It’s pretty common practice around the league for players to tuck in their jerseys as they run onto the court, although technically it’s supposed to happen before they step onto the hardwood.
Friday night, Chris Paul called out Minnesota’s Jordan Bell on that letter-of-the-law rule, got his team a technical foul, hit the free throw, and that opened the door for the Thunder to force overtime and beat the Timberwolves.
You can hear Chris Paul yell "His jersey untucked, that's a delay of game" just before OKC forced OT (h/t @WorldWideWob) https://t.co/vLVoUccoWL
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) December 7, 2019
Sunday night, the bill came due.
Referees called two letter-of-the-law delay-of-game penalties on the Thunder, resulting in a free throw for Portland. The second occurred as Thunder players took off their sweats as they checked into the game, briefly stepping on the court while wearing said sweats. Another common practice that is technically a penalty.
Chris Paul knew what was going on.
They were on SportsCenter.
CP3 brought this on himself, he wanted to be a stickler for the letter of the law. However, Paul’s Thunder team got the win in Minnesota because he knew the rules, and the Thunder went on to beat the Trail Blazers despite the delay of game calls. CP3 got the wins, and that’s all he cares about.