One quick hand motion has some in San Antonio up in arms.
Some extra attention has been brought to Karl-Anthony Towns’ deflection on the final play of Wednesday’s miracle Knicks Game 4 Finals win after it appears he motioned to the fans sitting courtside to crowd Spurs rookie Dylan Harper for the critical inbounds pass.
With the Knicks leading 107-106 with 1.2 seconds remaining, Towns walked toward Harper — positioned on the left sidelines if looking straight at the basket from midcourt — and discretely motioned toward Harper with his left hand to a man in a suit and a man in an orange shirt.
As Harper took one step to his right, the two men also moved in that direction closer to the guard.
When Harper eventually received the ball to inbounds the ball for a potential game-winning shot, the two men could not have been more than two feet away with the fan in orange clapping.
X user @SpursReporter quote tweeted the clip with another frontward-showing angle that displayed the fan in orange getting rather close to Harper and pondered whether the referees did enough.
“Should the @nba and @OfficialNBARefs review this incident where Karl Anthony Towns asks Knicks fans to crowd Dylan Harper as he attempts to inbound the ball on the final play of Game 5? 👀,” the individual wrote.
“NBA rules explicitly state that fans are strictly prohibited from entering the playing area or intentionally interfering with players, whether the player is inbounds or out of bounds. Furthermore, rules state that fans must remain within the physical limits of their own seats.
“In an instance like this, Arena security staff is required to back the front row up, and offenders should be ejected. The second video in the tweet below also shows how egregious this violation was.”
The NBA rules on out-of-bounds and throw-in plays does not specifically state any stipulation about fans, although they are not allowed to interfere with play.
However, in these instances, there’s only so much the referees can do since the play happens right in front of those sitting courtside.
Whether the fans affected Harper or not, he and the Spurs missed a golden chance for a great look on their final play when Towns deflected his pass to Stephon Castle.
That tip led to Castle fumbling the ball, and he did not get a shot off in time as the Knicks rallied from a 29-point hole in the second half to grab a 3-1 series lead.
