There are few things I dislike more in the world of sports social media than the various “laughing crying emoji-laughing crying emoji #ThisLeague” posts that pop up for everything, no matter how mundane.
Trying to convince me that Klay Thompson enjoying walks on the beach is somehow “OMG KLAY”-level content isn’t my thing. However, when the NBA provides legitimately weird moments of sports content, it’s always a lot of fun. We just need to raise our collective standards for what qualifies.
Tonight, the Milwaukee Bucks offered one of those moments that absolutely qualifies in their eventual loss to the Wizards. (Unrelated: the Wizards are 7-3 and beating the Bucks, which is noteworthy on its own.)
Bobby Portis jogged onto the floor after a timeout, which isn’t that unusual. But what was unusual: there were already five players on the court, and no one realized until the ball was inbounded.
A few things to note: George Hill’s three was wiped away in the aftermath, unlike the infamous 2008 play that saw the Blazers score with six on the court against the Celtics. It’s also fantastic that after the ruling was announced, Giannis is incensed, yelling at officials that he never stepped onto the floor.
That’s true, but what he apparently didn’t notice was that even without Giannis, the Bucks had six players out there. That means we were very close to getting Milwaukee playing with seven players.
That officials didn’t notice right away, and indeed until Milwaukee put a shot up despite the Wizards players and bench screaming that there were six guys out there to the point it was audible on the broadcast, is a sign of just how easy it can be for things so out of the ordinary to slip by at first. Scott Foster (of course Scott Foster) and crew don’t have to regularly police the number of players on the court. Unlike NFL refs who regularly count the number of men on the field, in the NBA, substitutions are handled in a way that almost always ensures this can’t happen, right up until it does.
Fortunately they caught it at some point and correctly applied the rule.
#ThisLeague, indeed.
