Any Spurs fan that watched every game and knows ball can back this up:
The playoffs changed Wemby.
During the regular season, you never heard a peep about "dirty player" or flagrants because all of the arm hooking, jersey yanking, and thigh grabbing was a foul in the regular season. If players get called for a foul, theyre less encouraged to play that way. When the refs don't discourage rough play, a player will try to discourage it.
I think the refs and the league backed themselves into a corner by allowing too much roughness. If you suspend wemby then you get lots of calls and complaints from the spurs front office saying "here are all of the uncalled fouls that led up to the flagrant."
Was it a flagrant when Wemby pushed Brunson by the neck?
ABSOLUTELY lol
Would he have pushed him if Brunson wasn't pulling his jersey?
No.
But the most important question is, would Brunson have been pulling his jersey at all if the refs were consistently and correctly calling it a foul?
Probably not.
I was gonna post this on my substack but I don't have a substack.
Thank you for reading.
Congratulations, Knicks.
Go Spurs Go.
#porvida