The Chicago Bulls first round series against the Milwaukee Bucks has had every bit of entertainment and drama possible.
The Bucks energizer bunny off the bench, Bobby Portis, has a personal vendetta against the Bulls front office for trading him back in 2019– though the current front office group are all practically new. The Bucks’ shooting guard Grayson Allen has emerged as a villain in Bulls fan circles– Allen going as far as calling the fan base weak. Not to mention the Bucks have literally big brothered the Bulls since 2017.
Game 1, the Bulls fell behind by as much as 17 points, but came back. they ended up losing by seven, despite their stars shooting a combined 29% from the field. Game 2 was a total flip. The Bulls losing a 15 point lead, managing to pull out the game by four. Game 3 was an utter disaster for the Bulls, the Bucks dissecting Chicago without needing Antetokounmpo to drop 30 points … or even 20 points.
To add the list of theatrics in this series, fans have discovered footage that may prove that Giannis Antetokounmpo is a dirty player.
Y’all can’t tell me this ain’t dirty https://t.co/bSV33wRnRJ
— Clipz (@ClipsPlzWin) April 21, 2022
So what is Close-Out Gate?
The clip show’s Giannis closing out of DeMar DeRozan. If you look at his feet, he goes underneath DeRozan, leaving the Bulls’ star zero room to land. This is how players come down on defender’s feet and suffer lower leg injuries.
The conversation around the intent of these types of plays began in the 2017 Western Conference Finals. The Golden State Warriors– fresh into the Kevin Durant Era– were taking on the last San Antonio Spurs group of the Kawhi Leonard era.
In Game 1, Warriors big Zaza Pachulia recklessly closed-out on Kawhi Leonard– leaving Leonard zero landing space. Leonard injured his lower leg and was out for not only the rest of that series but also the entirety of the following season.
Many fans and media members called the play dirty– Spurs fans even attempting to sue Pachulia. While their lawsuit was viewed as a joke in the court of law, they were granted a new rule via the NBA that has been called the Zaza Rule.
The Zaza Rule allows for referees to call flagrant fouls on reckless closeouts. The play has been called a flagrant whenever the foul is called. In the instance with Antetokounmpo, it wasn’t called a foul therefore it couldn’t be reviewed.
Was Giannis Antetokounmpo being dirty?
The answer is a hard no.
Big men are typically more out of control with their bodies than guards. The original play by Pachulia was rooted in lack of control on the close out. The contest was solid but when he turn to located the ball, he took a negative step.
Negative steps aren’t good in any realm of basketball, but happen often. Guards take negative steps on their before their first dribble, post take negative steps when defending on the perimeter and on closeouts.
It is reckless and dangerous but isn’t with the intent to hurt someone. It’s more about the intent to close the airspace on the jump–shot– something that all coaches preach.
Antetokounmpo doesn’t have any real history of dirty plays. He has a history of playing hard and out of control, however. He gets in foul trouble for collecting charges nearly every post season. He gets silly over the back calls and every blue moon will randomly fall with the ball on a fast break.
The dude plays hard and a lot times out of control. The second is something he needs to do better with. At the end of the day, out of control players hurt other players. That’s clear with Pachulia and was the potential with Antetokounmpo’s close out.
Outside of that, there isn’t much for fans to say about Antetokounmpo.