The game of basketball isn’t always about who’s the best athlete or who’s the most skilled. It’s about who can get the win on any given night. And sometimes, you need to employ unsportsmanlike methods to achieve victory. Draymond Green knows all too well about it and it seems his teammate, Jonathan Kuminga has picked up on this. Albeit, to the evident displeasure of Jimmy Butler.

If you’ve got no idea what we’re talking about, then obviously you didn’t tune in for the Warriors-Bucks game. But that’s alright, allow us to explain. During the matchup, JK was called for a flagrant 1 foul on Gary Trent Jr. But once you see the replay, you realize that it could’ve been much worse for Kuminga.

He wrapped his arm around Trent Jr.’s neck and shed him off to the side. His actions could have led to the official calling a flagrant 2 foul on Kuminga. That would have led to an immediate ejection, leaving the Dubs short-handed in the meantime. With Steph Curry also sitting out, the Dubs didn’t want to lose yet another cog in their machine. And that must have been why Jimmy Butler was so frustrated. It was blatantly obvious as the veteran forward raised his arms in pure annoyance before putting his hands on his head.

Clearly, Butler didn’t appreciate his new teammate getting overzealous in his attempts to be physical against the Bucks. After all, this incident could’ve ended badly for Kuminga.

The commentators opined that Jonathan hadn’t done enough to earn a flagrant 2. Something the referee agreed with, sparing JK and his team a lot of grief. Even so, this wasn’t a good visual for the fans to see after Kuminga was gone for so long.

One bad call can flip a game on its head or decide it. And tonight, Jonathan Kuminga was on the right side of such a call. No, we aren’t just talking about this foul by him on Gary Trent Jr. We’re actually referring to the technical that gave the Warriors an extra free throw.

Technical foul call involving Jonathan Kuminga highlights the spotty officiating in Warriors-Bucks game

As we said before, Jonathan Kuminga also benefitted from the officiating tonight. What happened? Well, the play in question involved Kuminga and Taurean Prince of the Milwaukee Bucks. The Congolese forward saw an opening and made his way towards the rim.

But his attempt was thwarted by Prince, who appeared to pull him. Veteran official, Mark Lindsay, immediately called for a foul against the Bucks star. This didn’t sit well with Prince, whose vociferous protest led to him receiving a technical. Was this a legitimate call? Probably.

However, that does nothing to change the fact that the trigger-happy attitude of the referees does affect the game more than it should at times. This discussion is more relevant in the 2024/25 season than it ever has been. And as the commentary team pointed out tonight, it isn’t just the inexperienced refs doing it.

“Mark Lindsay’s been doing this for 18 years… It’s young officials that want to blow the whistle all the time, and all the contact makes the game terrible, right?” they questioned sarcastically.

Moreover, fans are starting to despise teams like the Oklahoma City Thunder abusing this loophole they seem to have found in the system. In most of their away games, you can hear the chants of “Freethrow merchant” grow louder whenever Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on the court. But can you blame him? He’s just trying to do right by his team and score the most points possible. Even if that means playing up the contact to draw a foul.

It’s becoming a part of the game, much like it is in soccer. And players flopping around the court is the last thing we want to watch as NBA fans. But who knows? Maybe the league will get its version of VAR (Video Assistant Referee, soccer’s video review system for key calls) to combat this problem. Let us know what you think!