Chris Paul Snitches on Untucked Jersey to Help Thunder Win
Written by SOURCE on December 7, 2019
The Thunder were down by two against the Timberwolves with just 1.1 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. Staring down a loss that would put his team further below .500, Chris Paul did what any great point guard-slash-State Farm promoter would do: snitch.
When Karl-Anthony Towns was about to shoot a potentially game-clinching free throw, Paul pointed out to the officials that Jordan Bell’s jersey was not tucked. “That’s a delay of game,” he yelped. He was right. Section II of the NBA rulebook’s technical foul chapter states that a “delay-of-game shall be called…[on a] player entering the game when beckoned by an official with his shirt untucked.”
Referee Scott Foster blew the whistle on him and, since it was Minnesota’s second delay-of-game that night, called a technical. Oklahoma City’s Danilo Gallinari made the resulting free throw to cut the lead to one point. After Towns made his, Steven Adams tossed a full-court pass to Dennis Schroder, who made a layup to force overtime. Minnesota fell apart as the Thunder ended up walking home with a 139-127 win.
This game is about buckets, so, while some defended the call-out as an example of his high basketball IQ, there was no way Paul wasn’t going to get roasted for this one.
Paul probably won’t care about the slander, though. When asked about his move after the game, he responded by saying a fact: “If you check in without your jersey tucked it’s a delay of game. Call it what you want to.”
Although his Randall impersonation is the clear headline grabber, Paul was balling out against Minnesota. He finished the night 11-of-20 with 30 points, his season-high.
