'Ya’ll Need to Stop': Charles Barkley Explodes Over Complaints About OKC Guarding Wemby

Hartenstein played 27 minutes in Game 2 and was told by his coach that his number would be frequently called in the game. What was his primary job on the court?

To defend one of the most unguardable players on the planet.

But the Thunder big man did more than what he was asked to. Barkley believes that the physicality on Wemby was not excessive, with no fouls being called throughout.

“Was Hartenstein physical, putting a body on him? He just put a body on Wemby. It wasn’t overly aggressive. There was no excessive fouls. For you people thinking that’s physicality, y’all need to shut the h*** up!”

Wemby scored just 21 points. It’s a good number, but for a player of Wembanyama’s caliber, Hartenstein had done a great job. He largely kept the Spurs star out of the paint and didn’t let him dominate the paint like Game 1, when he had 26 points from the area.

In Game 2? Just 10 points.

While he did a great job defending Wemby, he was also good on offense. The Thunder big man scored 10 points and caught 13 rebounds, out of which eight rebounds were offensive rebounds. 

Not everyone was on board with his physicality, though.

NBA analyst slams Hartenstein’s defense on Victor Wembanyama

While Barkley defended the physicality with which Hartenstein defended Wembanyama, NBA analyst Bill Simmons wasn’t happy with how much physicality the referees allowed against the Spurs star.

Simmons expressed his opinion in an X post.  

“I didn’t think Hartenstein was playable in this series — but if he’s gonna be allowed to maul and grab Wemby like this on every play, he should play 48 minutes.”

“This is hilarious.”

While Barkley can appreciate the physicality in Game 2, the highlight clips of Hartenstein on social media showed a bit of grabbing and holding of Wembanyama.

In the fourth quarter, he even caught Stephon Castle while the referee looked at the play. The possession ended in a 3-point play from the Thunder.

It is unlikely that the same amount of physicality would be allowed in Game 3, in front of the San Antonio home crowd.