Klay Thompson Not Being Suspended For Unleashing A Forearm Shiver Into The Back Of An Official Is The Latest Example Of The NBA's Hypocrisy

If there's one thing I think we all should want when it comes to the NBA, it's consistency. Especially when it comes to how games are called. If officials are going to care about a certain rule or removing a certain playing style, it should be that way for all players. It shouldn't matter if you're a HOF player, an All Star, a starter, a bench guy, whatever. 

I bring this up because even though it's only been a week, we already have our first example of the NBA being gigantic hypocrites. 

Yesterday, we learned that if you make even the slightest contact with an official, it's a 1 game suspension. That's what the NBA deemed appropriate for Grant Williams' freak out. They called it reckless contact with intent or whatever

OK fine. I've said my piece on that play already.

What I'm now having a hard time understanding though is what happened with Klay Thompson. You may remember his freakout 2 days ago that led to his ejection. Well, once you look at the footage you notice something 

Right around the 5 second mark, you have Klay unleashing a forearm shiver right into the back of official Ed Malloy. Definite contact, and definite intent, all while he was trying to fight Devin Booker. 

Yet Klay was not fined or suspended? He's active tonight in their game against MIA. I'm sorry, but how does that make any sense? If the NBA made it known that players cannot touch or make any sort of contact with an official during a game, well then how do you explain doing nothing about Klay intentionally making contact with an official during a game? Not only that, but in an effort to toss him out of the way so he could go at Devin Booker. 

Do I want Klay suspended? Not really. I like watching him play. I'm just asking for the league to be consistent. I struggle to understand how contact made when a player was upset with a call is a suspension and yet a player making contact with an official while he tries to fight a player is nothing? With Grant, they made it seem pretty cut and dry, yet with Klay they pretend like it never happened. He got tossed the same way Grant got tossed. He made contact the same way Grant made contact. Seems like an open and shut case no?

I guess the real answer is Klay is a 4 time champion and Grant Williams….isn't anywhere close to that level. It's not exactly a new idea that star players get different treatment, but that should be when it comes to calls on the floor. When it comes to the league evaluating these new "Respect The Game" rules, I'm not sure it should matter. 

So, not only does the NBA have an officiating problem, but they also have a problem when it comes to handing out punishment that comes as a result of these interactions. 

I can understand this may come off as me crying about Grant being suspended. That's the price I'm willing to pay to expose this hypocrisy. Laugh now, but maybe there's going to be a situation where a player on your favorite team makes contact with an official. Let's just hope they're a big star like Klay and not a role player like Grant, because the league is absolutely going to treat it differently.