Stephen Curry vs Chris Paul: The Case Of The Extended Forearm (Photo: D. Ross Cameron/Bay Area News Group)
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated on 4/29/2014 with quotes from the San Francisco Chronicle.]
FOUR SEASONS HOTEL, SAN FRANCISCO, CA — #DubNation is still up in arms (no pun intended) about the non-call at the end of Thursday’s 98-96 loss by the Golden State Warriors to the Los Angeles Clippers in which Chris Paul appeared to have fouled Stephen Curry on Curry’s right hip with Paul’s left forearm:
Ironically, 22 seconds prior to that and with officially 26.4 ticks remaining in the game, the replay on the #Roaracle jumbotron revealed an extended forearm by Blake Griffin on a drive against Draymond Green from the top of the screen. Both players fell in the collision, prompting referee Ed Malloy to blow the whistle.
Unfortunately for Warriors fans, the call was a block and not an offensive charge. Griffin missed one of the two free throws, then Curry missed a three-pointer with 2.3 seconds remaining. DeAndre Jordan rebounded Curry’s miss and that was all she wrote.
On TNT, the talking heads were in agreement. Per Bruce Jenkins of the San Francisco Chronicle:
Was it a foul? “Absolutely,” said former NBA star Kenny Smith on TNT’s postgame show. “That’s a foul in every state.” Added Charles Barkley: “The refs just blew that one, plain and simple. Who can shoot the ball when a guy’s pushing him in the hip?”
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The fact that Curry shot an air ball, falling way short, makes it automatic that Paul fouled him. Curry could take a thousand 28-foot shots without being touched, even under duress, and at least draw iron every time.
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What made the difference was Paul’s very subtle annoyance: left arm to the body, maybe a bit of arm-to-arm contact, but nothing severe. Can’t call it. Don’t let free throws decide something this important.
At the post-game presser, Warriors head coach Mark Jackson thought there should have been a foul called on Paul for not allowing Curry to land.
“He’s supposed to be able to land,” Jackson said, “Clearly he wasn’t able to.”
Clippers head coach Doc Rivers thought the opposite.
“I think it was a great play (by Paul),” Rivers said at the post-game press conference, “I think Steph just jumped up into him to try to draw the foul. I don’t think the ref’s going to bail anybody out on that play.”
Bailing somebody out is exactly what Warriors fans would point to for the call between Green and Griffin.
Rivers addressed this at Clippers media availability on Friday, the morning after.
“Oh, that was a foul,” Rivers explained, “It’s funny. I watched the feed last night. I was watching Golden State’s feed. Even their home announcer said that was a foul. What you guys watched was the push-off. The foul had happened before that. (Green) reached in and tried to get the ball. I didn’t think that was a hard call.”
Watching the game live, one could argue that both incidents (Green vs Griffin and Curry vs Paul), especially in the waning moments of a close game and under the “let them play” mantra,
should have both been called a foul or both not been called a foul.
Refereeing often involves a human element. A decision at any point in time is a culmination of textbook training, on-the-job training, knowledge, experience, and events that have unfolded heretofore, the latter of which is heavily influenced by what has just occurred in the game at hand.
Griffin had been the aggressor all night long. In the third quarter, he’d been virtually unstoppable. So, in a way, you could argue that Griffin had been rewarded for making another aggressive move and Green got in the way, which he did per the replay. However, you could speculate that had Griffin not been aggressive during the game, the split-second decision by the ref might have gone against Griffin, even with a non-call.
“It’s the most difficult game in sports to officiate,” Rivers added at the Clippers availability, “It’s a human game. It’s going to be human error, just like last play of the game in L.A. (Game 1), where the league came back and said that was a foul (Green on Paul). My first thought was, we made more mistakes than them during the game. We put them in that position to have a chance to do something.”
That dynamic was reversed in Game 3.
As far as Paul’s forearm on Curry, Rivers said, “I said it then, I didn’t think it was a foul then and I don’t think it’s a foul after watching it.
“You’re allowed to do this,” Rivers explained as he stuck his forearm out.
A look at the NBA rulebook reveals more irony.
The NBA defines a personal foul as follows:
B. Personal Foul
.
Section I–Types
a. A player shall not hold, push, charge into, impede the progress of an opponent by extending a hand, forearm, leg or knee or by bending the body into a position that is not normal. Contact that results in the re-routing of an opponent is a foul which must be called immediately.
b. Contact initiated by the defensive player guarding a player with the ball is not legal. This contact includes, but is not limited to, forearm, hands, or body check.
EXCEPTIONS:
(1) A defender may apply contact with a forearm to an offensive player with the ball who has his back to the basket below the free throw line extend-ed outside the Lower Defensive Box.
(2) A defender may apply contact with a forearm and/or one hand with a bent elbow to an offensive player in a post-up position with the ball in the Lower Defensive Box.
(3) A defender may apply contact with a forearm to an offensive player with the ball at any time in the Lower Defensive Box. The forearm in the above exceptions is solely for the purpose of main-taining a defensive position…
There seems a case to be made for Paul “impeding the progress of an opponent by extending a forearm”.
The NBA’s “Misunderstood Rules” page seems to make clear that Paul’s forearm is not allowed.
Forearm Fouls:
A defender may not be in contact with an extended forearm to an offensive player with the ball at any time above the free throw line extended. Below the free throw line extended and outside the lower defensive box, a defender may use an extended forearm to the back/side of an opponent with the ball to maintain his legally obtained position. Inside the lower defensive box, a defender may use an extended forearm at anytime to maintain his position against a payer with the ball. At no time may the forearm be used to dislodge, reroute or impede the offensive player.
One problem is, the shot before that, Curry seemed to embellish a potential foul.
If the referee didn’t see the forearm, he can’t make the call because Curry’s motion of appearing to have been fouled might suggest embellishment.
It can’t be argued that making that call at that split-second moment in time is very, very difficult to do, without the aid of replay.
“I said it all to you guys without watching it,” Rivers said, “Steph’s good at selling it. He made it look good, but it wasn’t a foul.”
Of course, at the same time, it’d be Rivers’s job to say that.
With the benefit of replay, the NBA never came out with an apology or statement, so the assumption would have to be that Paul’s forearm was legal.
Either way, it’s a testament to Paul’s cleverness in utilizing a tactic that NBA referees don’t see too much and away from the most obvious point of focus at the extended arms and wrists.
“I’m sure they were looking at my arm, see if I got hit,” Curry said in the Warriors locker room after the game, “but a lot more going on than that.”
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