[Highlight] Alex Caruso pulls Stephon Castle down on the fast break — call stands as a common foul
I love Dylan Harper, rookie is mature beyond his years.
Harper diving in to hold em is killing me, he really gives him a cute hug at the end of it. Great decision, smart move, hilarious image.
I saw that too and thought the same thing, but it looks like he slipped on a wet spot as opposed to diving in committtedly. He wanted to just help him up.
So kudos to that slick spot I guess for being a good teammate
“Pfft. This whole line of reasoning is a hoax.” - Ben Shapiro
Cause he know he got the hot heads with em and they want to get the pay back goin
anyone got the clip? OPs replay is brutal lol, bro was racing for the karma
I wish we’d just start banning people who post these dog shit clips as fast as possible instead of taking the extra minute to clip the replay too. The Kornet chase down block being posted with ZERO replays is criminal
He’s poised af, impressed at his calmness in the biggest series of his life
He’s going to be such a problem. Shit. He already is.
I am certain I have never seen a rookie this poised and this crafty. He has SO MANY moves and is SO fucking calm with the ball it is insane.
“Harper-to-Wemby” is gonna be repeated for many years to come.
The grin while he’s holding Castle was so funny
All the Spurs players TBH. Their top 3 players were drafted in the last 3-4 years and they’re all poised as fuck. Puts their head down and play.
Have to imagine mitch and even pop deserve a lot of credit for that
I still prefer Dillion Harper
Definitely knows how to take it to the hole
my goat
He’s already my fav spur and this further solidified it. Bro pulled out the consoling big spoon move like he was an expecting father
Young OG
Remember when every NBA fan alive wanted to crucify Grayson Allen for doing to Alex Caruso what Caruso has done multiple times this series
i was going to say this too, having been the victim of this play before i don’t know why he keeps on making the same dangerous play himself
Because he’s a dirty player? He always does this, he does these sneaky “on the ball plays” then drags them down
Doing that to a player in the air is just so dangerous
Could literally see Castle mouth “he does this s*** every game, bro.” Castle isn’t wrong.
If there was more than one fast break that Castle had where Caruso didn’t dangerously foul him this series, it’s news to me. Caruso is a dirty player, glad his season is over and I don’t have to watch him anymore this playoffs.
Could see this shit coming from a mile away too, I had time to say out loud “Caruso is going to foul the shit out of him”
But you got ppl saying Castle is a flopper like he takes so much contact driving to the rim and he actually finishes
They are products of the Oklahoma educational system
He didn’t do that shit in Bulls or Lakers.
OKC indoctrinated him
Coaches & Culture
Heat Culture but in reverse.
Crime Culture.
Shit Culture
I was gonna say - I was rooting for him post-Bulls, but he’s become a bit of a cunt since joining the “OKC Method”.
Have to agree. He was great in the Lakers and Bulls. He became an OKCunt once he moved teams.
it’s actually so sad cuz he’s actually a very good baller. he can handle pressure so well, it’s beyond my imagination. he’s the go-to guy of OKC when shit hits the fan and considering the names they have, it’s definitely not a small feat. he’s also a very decent defender and actually did a decent job in the early matches of the series while defending Wemby from in front to block any sort of passes to him and all.
and then, there’s this. idk what the fuck is wrong with OKC management and I get when millions and millions are on the table, it’s harder for teams to resist the urge to do whatever means necessary to an end. but historically we have always seen this approach in the form of bad boy Pistons at the very most. you toughen up your defences extremely hard or play with the opposing team’s mentality. but that’s it, that was the limit always. OKC have taken this to a very nasty level because of their fucking greed. I’m saying because of their greed cuz, no other team in the NBA went like “oh if they’re playing this dirty so will we too” after seeing OKC and their success by playing dirty and since all of the teams are out to earn more money; they could have easily switched to that mentality.
with all of these being said; respects to all of the other team owners other than OKC for keeping their integrity or at the very least for not swooping as low as OKC does.
He wasn’t this dirty before OKC. It’s almost like they coach their players to all pull this shit and the league let’s them get away with it for some reason.
Reminds me of how Coach K used to unlock something completely unhinged in so many players who were just a little extra before they played for him. Grayson Allen wasn’t known as dirty in high school.
Are players generally known as dirty in high school? Genuine question I’m not American and following players this early isn’t familiar to me.
They can be. Top players on the big AAU teams get a lot of run at tournaments and develop reputations as early as sophomore/junior year of high school.
caruso was out 6-8 weeks due to that grayson allen foul, we’d have a brawl if caruso injured someone that badly on this type of play in the playoffs
And then he runs to the refs and whines
Because he gets away with it
Wasn’t he really butthurt about Allen doing it to him too? And I think Allen was in no way processing that quickly enough to intentionally try to hurt him, was a reckless play on Caruso’s own part too. Allen was trying to make a play on the ball.
To the same player. And shame on the refs for not calling it any of the times they did it..
That’s what I have been saying.
Grayson did this and was rightfully called out for it years ago but I have seen Caruso do literally the same thing MULTIPLE times just this series!
He’s bitch-made
Castle has been eating shit when airborne so much this series, hate how the refs pretty much called it fair game for OKC players to keep doing that.
I keep thinking of that play lmao
If Caruso graduated from Duke he may be the most hated player in NBA history.
Grayson has been a reformed man since joining the league, but people aren’t ready to have that conversation (biased bucks fan)
OKC is going to need to dump some salaries soon. Who better to go after than Allen? Go full throttle in the bullshit.
Caruso gets away with it because he’s white.
/s
Sheesh I don’t know. Makes a play on the ball, completely misses, but then follows through on the tackle. Feels like a flagrant
It would have been flagrant if that was Shai. Diagonol would have been hands in the air, weeping at the sidelines for a technical while squinting at the jumbotron.
Lol all the guy is ever doing is squinting and chewing gum.
Bro needs glasses
All my homies hate diagonals, caruso was getting acute
Diagonal always being deliberately obtuse.
He’s going to train with Nick Nurse this summer to really up his sideline whining. Mark isn’t doing it right unless he falls into fetal position at some point.
Regular season that’s a flagrant… they’re letting them play which… fair enough.
I feel like if you’re gonna call the foul then you should call it correctly. That’s not really “letting them play” if there’s still a stoppage right?
Yeah, especially when you’re gonna review it to check for a flagrent anyways as well. Might as well just call it one.
Outside this one call though I’ve liked how the games been reffed so far though so its not a huge issue.
the issue with letting them play is that the game can spin way out of control really fast. the line has to be drawn somewhere otherwise someone’s gonna get hurt. I love physicality but not at the expense of player safety
Yeah I totally get where the “let them play” mentality comes from but it’s weird how it MOSTLY gets applied in the playoffs when a player injury in this game could just make the literal CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES suddenly meaningless and therefore their entire season
yeah there has to be a medium between calling fouls for breathing too hard and playing on after someone gets shot with a gun, but that balance is something being chased since the inception of the league
Yeah it’s been physical both ways with minimal calls. I’m good with that
Nah, that was dangerous
We got points off of Fox stepping on the line so I guess that’s even. It’s close because we’re getting outrebounded by a lot.
Problem is they’re letting them play “until they don’t”.
Nah, not fair enough this is dangerous and should always be a flagrant. It’s one thing to have a regular hard foul that hurts, this could injure.
How I view this is: right hand is making a play on the ball but the left is not. If I challenged a jump shot with my right hand and punched the shooter in the stomach with my left, that’s a flagrant.
I don’t see why the left hand in this play isn’t excessive and unnecessary contact
The right hand is fine initially but he then grabs hold and pulls down with it imo
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Harper diving and hugging Castle has me dying
Castle tryna snatch Caruso’s ankle so he could presumably get into a fist fight on the ground is even funnier lmfao
He’s gonna bite one kneecap off then the other.
Hate im gonna have to root against these cuties
I just hope both teams have fun
You even got a Timmy inspired username.. not too late to come over to the light side. (I actually really like this Knicks team.. I think we can all agree that either of us winning is better than OKC)
They were my bandwagon team during the dark years 💀 had to go for someone in the playoffs
Dylan Harper is going to be a future HoF
Dude is a fucking rookie that plays like he’s got 10 years of experience lol
Well he’s 20 and his dad was a 20 ppg scorer in his first 8 seasons in the NBA before transitioning into a GOAT role player on the Jordan Bulls and Shaq-Kobe Lakers under a GOAT coach in Phil Jackson to the tune of 5 championships, so I’d say he has more like 15 years of experience.
Feel like he clearly pulls him down after the play on the ball. Shoulda been upgraded imo. Dangerous during game speed.
Edit:
Mods deleted lmaooo
Mods brought it back?
If this happened to SGA there would literally be 0% chance it wouldn’t have been called a flagrant
Shai would’ve lost his arm
They’d still be doing CPR on him under the basket.
There’s five paramedics outside of the stadium
death by firing squad with silver calling for when the triggers pulled
Probably should’ve been a flagrant 2 he could’ve gotten seriously injured from that
He literally cried like a bitch when Grayson Allen did the same thing to him
this is what im saying, he did it like 3 times in this series and i was like “he’s doing what allen did to him and cried about it for like a year”
I mean he broke his wrist when Allen did it to him didn’t he? But that doesn’t excuse his doing it, this is a bitch move and I can’t defend it. If anything, it makes it worse that he’s experienced what can happen and is still willing to do it.
I agree. If Caruso would have tried to keep him from hitting the ground at all I could see the argument for common foul. But he just snatched him out the air and let him go.
Dude going flying through the air at high speed, how tf is that not trying to injure him
Grabbing the shoulder and waist of an airborne player is ok if you play for the Thunder. Thats cool.
Not the first time Caruso’s gotten away with it this series either
It’s ironic because Grayson Allen literally injured Caruso doing this
Meanwhile if you breathe at SGA its a flagrant
Murder on court is ok if you play for thunder
Shocked this was called a common foul. The fact he pulled down an airborne player is surely a textbook flagrant?
The thought process was probably not calling this a flagrant because they didn’t call by’s elbow a flagrant even tho they aren’t really the same imo
The criteria for a normal flagrant and a flagrant on an airborne player are completely different as far as I know. I suspect the refs are just too timid to make such an impactful call in this game 7, which is awful for anyone who doesn’t like to see players getting injured
OKC did at least 5 of these type of fouls on fast breaks over the series and their fans complaining we shot more fts lol
Lol Caruso Grayson Allen did the same thing and you whined and bitched about it. Bum
Caruso u bum
What a bum
That’s an objectively dangerous play. He’s pulling him down mid air. Obvious flagrant.
In what world is this a common foul?
Bruh this is still a flagrant in Draymond Green’s dreams
This 100% would’ve been flagrant for Green. And I’m a gsw fan. Fuck Caruso/Dort/Harkenstein and their dirty foul-baiting ahh.
Draymond often pulls people out of the air, but always into his body to catch them, not to fling them onto the floor. He never seems to get them called as a flagrant.
That follow through was an easy flagrant 1, they missed that call badly
If it’s a pattern it’s not missing anything
Exactly they reviewed it and still decided that’s the same as when sga gets touched fouled
Exactly how Caruso fractured his wrist on the Bulls. What a piece of shit
Common foul my ass, should’ve been an F1
Honestly shoulda been flagrant two that could’ve caused a super serious injury
Crazy this shit is literally how Caruso got hurt and he’s out here doing this
Grayson Allen still gets hate for the same play he made in Caruso and Caruso is out there doing it every night.
That should’ve at least been a flagrant 1. That’s crazy. That’s going to open up some violence for the Spurs.
Bruce Bowen is warming up in the tunnel
Send em the knee.
Do that to SGA and the refs will call for the death penalty
Do that to KAT and it’s an offensive foul
This is so annoying because they call so many unnecessary flagrant fouls nowadays yet when it’s clearly an airborne player with no play on the ball being dragged while in the air it’s apparently not a flagrant. Make this shit make sense. I’ve watched the NBA for almost 25 years and I still don’t know the rules…
Yes exactly.
At least Jamal Crawford seemed to elude to the fact that there may have been some follow-through…
This is why we invented the flagrant 1. Caruso wouldn’t have even argued about it. It’s obviously not a common foul and probably not quite worthy of ejection, so it’s flagrant 1.
Send a bench player out to retaliate
Mason Plumlee licking his chops
Pretty nasty move by Caruso. You can wrap up without ripping him down.
Honestly I wish they would change the rules so that the wrap up is a flagrant on its own. It’s not a play on the ball. I see so many players fall awkwardly and risk injury as they’re being wrapped up. The NBA is an entertainment league. Dunks and layups are more exciting than free throws. Get this crap out of the game
two hands pulls him down mid air and doesnt look back, lame ass player
Of all the fouls this series that had to be the most dangerous
Ofc its just common 😂😂😂
This is a blatant flagrant how you can’t call that is beyond me. He grabs and yanks his arm and hip doesn’t try make sure it’s a safe fall at all
if this happened to Shai I guarantee it’s a flagrant at least
Straight to jail, believe it or not.
Absolute joke that’s a common foul he yanks him back as he’s in mid air
So shameless
Clear flagrant 1.
We want them to play in game 7 but you can’t let that stay a common foul. Come on now
Alex Caruso has the right to defend himself
He “felt threatened”!
Okc and their fans fucking suck. That is all
Next year in the first Spurs-Thunder regular season game castle is going to run Caruso through the stantion.
That’s like four times this series Caruso has taken a dirty shot at Castle on a layup
Caruso is not worth that much attention
fuck caruso, dirty ass bum
play on the ball WHERE? 😭😭
Dylan Harper is very likeable
We need the backboard cam POV
Literally pulled him down with two hand while he was in the air.
Completely grabbing an airborne player dragging them down not a flagrant lmao
Send in Olynyk. Let him work :)
Cant imagine thats not a flagrant. Low-key could be tone setting. Spurs gonna hit them back with that if they get the chance
Refs have been doing a good job of just letting both squads play so far tonight but thats a weird one to miss after a review
I don’t understand. It wasn’t a play on the ball to yank him down. Yank and hope he’s too fucked by the hard landing to make both fts?
Caruso is a thug
Imagine if someone did this to Shai lmao. Immediate ejection
Insane play to be just a common foul. It was initially a hard foul but the hand on the back and pull down is really bad.
Sure, sure. Why the hell not.
You will never convince me the dirty defense and the flopping offense isn’t coached and they don’t practice it. I’ve never seen a team this shameless. Constantly the victim while pulling this shit on the other end.
Didn’t someone do this to Caruso when he was on the Bulls & it actually resulted in an injury?
Expect anything different? Textbook flagrant.
This is outright conspiracy
How is breathing on SGA the same as this
NBA is a joke now haha
I’m fine with the initial foul, but to make that grab and then just let go to let him fall is a what should’ve made it a flagrant.
If this happened at a pick-up game, that dude is getting decked.
Caruso has such a punchable face
No flagrant. “Play on the ball” apparently.
I see no foul. He is just pulling him downwards. Isnt tha legal defence?
OKC this is why we hate yall
Dirty, cheating Thunder Floppers.
Absolute joke that this wasn’t a flagrant 1
Thank god the spurs won. Basketball was saved.
Caruso is the dirtiest piece of shit in the league. He winds up and hacks on every single possession but gets away with it for some stupid reason. He’s not even a good defender. Just a hack fuck
How does Caruso get away with this? This is the second time this series that I’ve seen hard foul someone while they’re in midair, which is incredibly dangerous. Should be a flagrant every time.
Meanwhile, other end of the court, a player can be touched lightly and a foul is immediately called. Makes no sense.
How is this only a common foul?
I can’t believe they didn’t call a flagrant on that one
Refs are taking this back.
Castle would be arrested of he did this to SGA
This really should have been a flagrant 2. Calling it a common foul is insane.
Equivalent of a hip drop tackle in the NFL
Holding a player and pulling down on them is an entirely different thing when they are fully in the air like this. Even though it didn’t start as a flagrant, it definitely should’ve been once he was airborne and this pulldown motion continued the way it did.
If it was a flagrant, it would be pretty valid. Dangerous play by Caruso as the intention near the end was no longer for the ball.
Bald fraud.
Refs gonna carry okc as usual
this is why guys like bron feign injury so shit like this dont happen. if castle looked hurt marc davis is giving a flagrant 1.
Dirty Bitch
Caruso is suck a bitch azz mf.
This whole team is full of the dirtiest cheap shot MF in the league. It’s a miracle nobody got hurt on the spurs.
I think the call is wrong but don’t mind it as a Spurs fan because we were pretty lucky to not get a flagrant on that stupid elbow in Hartenstein’s face.
Fuck Alex Caruso. Shitty ass playing style. Shitty ass team. Go flop yourself home.
lol
Put plumlee in
This is exactly what I mean when I say the NBA is scripted.
The ref\( cannot under any circumstances make the correct call in this situation. Thunder are on an 11-2 run at home in game 7 when the league has already released Knicks v Thunder NBA finals gear. Someone does something they aren’t supposed to, and the ref\) are handcuffed by the script. Common foul, can’t throw away the momentum or afford to make the correct call.
If the rules were more accurate this would be a F2
If this was a regular season game in January they’d review it for 10 minutes and call it a flagrant 2. Classic playoff whistle where pulling a guy down from behind on a fast break is just a marginal veteran contest lol
That’s a common foul in 1996, ref
Is this sub fill of little bitches?
I think all the thunder flairs are gone now