LeBron James gets mauled by Draymond Green

LeBron James got fouled pretty hard by Draymond Green while heading to the basket. Was this a flagrant foul?

During Game 2 of the NBA Finals on Sunday night, LeBron James got hit in the face by Draymond Green on his way to the basket and then proceeded to dramatically beg the refs for a flagrant foul to be called. We all know just how good at swaying the refs’ opinion James is. After all, he is respectfully referred to as “the King.” So it is of no surprise that the refs had to review this foul just to make sure LeBron’s tears after getting bonked in the nose didn’t deserve a flagrant foul.

After rewatching the foul, there is no doubt about it that this is just a normal personal foul. Yes, it does look bad because Green is coming across LeBron’s body and he comes up with tears in his eyes. But this is a good old-fashioned, hard playoff foul.

Maybe in the regular season on a random Sunday evening this would constitute a flagrant foul. Refs are trying to keep the game as clean as possible, especially in a normal regular season game where the stakes are low. But in the playoffs, everyone’s blood is boiling and players are hitting a tad harder than they normally would at any other point in time.

Should this mean that refs should call it more loosely? Playoff basketball means harder fouls, but refs shouldn’t change the way they call the game just because the game is played in the postseason. They should be consistent over the course of the season because the playoffs should be an appropriate reflection of how the regular season is played. That means refs should call the same calls they normally would.

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NBA Finals: LeBron James gets mauled by Draymond Green (Video)

By FanSided Staff | Jun 7, 2015

LeBron James got fouled pretty hard by Draymond Green while heading to the basket. Was this a flagrant foul?

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