Seen a lot of people saying that Claxton committed a hard foul on Giannis which initiates the dirty play by Giannis, but that’s not what I see when I watch the video.

Rewatch the video (https://streamable.com/qe7ubz) with the context given below and let me know what you think:

First: Claxton tries wrapping Giannis up on a foul, which is pretty standard and not generally seen as dirty.

Second: Giannis’ right foot steps on Claxton’s which initiates Giannis’ fall to the ground, i.e. the fall to the ground wasn’t initiated from a “tackle” by Claxton. As Giannis falls to the ground, he falls back into Claxton’s left arm, i.e. he wasn’t dragged down by the arm. Claxton’s arm is simply behind Giannis’ back as he falls.

Third: At this point, Giannis grabs onto Claxton’s right arm and starts pulling it off of Claxton’s body. This leads to the illusion that Claxton is tackling Giannis with his right arm, but it’s simply because Giannis is grabbing Claxton’s arm around his own body.

by bullymeahhh