NBA players have perfected how to manipulate referees into making foul calls that benefit them offensively. Not only are they trying to trick defenders into making costly mistakes, they are also trying to trick officials into blowing the whistle for contact that seems more egregious than it is.
It’s something the NBA is trying to crack down on. Teams have been given more leeway to play a physical type of basketball on defense, as they are identifying certain moves that will no longer draw calls from the officials.
Some players have made a living from this. Trae Young of the Atlanta Hawks, James Harden of the Los Angeles Clippers, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder have reputations as foul chasers.
According to ESPN NBA insider Brian Windhorst, you can now add New York Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson to that list. During a recent episode of the Hoop Collective podcast, Windhorst called Brunson a foul catcher who simply doesn’t have the reputation of someone like Young or Harden.
“He doesn’t have the reputation of Harden or Trae Young, but he’s a hunter of evil… he uses the dark arts. That’s what the refs are cracking down on, the fouls that he gets sometimes are not the ones they’re going to give him,” Windhorst said of the Knicks’ NBA All-Star point guard.