watching this game.

There was one sequence where I saw Jared McCain hit Dylan Harper in the throat, Harper tries to play through it, and then he’s called for the foul. Ridiculous.

There was another sequence where Luke Kornet tapped the ball off the rim, it was going into the cylinder, and then it gets blocked by Jaylin Williams. No goaltending call. It was an obvious goaltend in real time.

Then OKC gets fouled on the other end and shoots free throws. That’s a massive swing, especially when San Antonio is starting to come back from being down 20 points and about to make it a single-digit game. Instead, the deficit balloons again and kills all momentum.

Then there was another egregious one.

Victor Wembanyama drives to the hoop, loses control of the ball. It clearly goes off Chet Holmgren’s foot, but the refs rule it off San Antonio. I can understand that in real time, it’s a fast game.

But Spurs coach Mitch Johnson signals he wants to challenge the play while a referee is literally running by him. The ball gets inbounded anyway. Nothing gets acknowledged.

Everyone in the arena can see he tried to challenge it. He’s yelling at the ref saying he tried to challenge the call and they wanted to retain possession.

And then, while he’s still complaining about the fact that the challenge wasn’t acknowledged, they hit him with a technical foul. For what exactly? Because he’s upset they didn’t even recognize the challenge in the first place?

That’s ridiculous.

The whistle the Thunder have gotten in these playoffs has been unbelievable and the flopping with this team specifically is worse than any team I’ve ever seen.

And like I said, I don’t usually go here. I really don’t. But this was the first time I think it’s really starting to piss me off, because this was a swing game in a huge series.

I don’t think people would be nearly as frustrated if it was just called both ways. But it doesn’t feel like that right now.

They’re the best team in the league. They don’t need an even greater advantage with whistles.

The NBA, Adam Silver, you’ve gotta figure this out, because this was a complete embarrassment tonight.