Saturday’s Goodman vs. Drew League game pretty much came down to the Thunder. It was Kevin Durant against James Harden with Durant’s Goodman League trailing by a point as the final seconds ticked off.
Durant attacked his bearded Thunder buddy with one of his favorite moves — light jog up the court, subtle hesitation dribble with a quick change of pace going hard with his strong hand. KD uses it a lot and it’s really effective. Problem against Harden was though, he’s seen it a ton. And he was entirely ready for it.
Harden slid right over on Durant and attempted to take a charge. KD said block. Harden said charge. But the important third party was Marques Johnson, the referee on that side. He said block and so KD went to the line and sunk two free throw to ice it for the Goodman.
I watched the video like 10 times and it’s really close. On first look, I said no doubt it was a charge. Then on second and third, it looks like Harden isn’t there quite yet and sort of flops to try and sell it. It was a 50-50 call and the ref had to make a call. He sided with Durant, the bigger star playing in his hometown and Harden was left to just stomp around.
[...] Royce Young seems to have a difficult time, but ultimately concludes, regarding Saturday’s controversial block call in favor of Kevin Durant and Team Goodman at Capital Punishment: “On first look, I said no doubt it was a charge. Then on second and third, it looks like Harden isn’t there quite yet and sort of flops to try and sell it.” [Daily Thunder] [...]