During one of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s many trips to the free-throw line following a foul, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney started talking to the referees.
In the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 136-125 loss to the Golden State Warriors, Green and Looney animatedly questioned why Stephen Curry wasn’t getting to the free-throw line as frequently as Gilgeous-Alexander.
“He’s got two MVPs and four championships,” Green exclaimed. “Because he don’t complain, he don’t get calls? If you do complain, you get a tech so make up y’all’s mind.”
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Draymond and Loon question the ref on why Steph doesn't get the same foul calls as SGA pic.twitter.com/CyIgqT1glw
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 5, 2023
For full transparency: I was only able to confidently hear that from Green. Both Warriors players talked to the referees for much longer than that but due to the inaudibility of the clip due to noise in the arena, it’s hard to fully make out what else they said.
Gilgeous-Alexander finished the loss with 32 points on 11-of-17 shooting, and he went 8-of-9 from the free-throw line. He will lead the league in drives for a third consecutive season as he averages a tick below 24 (23.9) a game — second-place Ja Morant averages 20.4 per game.
This has resulted in high free-throw numbers for Gilgeous-Alexander, who’s third in the league in free-throw attempts (10.9).
Meanwhile, Curry averages 9.4 drives per game as 56.3% of his total field goal attempts are from 3. His surprisingly low 4.3 career free-throw attempts are likely a byproduct of this.
Oddily enough, this wasn’t even the biggest moment that involved Tuesday’s officiating crew.
