The NBA isn’t letting anybody go away with weird foul calls, making a statement in the first weeks of competition. The league vowed to stop the calls on “abnormal and non-basketball moves” to make games fairer and the show more entertaining.
We’ve seen how players like James Harden and Trae Young are struggling with this, but they’re not the only ones seeing the changes around the league. On Wednesday night, when his Minnesota Timberwolves faced the Milwaukee Bucks, Patrick Beverley tried to get a foul off Thanasis Antetokounmpo, but the refs quickly shut that down.
The point guard took the ball and drove to the offensive side; he noticed Thanasis was returning to defense and got in his way, crashing with the Greek player. In what would be called a foul in prior years, the refs told otherwise and called the offensive foul on Beverley.
He couldn’t help but laugh and give them a thumbs up after the call. It seemed like he tried to confirm whether that was real or not, but the officials clarified he won’t get those calls anymore.
NBA fans reacted to this, trying to explain what Bev thought after that moment.
“Okay good. Just making sure it’s real”
His reaction was a “shit, I forgot about that, nice job refs” type reaction.
Lol I think that’s exactly what happened.
he’s like, “sorry, force of habit”
Dude was beta testing the rules out on the court
I like to think that the rule changes only happened because pat bev did a stupid dance at Cp3 in the playoffs
Good guy Beverly, checking the pulse for the league and keeping refs honest.
Pat is that tester making sure the new features are working lol
man, imagine an alternative universe where this shit is a legit foul other way around.
that would be so fucking stupid.
Wolves announcers absolutely said it was the right call too lol. No ill will
Beverley knew, Wolves broadcasters knew, everyone is a good sport here
The NBA is trying to shake things up this season and this is great news for defenders. A lot of players took advantage of the old rules and went to the free-throw line plenty of times during games. Now things are different and they need to work to get that foul.
In the end, Beverley and his T-Wolves had the last laugh, beating the defending champions as visitors, 113-108. At some point, the Bucks trailed by 16, so you know this game was a complex one for them.
