NBA Will Not Upgrade Wembanyama Shove to Flagrant Foul

The NBA will not upgrade Victor Wembanyama’s shove of Jalen Brunson to a flagrant foul after Game 3 of the NBA Finals. A league spokesperson told ESPN that the contact will remain an uncalled foul. Wembanyama stays at two flagrant points entering Game 4.

The play occurred with 4:44 left in the first quarter. Brunson set a screen and grabbed Wembanyama’s jersey; Wembanyama pushed Brunson down from the back of the neck. A flagrant 1 would have given Wembanyama three points. Four points trigger an automatic one-game suspension.

Jose Alvarado said the contact crossed a line. “I think that’s not basketball,” he said.

McCutchen, the NBA’s head of officiating, agreed officials missed a foul. “Well, most certainly I think we can all agree that a foul was missed on that play,” McCutchen said. Wembanyama had already received a flagrant 2 earlier in the postseason for elbowing Naz Reid’s throat.

The Spurs defeated the Knicks 115-111 on Monday. The Knicks committed 13 turnovers to the Spurs’ eight, and San Antonio scored 21 points off those turnovers compared with the Knicks’ seven.

Knicks coach Mike Brown pointed to the free-throw disparity. “I never thought I’d be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free throw attempts in the second half to another team’s eight,” he said. ESPN broadcaster Richard Jefferson opined on air that the referees should have called a flagrant 1 on Wembanyama for his actions in that moment, and also mentioned how “Wemby’s laughing at it.”