MILWAUKEE —What would Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer be thankful for? Well, as far as basketball goes, a little more protection for his star player — and, frankly, any player who may be the recipient of a hard foul.
Giannis Antetokounmpo was on the receiving end of a Flagrant 1 from Joel Embiid in the team’s last game on Nov. 18, and on Monday night against the Portland Trail Blazers he was once again the victim of some hard contact.
Budenholzer, who rarely strays outside the lines, made his feelings clear. “You guys have pool reporters, you can ask again,” he said. “The shot the other night in Philly was a significant shot, they don’t upgrade that. I just think sometimes the hits that Giannis is taking, the league needs to look at, the league needs to protect him. It’s not just him, anybody takes those hits, the league needs to protect players.”
Rewind to the third quarter of Monday’s game. Portland’s Shaedon Sharpe made a sweeping, acrobatic drive to the rim only for his layup to spin around and out. Antetokounmpo grabbed the rebound and took off the other way, charging full steam ahead into a wall of defenders.
As he tried to step around Jerami Grant, the veteran reached out and essentially clothslined Antetokounmpo, sending him crashing to the floor — though not intentionally. While falling, Antetokounmpo was grabbed awkwardly around the neck by Justise Winslow in an attempt to hold him up that went awry.
The referees went to the monitor to review the play, but decided to stick with a common foul, a decision Budenholzer disagreed with following his team’s 119-111 win.
“So live it definitely looked like they wrapped him up, they went above his head, they hit him across the forehead,” Budenholzer said. “Live, it looked like a flagrant foul. Even though it’s going to the other end of the court, live and as it happened I don’t see how that’s not a flagrant one. If the arena showed replays I didn’t see the replays and I haven’t seen any replays since. But when you go high, above the shoulder and wrap someone up — looked like a non-basketball play, looked like a clear flagrant.”
Budenholzer did not have the benefit of replay and when viewed from the alternate baseline angle the foul is perhaps more awkward than flagrant, though if it had been upgraded it would be hard for anyone on the Blazers to complain.
In any case, Budenholzer seemed more…
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