Roundtable: Will Stephen Curry be suspended for Game 7?

In last night’s Game 6, Stephen Curry was called for six fouls and disqualified for just the 10th time in his career, and the first time since 2013. After the call he received a technical for arguing and eventually he hurled his mouthguard in disgust, accidentally striking a fan. While the established precedent seems to be a fine, there is at least one example of a player being suspended for throwing a mouthguard — Udonis Haslem in 2006.

The obvious question then becomes whether Curry will be suspended, or available to play in Game 7 on Sunday night. To hash it all out, we called in some FanSided experts for an emergency roundtable. Joining us are Ian Levy (@HickoryHigh, Senior NBA Editor for FanSided), Josh Hill (@jdavhill, Editor for FanSided), Gerald Bourguet (@GeraldBourguet, Assistant Editor for HoopsHabit), John Buhler (@buhler118, FanSided contributor), Jeff Siegel (@jgsiegel, Staff Writer for Hardwood Paroxysm), and Kaveh Jam (@kavehsroom, Staff Writer for Hardwood Paroxysm).

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Will Stephen Curry be suspended for Game 7 for throwing his mouthpiece after being ejected? Should he be suspended?

Ian Levy: There is no way he gets suspended. Setting aside the Udonis Haslem precedent, the league clearly has enough wiggle room here to just issue a fine. I can’t imagine any scenario where the league is willing to exert its discretion in a way that allows the NBA Finals to be decided with the MVP not on the floor. As to whether he should be suspended, I find myself siding with the league. If this is a matter to be guided by discretion let’s run Game 7 with as few asterisks as possible.

Josh Hill: Nope, no chance in hell the NBA suspends the MVP for the biggest game of the season. People can compare this to Udonis Haslem all they want but there’s one major factor whoever brings that up is forgetting: Haslem is not Steph Curry. You can’t allow the NBA Finals to be decided that way. There wasn’t even the slightest hint of malice behind Steph throwing that mouthguard and the fan was more or less happy to shake his hand, so the NBA would be insane to act here. Put the tinfoil hats away.

Gerald Bourguet: Nope and double nope. The league precedent is a fine, not a suspension, and Curry has thrown his mouthpiece before. It really just look like his toss got away from him when it sailed into the crowd, and he apologized for the incident right away. Given that it’s a Game 7 of the NBA Finals and this is the league MVP we’re talking about, it would have taken a pair of ninja stars being thrown into the stands to warrant a suspension here.

John Buhler: The NBA isn’t going to suspend Stephen Curry for Game 7 for tossing his mouthpiece at a fan in frustration for fouling out, nor should he be. Do expect Curry to be fined for his brief lapse of judgement, but there is no doubt that he will play in win-or-go-home Game 7 on Sunday night. There’s no way the unanimous MVP doesn’t play on his home court in a deciding Game 7. If he hit a referee with the mouthpiece, I could see him possibly being suspended, but since he apologized to the fan he did hit almost immediately afterwards, he’ll just get hit with a five-figure fine and that’s it.

Jeff Siegel: Absolutely not. He’ll be fined but the NBA wouldn’t take their most popular player out of the biggest game of the year unless he did something truly awful. Curry apologized right after hitting the fan and there was no intent to hurt a fan or even throw the mouthguard at a particular person; it was a relatively harmless accident and we should expect to see Curry on the floor on Sunday.

Kaveh Jam: There’s no chance of this happening. Regardless of what the league has done prior, it would almost guarantee these finals be littered with footnotes if they banned the league’s MVP in a decisive Game 7. There is a fine line between enforcing league rules and outright altering the outcome of a title on an action that doesn’t warrant it.

Curry has been called for fouls at nearly twice his per minute rate from the regular season. Is he being treated fairly?

Levy: I think he’s caught a handful bad calls. He’s also made some lazy, careless fouls — reaching, swiping, or simply not paying attention. I think some of this comes back to him not being healthy and not being able to defend in the same aggressive ways he normally does.

Hill: He’s gotten the short end of the stick but for the most part there hasn’t been anything too far out of line that calls for protest. Steph Curry isn’t some untouchable saint sent from the NBA Heavens, he makes mistakes and commits fouls just like everyone else who has ever played basketball. The outrage may have more to do with the otherwise spotless Warriors all of a sudden getting lazy and careless at times with the brightest lights on them. Steph committed lazy fouls during the season but it’s one thing to have them called on a Thursday against the Pelicans while it’s a whole different sort of magnification when it’s a lazy play on a Thursday in the NBA Finals.

Bourguet: Yes and no. While I thought some of Curry’s foul calls in Game 6 were questionable (that pickpocket of Kyrie Irving was BRUTAL), he also made a couple of dumb decisions that a player of his basketball IQ just shouldn’t make. What I find more interesting: Curry’s lack of explosion and consistency since that knee injury a few weeks ago, and the fact that we get a freaking Game 7 between the league MVP and LeBron James. Talking about THAT seems more fun to me than silly cries of the NBA being rigged.

Buhler: He’s not being treated unfairly at all. Yes, Curry has had some questionable fouls called against him, but the same could be said for many players in these NBA Finals. What I do think is happening is that the Cleveland Cavaliers are going after him with their elite ball handlers in LeBron James and Kyrie Iriving. Curry is far from an elite NBA defender and being slight of build doesn’t help when he has to guard more physically imposing players. That could be a reason behind why he is committing nearly twice the amount of fouls per game in the Finals as he had during the 2015-16 NBA regular season.

Siegel: I don’t think he’s been treated unfairly by the referees. He’s made some unbelievably dumb gambles, reaching in on defensive rebounders and using his hands far too much against Kyrie Irving. We have the benefit of slow-mo instant replay that shows Curry reaching across Irving and poking the ball out, but with one look at it at full speed, the referees saw Curry bump him twice and then using his arm to impede Irving’s progress. This was one of the more questionable decisions from the referees in Game 6, but on balance he hasn’t been treated any better or worse than anybody else out there.

Jam: He is absolutely being treated fairly. Questionable calls or not, Curry found himself in foul trouble in the first half and did very little to adjust — unusual for a man of his experience and stature. While you would usually play this scenario out conservatively, Curry, on more than one occasion, appeared un-phased that the officials would actually have the gall to disqualify the league’s MVP prematurely.

The officiating in the 2016 NBA Finals has been                     .

Levy: Consistently inconsistent. Missed calls are a part of the game and I think these officials have not been egregiously bad. However, it seems like both teams have struggled to find a physical flow, unable to adjust to calls that aren’t being made consistently from possession to possession. Although this has led to some uneven play, in terms of an advantage it seems to have all evened out in the end.

Hill: As good as it could have been. There have been some pretty bad calls but for the most part it seems the crew is trying to get calls right and limit how much time is spent correcting bad calls. While both fanbases (And Ayesha Curry) will find calls they didn’t like that went against their team, there hasn’t been a call that has yet dramatically changed a game and swung it one way or the other.

Bourguet: Maddeningly inconsistent, though nobody should take that as a declaration that the NBA is rigged. One moment the officials have let players be totally physical, the next play a ticky-tack reach is being whistled like the guy got clocked. Between the frequent reviews, overuse of replays, concern over flagrant fouls and Last Two Minutes reports, it feels like NBA referees have way too much outside noise to worry about as opposed to just being empowered to do their jobs. All this transparency is great in theory, but all it’s really done is give credence to the conspiracy theorists and saltier fans looking for excuses.

Buhler: I’ve never been one to rip on officiating, no matter how one-sided it may seem at the time. It’s incredibly difficult to get as many calls right as the officials typically do. These are the best basketball officials Planet Earth has to offer. I look at officiating like weather conditions in outdoor sports. In theory, it should affect both teams equally and the better of the two teams that day will win regardless of supposed help from the officials. Just play ball!

Siegel: As good and bad as is to be expected. Being a referee is freaking difficult. There isn’t a job in sports I would want less than being an NBA referee. The players are so big, so athletic, so smart, it’s amazing that referees ever get a majority of calls correct. As Papa Bear Matt Moore says, officiating is an act of God. There’s no reason to argue about it or claim that it’s able to be controlled, it just is what it is and you have to accept it. We all like to joke about Scott Foster and Tony Brothers and Zach Zarba, but they have the most difficult job in sports and are seemingly expected to be perfect by fans, players, and coaches.

Jam: Clearly it has not been flawless officiating. To the naked eye it does appear to be equally insufficient on both sides with no team gaining a sizeable advantage. For all the post-game discontent both teams were whistled for 25 foul calls, so there’s that. Bad calls will never truly disappear but the team most equipped to withstand and gauge their own emotions will position themselves to withstand questionable officiating.

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