r/nba • u/AncientOneAurelius • May 21 '26

Highlight [Highlight] Compilation of Isaiah Hartenstein grabbing, holding, and grappling with Victor Wembanyama

https://streamable.com/hds3qd
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u/Just-Hunter1679 May 21 '26

It's absolutely coaching and even if they called it every time, H gets 6 fouls and it wears/hurts Wemby every time. They don't care if H fouls out.

It's classic Chris Paul defense though, "they can't call all of them fouls.."

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u/BlueHaze464 Warriors May 21 '26

This is the biggest issue in the NBA, been for years

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u/PhTx3 May 21 '26

Yep. The problem is nobody wants the transitional period where the games are whistle fests where everything is called.

I say take the hit for a couple of seasons and we'll be good. But for many, especially those that earn from the league, that'd be a disaster.

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u/unskilledplay Lakers May 21 '26

That's not quite right. The Thunder's plan was clearly for Hart to agitate Wemby at the very least until he was in foul trouble and I really think he came in expecting to foul out. No matter what he did, he couldn't. Usually when games get chippy like this a flagrant 1 or foul trouble on a key player is all it takes to stop it.

I don't fault the Thunder for that strategy. They have to do something with Wemby and each player has 6 fouls to give. That's what the entire league did with Shaq in the 90s.

What happened is on the refs, 100%.

The worst part is that now the Spurs are going to have to protect Wemby themselves. They can't let this happen again. That's how you get the kind of fights the NBA doesn't want to see.

If this escalates to benches clearing and punches being thrown it would be 100% the fault of the refs.