Giannis Antetokounmpo hit with two 10-second violations vs. Warriors, but officials need to be more consistent

Giannis Antetokounmpo has reverted back to his paint-drying free-throw routine this season, and it cost him two more 10-second violations against the Warriors on Tuesday. 

Both came in the third quarter with Milwaukee in the midst of opening up a big lead. 

You can count for yourself along with that clip It’s definitely a 10-second count. Probably closer to 12 seconds. They got the call right, but that’s not the issue. The crux of the problem, as TNT’s Stan Van Gundy pointed out on the broadcast, is the inconsistency of these calls. Giannis’ routine isn’t different every time. If he’s crossing the 10-second threshold once, he’s probably doing it much more than the number of times he’s getting rung up for it.

The NBA needs to set the rule and stick to it across all officiating crews so that it’s consistent. If Giannis consistently gets dinged for this, rest assured he’ll speed up his routine. It’s tough because he’s right on the 10-second line. When he goes egregiously over, the officials have an easy call. But when it’s just over the 10-second mark, that’s the gray area in which Giannis continues to exist as a free-throw shooter. And that gray area leads to inconsistent rulings. 

Bottom line: Don’t make this an arbitrary call. Don’t whistle it sometimes and other times not. The NBA, for the sake of the game — and Giannis — needs to figure out how to address this uniformly.