Final week, the Spurs vanquished the Los Angeles Lakers within the NBA Emirates Cup Quarterfinals. En path to the victory, the Boys from Tinseltown made a push. At one level, LeBron James does what he has at all times performed finest —taking on and making highlights.
On this subsequent video, LeBron posterized Luke Kornet.
By means of my Spurs glasses, I took concern with a few issues:
(1) within the replay you’ll be able to see LeBron throw his left arm into the neck of Kornet, and
(2) LeBron James is clearly taunting Kornet after the play.
On the primary grievance, Kornet goes straight up, so there was no defensive foul, though the Spurs large man is within the restricted space. However the arm to the neck is evident from not less than two angles.
Sean Elliott usually refers back to the privilege afforded to superstars as “NBA royalty.” He usually surmises that the refs will give a star a name that ought to have been a no name or fail to evaluate a foul if the participant is likely one of the elite. Neither ought to be true, but it surely usually does really feel true within the thick of a sport.
The second made me ask — was LeBron James taunting Luke Kornet. If that’s the case, how precisely is that decided? Maybe I must take off my Silver & Black specs.
I Googled “what defines taunting within the NBA?” and the primary hyperlink to pop up was this one:
That is discovered immediately from the NBA. Whereas I notice the officiating crew doesn’t have this working on a loop on the scorer’s desk for comparability, it ought to be one thing that every crew chief, referee, and umpire has been made aware of.
The instance given exhibits Jarrett Culver taunting Robin Lopez. By all accounts, Culver’s degree of depth is decrease than LeBron’s. Nonetheless, Culver turns a second time to Lopez, the place James doesn’t proceed as soon as eye contact with Kornet has been damaged.
Does the taunting contain the verbalization of phrases? Culver could be seen talking the place LeBron sounds his barbaric yawp with no audible phrases.
There are undoubtedly variations between the 2 conditions, however what will not be clear is what defines the time period.
So the query is — did LeBron James taunt Luke Kornet? And in that case, was he proper to get away with it?
Ought to elite participant be entitled to get extra calls to go their method? Have they earned it by exhibiting greatness?
Or ought to the enjoying discipline be leveled for all? Maybe it’s and it simply doesn’t really feel that method when the missed name includes a celebrity.
What do you assume, Pounders?
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