Last week, the Spurs vanquished the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Emirates Cup Quarterfinals. En route to the victory, the Boys from Tinseltown made a push. At one point, LeBron James does what he has
always done best —taking over and making highlights.
In this next video, LeBron posterized Luke Kornet.
Through my Spurs glasses, I took issue with a couple of things:
(1) in the replay you can see LeBron throw his left arm into the neck of Kornet, and
(2) LeBron James is clearly taunting Kornet after the play.
On the first complaint, Kornet goes straight up, so there was no defensive foul, although the Spurs big man is in the restricted area. But the arm to the neck is clear from at least two angles.
Sean Elliott often refers to the privilege afforded to superstars as “NBA royalty.” He often surmises that the refs will give a star a call that should have been a no call or fail to assess a foul if the player is one of the elite. Neither should be true, but it often does feel true in the thick of a game.
The second made me ask — was LeBron James taunting Luke Kornet. If so, how exactly is that determined? Perhaps I need to take off my Silver & Black specs.
I Googled “what defines taunting in the NBA?” and the first link to pop up was this one:
This is found directly from the NBA. While I realize the officiating crew doesn’t have this running on a loop at the scorer’s table for comparison, it should be something that each crew chief, referee, and umpire has been made familiar with.
The example given shows Jarrett Culver taunting Robin Lopez. By all accounts, Culver’s level of intensity is lower than LeBron’s. However, Culver turns a second time to Lopez, where James does not continue once eye contact with Kornet has been broken.
Does the taunting involve the verbalization of words? Culver can be seen speaking where LeBron sounds his barbaric yawp with no audible words.
There are definitely differences between the two situations, but what is not clear is what defines the term.
- A technical foul shall be assessed for unsportsmanlike tactics such as:
- Disrespectfully addressing an official
- Physically contacting an official
- Overt actions indicating resentment to a call or no-call
- Use of profanity
- A coach entering onto the court without permission of an official
- A deliberately-thrown elbow or any unnatural physical act towards an opponent with no contact involved
- Taunting
So the question is — did LeBron James taunt Luke Kornet? And if so, was he right to get away with it?
Should elite player be entitled to get more calls to go their way? Have they earned it by exhibiting greatness?
Or should the playing field be leveled for all? Perhaps it is and it just doesn’t feel that way when the missed call involves a superstar.
What do you think, Pounders?
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