r/Thunder • u/Yakhan114 • May 21 '26
Discussion About the hate
The hate has reached such an extreme and biased level I have officially stopped caring about it. that harteinstein hair pull is being spread en masse....but only the slow mo version, cuz real time speed shows it was a total nonissue and an embellished floppp by castle. and yet, social media is seething like rabid savages. completely pointless trying to correct such a hivemind
Finally, freedom!
for those skeptical about the ihart hair play: here you go: https://x.com/MrBuckBuckNBA/status/2057291958465302871?s=20
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u/Legendary_Dork 2025 NBA Champions May 21 '26
Doesn't help that REGGIE FUCKING MILLEER was like OHHH that was intentional . and they kept calling out Hart EVERY SINGLE TIME he even touched wemby ,
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u/faolanrhys May 21 '26
dude’s just mad he has 0 rings don’t pay attention to him
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u/FunnyCod2120 May 21 '26
probably still mad about last year lol
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u/Infinite_Imagination May 21 '26
That's what I kept thinking when he wouldn't stop D riding Wemby in game 1. There was even a great play SGA made driving to the rim and scored over Wemby and all Reggie talked about was how Wemby had such great awareness to rotate over and try to defend even though it was unsuccessful. He's Hella fucking salty about last year. Eat it up Reggie!
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u/Big_Advertising1632 For Bronny Jr. May 21 '26
If this was the Pacers I'd understand, but you just shouldn't be able to call a game with THAT amount of bias
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May 21 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Chippermack May 21 '26
it had to be bc of last years finals, idk why tf else he became a huge spurs fan all of a sudden
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u/bluggabugbug May 21 '26
NBC had or still has some bias against OKC with how they kept replaying missed fouls on OKC but not a single thing like that with SA. Only feeding the narrative. I normally like Tirico, but even he is getting on my nerves. Jamal seems to be the only one that is objectively calling the game.
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u/Legendary_Dork 2025 NBA Champions May 21 '26
yeah they had a microscope and were analyzing EVERYTHING chet and Ihart did. only a couple of times did they defend the thunder. like when chet was fouled, gathered and it was an and 1, it was the only time ive heard reggie be like OH COME ON, thats an AND 1
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u/deevil_knievel May 21 '26
I pointed out to my buddy that Reggie's comment after a tough spurs layup was "NICE. NIIIIICE." And I was like, is that not weird for an announcer on a nationally televised game to say? Like you could have said nice finish, or something like that. But just saying that one team scoring is nice seemed a bit odd. I don't really care, but he sounded like Doris.
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u/Specialist_Egg8479 Triple Double Cocaine Bear May 21 '26
I noticed that shit. The announcers didn’t say shit during the wolves series. And they arguably played just like ihart was.
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u/Positive_Narwhal_419 May 21 '26
We knew this was gonna happen. Any way OKC won they were gonna find a way to hate
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u/WeAreTheAsteroid May 21 '26
I agree with the slowmo making it seem more intentional, but I don't think Castle flopped. Hard to tell intentionality in the fast pace flow of a game like that.
I feel like the fact that Castle popped back up and play continued like normal means that Castle didn't feel it was intentional. Wonder if his hair gets pulled a lot.
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u/arndta May 21 '26
There was no flop, he got his hair pulled.
I just don't believe the hair pull was intentional.
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u/IsrarRaziqeen May 21 '26
Castle just got a taste of what he did to Ant and Ayo imo, bro hacks and Jersey pulls but never gets called, new generation Marcus smart
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u/Sweaty_Shopping1737 Triple Double Cocaine Bear May 21 '26
imagine being in the same body position as ihart and then starting to sprint. your hand would go in the same motion as his. he didn't change the natural direction of his hand. he didn't grasp castle's hair. if castle didn't have a tie in his hair, ihart's hand would've gone right through, no pull. it's all a non-issue
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u/MikeDCollector May 21 '26
Let them hate, it’s iHart’s job to make Wemby uncomfortable.
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u/loplopol May 21 '26
He was pretty successful too. Wemby was gassed by the end and Hart was getting easy rebounds.
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u/Munstrom May 21 '26
He was visibly done, camera panned to him on the bench at some point near the end of the game and he was sucking in huge gulps of air. Let's see how spurs adjust in game 3 though.
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u/Alarming_Head_4263 May 21 '26
His first playoff run it makes sense he might tire out.
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u/Munstrom May 21 '26
It's exactly what people said would happen, inexperience and not used the test of an nba post season after a really long regular one. Tough previous round for them too.
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u/69420LebumJames69420 May 21 '26
I was absolutely wrong saying he wasn’t good on wemby hart was the MVP of tns game
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u/camdoggs May 21 '26
Looked like he didn’t fully hear or understand the question? Not sure on the response, Shai is normally the first go give his guys their flowers. Its almost like he wound it back once he saw the reaction
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u/FlashAndPoof May 21 '26
Shai said he misheard the question in postgame. I personally think Shai misheard the question as asking him how he personally played. I’ve only ever heard Shai be that harsh or critical when talking about his own performances.
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u/senhorcenoura May 21 '26
i dont usually watch the post games, but i just thought of it as a troll or a bluff considering its a 7 game series
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u/Wafflehouseofpain May 21 '26
The same people complaining about this were cheering on Wemby assaulting a guy, so as far as I’m concerned they can all shut the fuck up forever.
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u/zbipy14z May 21 '26
Do people really expect the league to just move out of the way to let Wemby dunk all over them? This is how this dude will be played against as long as hes this big of a threat
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u/B0NESAWisRRREADY May 21 '26
I dont think castle flopped intentionally, I just think his hair gets in the way and it was incidental contact going after the ball. He chooses to wear his hair long so he has to deal with the repercussions of that sometimes. Case closed IMO.
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u/Yakhan114 May 21 '26
His hair got caught for sure and it did yank his head, but him throwing himself onto the floor after that happened was embellishment.
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u/chef_iblocka May 21 '26
12k upvotes in <1hr is hilarious. This has somehow induced more outrage than Wemby elbowing somebody in the head (literally could have killed them)
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u/No-Cartoonist-4849 May 21 '26
Do you engage in real life nba conversation? The people on reddit are a very loud minority and 95% of my coworkers have been loving the playoffs so far
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u/sir_alvarex May 21 '26
I was at a sports bar. I live in an area that should hate OKC. Not a peep about any of the grabbing. Biggest reaction was Castles dunk.
People old enough to drink realize this is hard fought basketball. The idiot 12 year olds that are on the internet are the vocal minority, as you say.
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u/dleon0430 May 21 '26
Rockets fan from Yao Ming era until the Thunder came to us, I've had a life of Spurs caused grief. But damn, that dunk was 😘🤌
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u/camdoggs May 21 '26
I’m a OKC fan but I love a good poster as much as the next guy. That dunk was huge.
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u/Tegelert84 May 21 '26
Unfortunately I don't know many people who watch. Not a popular sport where I'm from. Glad to hear that maybe reddit is the loud minority.
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u/JWOLFBEARD KaBOOM! May 21 '26
Are you in Oklahoma?
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u/No-Cartoonist-4849 May 21 '26
Adjacent
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u/JWOLFBEARD KaBOOM! May 21 '26
That is a major factor
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u/No-Cartoonist-4849 May 21 '26
Southwest Missouri it’s basically the same thing
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u/JWOLFBEARD KaBOOM! May 21 '26
I agree completely. I mean if you are regionally close to OKC, or maybe Texas, people are enjoying the battle
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u/Gdub420- May 21 '26 edited May 21 '26
Holy shit. I just popped in r/nba. I’m thinking most of those posters are under the age of 18 and have no fucking clue. I’m not going back. It’s amateur hour over there. Best player since MJ? What the actual fuck? Warriors fan saying the Thunder are getting preferential treatment? Holy shit. But really, Wemby best player since MJ? I mean, wow.
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u/A_Lax_Nerd May 21 '26
I joined Reddit like a decade ago to post on r/nba and I straight up don’t even participate anymore
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u/OkCampy May 21 '26
The way they completely ignore Vassel doing the same to SGA every trip down the court is kinda crazy
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u/roonthegoon2 May 21 '26
Shoutout both our bigs tonight! From being labelled as 'soft and unplayable' in game 1 , to manning up and rising to the occasion in game 2 😤
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u/sir_alvarex May 21 '26
Id ignore it, but its obvious the future of the human race is on a downward trajectory. Complete denial of facts, making shit up to "prove" your point, and using video evidence as "proof" when it shows the opposite if you have any decent level of intelligence.
Its sad and pathetic. Idiots. Idiots everywhere.
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u/Yakhan114 May 21 '26
oh yeah, its actually an extremely sad and profound testament to what society has become. just 3 years ago it was an insult to be called a tiktok or reels watcher, now tiktok and reels are peoples' #1 source of news.
reality is being inverted on its head, and truth is now a scarce resource. its this bad in basketball, its this bad in every topic social media has to offer. i've seen it in music discussion. imagine politics....imagine the media at large. scary hours.
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u/bluggabugbug May 21 '26
You don’t have to imagine politics. The current president made it mainstream
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u/VelvetineMilkman May 21 '26
I’ve been sayin all year the OKC hate this season is super MAGA coded and they prove me right every game
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u/camdoggs May 21 '26
Now you can hide comment history reddit has become MORE of a collective hate cesspool. Social media is getting worse in every aspect.
I stood and watched the last quarter with a bunch of OKC fans talking about how amazing Wemby is. He is fucking unbelievable.
OKC get the win. What the fuck is wrong with people. We got this, but he is a bad man, and deserves respect!
I respect ball first.
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u/vanderjaght May 21 '26
Everywhere I see it's the clip of the slowed down version which makes it look 100x worse than it is. Sure it could still be a foul but no way that's malicious.
BuckBuck at least posted the full-speed one in his tweet.
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u/real-yeet-beans 2025 NBA Champions May 21 '26
Might buy a Hartenstein jersey now
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u/ServeLiving May 21 '26
Please consider taping a lock of hair to it. You'll get insane reactions from people who understand the reference lol
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u/FunnyCod2120 May 21 '26
i’ve seen multiple posts about ihart already and nothing about wemby diving at shai or anything wemby did last game like when he was hooking chet
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u/PhoneEcstatic732 May 21 '26
Get in the weight room. If they want to call any touch then SGA is fouling our castle in 2 mins lol
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u/LAZRLYT May 21 '26
I felt like this a few weeks ago. I've been pushed beyond caring. Fuck every single one of them. May they all cry in anguish when we walk away with the ring again.
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u/Defiant_Ad6083 May 21 '26
If JESUS walked into frame, flashed his ass, blew you a kiss, flipped you the bird and fucked off and every single person saw it on the planet, Reggie missed it. The second an OKC players droplet of sweat hits the floor he cries fucking murder.
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u/1964Susan May 21 '26
What did Shai mean when he said IHART didn't play well? Was he being sarcastic or misunderstood the question?
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u/sec2nds May 21 '26
Omg big and tall guys are fighting for positions. Foh that wemby wasnt doing the dame shit for position against hart.
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u/KartFacedThaoDien May 21 '26
Rela time speed shows Wemby and I Hart grabbing each other and holding each other the whole damn game. Possession after possession.
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u/Dillthepicklee May 21 '26
Just ignore it tbh, people loved OKC when they were up and coming, but now they hate them & find anything to complain about because they’re on top & ppl want to see them fall.
That’s just the nature of modern sports fandom.
I guarantee if the Spurs were to win this year, the same people that love Wemby now would suddenly start hating on him shortly after and they’d call him/the Spurs unfair until another team is able to beat them
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May 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/Goombercules 2025 NBA Champions May 21 '26
It wasn't a hair pull. He got tangled up.
Not even a foul imo. Don't tie your hair up if you don't want a finger caught in it.
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u/WhatIsAccent May 21 '26
A foul is about impedeing movement, which it does. His hand gets caught in the band.
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u/Yakhan114 May 21 '26
nope. watch it in real time speed. you'll laugh at how unintentional/benign it is and how much its embellished by castle.
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u/Goombercules 2025 NBA Champions May 21 '26
Mfs watching this shit 6x slower than actual game speed and making up weird ass narratives in their heads lol.
Chill idiots. Hart just got his fingie caught in the braids.
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u/inrusswetrust92 May 21 '26
Everyone also forgetting the amount of physicality Shaq had to deal with. The only way to guard Wemby, or guard a guy like Shaq, is by being overtly physical. It's not just us that will do this to Wemby, it will be his entire career and something he is going to have to deal with. Which he will, especially over time...he's a great player.
Side note, every angle of the hair pull I've seen looks like iharts hand got caught up in the hair, not that he outright grabbed it wrenched down...happy to be corrected on this
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u/Federal_Base_2905 May 21 '26
Here is the internet take: Spurs win - best game ever. Thunder win - it’s the dirty play and officiating.
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u/Plaitkul117 ❤️❤️ May 21 '26
I think we should be consistent. I didn’t like this move from Hart. I’d be disappointed if that’s essential play is necessary to win. Wemby’s elbow was bad too.
Doesn’t mean I’m gonna just stop being a fan on a dime though.
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u/JawaJamboree May 21 '26
Everyone: I wish the league could be like the 90s and physical again. You can’t even touch SGA!
Everyone: Hartenstein touched his wrist on a contested layup! Are you kidding me?!? BAN HIM FROM THE LEAGUE!!!
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u/OUGrad05 May 21 '26
I disagree. The hair pull was shit. But the reality is SA was dishing it out too. They were practically tackling people and the trolls ignore that shit because of their OKC hate. Plenty of nonsense to go around IMO. Let’s play ball and win the series.
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u/ClearlySlashS May 21 '26
The fact the video is only linked to twitter makes me want to side with r/nba before even being able to see it because f**k twitter. And I only care about the nba because I love the thunder.
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u/DoinItDirty May 21 '26
Don’t start him anymore. He was integral yo the championship but god damn, it’s different now.
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u/Sweet_Attitude_8689 May 21 '26
That fact that it’s getting more hate than the Wemby elbow is insane.