The Spurs are ruining Knicks fans' long and proud reputation

Fan bases, like organizations, develop reputations that people become very familiar with in the sports world. Lakers fans are entitled, Thunder fans are annoying, and Knicks fans are belligerent. New Yorkers are supposed to be tough guys, and their entire brand has been built on that identity. You wouldn't know it based on all of the complaining they've done about officiating.

Mike Brown kicked things off with his rant about fouls after their 115-111 loss to San Antonio, and Knicks fans have been running with it. All night and into the early morning, all you hear from them is whining about the Spurs' physicality. Their players are manhandling Victor Wembanyama every chance they get, but you don't hear much from SA fans because that's come to be expected.

The Timberwolves and Thunder games were much more brutal than anything we've seen in this series, but that hasn't been New York's experience in the postseason. They've had a smoother route against poor defenses in the Eastern Conference, so an elite one looks like assault to their coach and their fans, so they complain. It makes them look weak.

The NBA playoffs are supposed to be a battleground

Winning a championship isn't supposed to be easy, despite what their cleared-out path to the final round led them to believe. The Spurs are not the Cavaliers, the 76ers, or the Hawks. They play hard on virtually every possession, getting up into the ballhandlers and fighting for position on the interior. They aren't going to let Jalen Brunson and these guys just run their offense unimpeded.

It's the same lesson San Antonio learned in Game One of the second round against Minnesota. Up until that point, the Silver and Black had scored at least 111 points in every game that Wembanyama started and finished. That ended in the opening meeting with the Timberwolves.

They only scored 102 in a loss as the visiting team pushed, grabbed, and pulled the Spurs all around the floor. It was a completely different level of physicality from what they encountered in the first round with the Portland Trail Blazers, but all they could do was adjust to it, so they did.

Spurs' physicality is a key trait that isn't going away

So, that Brunson shove may have been aggressive, but the Knicks' star was grabbing a fistful of the Alien's jersey. And watch how they defend him when he doesn't have the ball; guys throw themselves into him, grab him with two hands to disrupt his movement, and commit all kinds of acts that could be called a foul. He plays through it, and sometimes, he's going to get you off of him. It's what he should do.

We don't want anyone to get hurt, and JB didn't, so let's stop the hand-wringing. He didn't even hit the floor. People have been on Wembanyama to play with more physicality from day one. Critics have called him soft, and game plans are built around trying to bully him. Nobody wants to hear any crying now that he's proving them all wrong and fighting back.

This team used to be known for a rough and rugged style of basketball. Their players were tough, and their faithful were the same. To the credit of the team, they've brought their fight to the NBA Finals, but the fans of yesteryear seem to have faded.

Spurs fans were told to expect a hostile environment too tough for these young guys to overcome. It's probably hard for them to realize in real time that their fortress is nothing more than a tourist destination—a vacation spot for the elite. Nobody is intimidated by that atmosphere, and complaining after getting your lunch money taken only makes it worse. Do better.

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