The NBA Actually Came Out And Admitted They Missed The Wemby Foul On Jalen Brunson
Anadolu. Getty Images.Sadly, a big talking point following another thrilling NBA Finals game was how dogshit the officiating was based on who your favorite team is or who you may be rooting for in this matchup. As someone who has no dog in this fight and has been spilling endless amounts of internet ink talking about how terrible NBA officiating has been for years, and that it's actually the NBA's biggest problem, none of this surprises me. There were moments where the Spurs were clearly getting screwed by non-calls, especially on drives, and there were a whole lot of instances where the Knicks were getting screwed by both non-calls AND actual calls that didn't seem to continue on the other end. That lack of consistency has always been my biggest gripe with these bozos, and last night's Game 3 was a perfect example of that, especially when looking at which "landing space" flagrants were called.
Having said that, one thing I think most people can agree with (outside of Spurs fans) was that the Wemby play on Jalen Brunson was about as clear cut a flagrant 1 as you can have. It's pretty simple. You are not allowed to make contact with the head/neck area, and you are especially not allowed to do it via a non-basketball play. Objectively, this is not a basketball play by Wemby
Love the rule, hate the rule, that's not the point. Things are pretty clear with these types of plays, and that's why I think any Knicks fan who may be bullshit over how this sequence went isn't crazy. I know there are some Spurs accounts out there who are trying to spinzone things that Brunson was grabbing Wemby's jersey or whatever, but that does not mean he is then allowed to elbow someone in the back of the head. That's not how things work. It was a missed foul at the very least, and if ruled correctly, it was a missed flagrant 1.
You can have the stance that Wemby is grabbed and held every possession so at some point he's allowed to stick up for himself and I would agree. But then you take the flagrant 1 as the cost of doing business. He can respond that way to what he's going through, but that doesn't mean he should get away scot-free.
Earlier today, we learned that the NBA was going to review this play for a possible upgrade. While we're still waiting for the official word, what we do have is the NBA coming out and admitting that they missed it
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Here's my thing. Much like the L2M report, all this would do to me as a Knicks fan would make me mad. Oh cool, you're admitting what we all saw and that you missed a blatant play. Sweet. Unfortunately, it's not like they can go back and change anything in terms of how the game went. Maybe Wemby is less aggressive for the rest of the night if he had that flagrant 1. Maybe the Spurs change their sub patterns if he's operating with more fouls during the game. We'll never know, but coming out today and being like "whoops! We missed it!", doesn't really help anything.
When it comes to whether this will be upgraded, this is the million dollar question. Wemby can only afford 2 more flagrant points, either two more flagrant 1 or one more flagrant 2, and then he's suspended. Is that maybe why the refs swallowed their whistle in that moment? Because if you called a foul there you'd have to review it and upon review, it's pretty clear that's a flagrant.
That's what I'm focused on with this ongoing review. When this happened after the Naz Reid elbow, a big reason why Wemby was given a warning and not suspended or fined for that was in part because the league said it was his first offense. Well, now Wemby is a repeat offender. I don't know how you can't take his priors into account when reviewing this play, just like they do for everyone else. Now, with the Head Of Officiating coming out and admitting they missed it, I don't know how you can come back and call that a common foul upon further review. In my opinion, you have to upgrade it. Again, that was clear contact to the head/neck area via a non-basketball play. You're already dealing with a PR disaster around the fact that the NBA never punishes Wemby for anything, so to let him off the hook here AGAIN would be a disaster. Giving him a flagrant 1 doesn't suspend him, and if he can't control himself from doing stuff like this moving forward, then that's his problem. It might impact his closeouts considering the landing space flagrant, but too bad. Don't accrue so many flagrant points by doing fucked up shit and it's not a problem.
At the same time, I do wonder if they decide to upgrade this play, if that just means they'll swallow their whistle even more moving forward, knowing what'll happen if they dish out another flagrant. It shouldn't matter, but again, we know that NBA officials are the absolute worst. I could see a world where Knicks fans may not want this upgraded as a way to prevent that, and just call them moving forward should they actually happen. I dunno, the whole thing sucks. With such a competitive series, the LAST thing we should be dealing with is NBA refs being the worst, and the fact that Adam Silver will continue to do nothing about this problem because he thinks the officiating has never been better is even more infuriating. Stop ruining the sport and product we all love and just call these games down the middle. It honestly cannot be this hard.