"NOT THIS YEAR!": Steph Curry First To Experience NBA's New Rules—Foul-Baiting Is No More

October 04, 2021 ,

 

And so it begins. With Monday night's preseason game between the Golden State Warriors and the Portland Trail Blazers, Steph Curry was fittingly the first to learn, first-hand, that "non-basketball moves" intended to draw fouls will no longer be called. 

"Not this year! Not this year!" called Trail Blazers' analyst Lamar Hurd after Curry stepped back for a shot and then lurched forward into the Portland defender. "When the offensive player tries to launch into the defender in an unnatural motion, it'll either be an offensive foul.... or a no-call," explained Hurd.

And a "no-call" it was for Curry. 

When play-by-play man Bill Schonely said he "wasn't sure" about the no-call, Hurd challenged him with "What's your problem with that?" Schonely talked in circles for a moment, then surrendered with "I've gotta go back to the drawing board."

The fact is, referees have been instructed to crackdown this year on "overt, abrupt, or abnormal non-basketball moves by offensive players with the ball in an effort to draw fouls."  

Now that we've seen it in action, it's evident that some of the game's best players, the likes of Curry, Trae Young, James Harden and others, will have to stick to the true basketball moves that they are so efficient at—that made them the stars they are today—in order to do their scoring this year. And every basketball fan will be the better for it. 

Photo Credit: Steve Dykes-USA TODAY Sports



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