For two seasons now, NBA viewers have bemoaned the league-best Oklahoma City Thunder defense. Not because it's physically talented or schematically savvy—it is both—but because it's seemingly built on the premise that officials cannot detect and call every single foul that occurs on a basketball court. No previous team seems to have realized that a defense could simply play this way the entire game; they are angry, swarming, and handsy. As of Tuesday night, they are also shoesy.
In the second quarter of a 113-108 win over the Orlando Magic, Alex Caruso, whose defensive chops are as peculiar and savant-like as Steph Curry's shooting, innovated by blocking a Tristan da Silva layup attempt with a foreign object: the shoe that had fallen off Caruso's left foot earlier in the possession. The Thunder guard reached out with his right arm, extended his wingspan by swinging his sneaker, and clipped the ball. It was clean in the sense that Caruso didn't make illegal contact with da Silva's body, but dirty in the sense that he used his shoe.
Officials ruled the block attempt as goaltending, and Caruso was also hit with a technical foul. "As soon as I had my shoe in my hand, it crept in my mind to use it," he said after the game. "Not like in a malicious way, but like 'Let me try to make a play to stop the ball.' It's just one of those weird NBA plays that probably won't happen for like another 10 years."
Over in college hoops, Myles Rice of Maryland tried something similar with an attempted shoe-assisted strip this past November; he didn't get the ball but did avoid a whistle on the play. Back in 2018, Taj Gibson, then of the Minnesota Timberwolves, played a full possession of defense half-shod, contested a shot with his own upraised shoe, and did not get called for anything. Sometimes the shoe itself is an object that attracts the defense's attention: In 2014, Curry, with the Warriors in possession of the ball, tried to return the fallen shoe of his teammate Mo Speights, but saw it deflected out of bounds by the fearsome defense of Tyson Chandler.
While it's hard not to agree that this is spiritually worth a technical foul and goaltending call, I could not find language in the rulebook section on technical fouls that clearly applies to this situation, nor could I find such language in the section on goaltending. Perhaps it falls under the umbrella of "unsportsmanlike tactics." Just out of curiosity, I reached out to the league for clarification and will update if I hear back.
Update (4:18 p.m. ET): An NBA spokesperson sent the following:
Rule 12 A Section V says “An official may assess a technical foul, without prior warning, at any time. A technical foul(s) may be assessed to any player on the court or anyone seated on the bench for conduct which, in the opinion of an official, is detrimental to the game. The technical foul must be charged to an individual. A technical foul cannot be assessed for physical contact when the ball is alive.”
Interestingly enough, we have a document called a Case Book which helps train referees and this exact example is in there and how the play should be adjudicated.
Both Caruso and Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault seemed mystified by the call and spoke to refs in the aftermath."I just thought I was gonna block it, and I honestly don't know what I thought the call would be," Caruso said. "I didn't know it was going to be a goaltending and a tech. If I would've known that, I probably wouldn't have done it because it's three points." If this were legal, Victor Wembanyama might be inspired to yank off a size 20.5 shoe and extend his wingspan by another 14 and 3/16 inches.
