Stephon Castle does not claim to be immune from selling the occasional call here and there.
The San Antonio Spurs guard was tasked with slowing down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander throughout the Western Conference Finals and did as good a job as any defender could against the back-to-back MVP. Gilgeous-Alexander still averaged a solid 25.9 points per game, but did so on a subpar 40.9 percent shooting clip.
Fans could not help but juxtapose Castle’s rugged playstyle with that of SGA, which at times relies on exaggerating contact. The contrast prompted one reporter on Tuesday to ask Castle whether his refusal to sell contact similar to Gilgeous-Alexander works to the Spurs’ detriment at times.
“I don’t really know how to answer that, cause I sell calls too sometimes,” Castle admitted during his press conference ahead of Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
“I mean, I can’t lie… I think we talk to the refs a lot, especially me in particular, but most of the time they’re right.”
Castle added that it’s more of a “feel thing” that determines when he shows off his acting chops to catch the referees’ attention.
The Spurs’ second-year star averaged 6.6 free throw attempts per game across seven Western Conference Finals contests, which ranked second on the team behind Victor Wembanyama. A lot of those were seemingly drawn via Castle bulldozing his way to the rim, which had some fans labeling him an “ethical” hooper who plays the right way.
If Castle does indeed embellish contact at times, he does a pretty good job of masking it.
