It's very rare, but last night, in a simple preseason match, Giannis Antetokounmpo accumulated a technical foul and a Flagrant I! It was in the difficult two-part victory against the Bulls, and it all started with a collision with Josh Giddey.
At the start, the Bucks power forward “posts” the Australian leader, and when he goes up to the circle, he is hooked by Giddey, but also Onuralp Bitim. In frustration, Giannis Antetokounmpo pushes Josh Giddey away. The tone rises, and the referees whistle a technique to the Bucks star.
Double standards?
Twenty minutes later, a few moments before half-time, do it again. This time we find Giannis in defense and on a drive from Matas Buzelis, he throws him to the ground! Perhaps it was, again, frustration, since a few moments earlier, this same Buzelis had double-handed dunk on Giannis. Regardless, the referees reviewed this stroller on video, and they thought it deserved a Flagrant I.
Author of 24 points, 10 rebounds and 4 assists in 23 minutes, Giannis Antetokounmpo refused to respond to journalists, and it is Doc Rivers who played his lawyer at a press conference. “I don't know about Flagrant, it's like that… And Giannis has to protect himself. I didn't like the techniques, and the foul on him wasn't a classic foul. This is what I told the referees: if you whistle a Flagrant on Giannis, why not have done it on the foul in the first quarter? It wasn't basketball at all. But that's how it is. »
