After losing their first two games at home, the San Antonio Spurs are right back in the series after winning Game 3 of the NBA Finals. The 115-111 victory took a monkey off the Spurs back and puts all the pressure back on the New York Knicks. The game — more specifically, Victor Wembanyama — also put some pressure on the NBA and placed them in a very difficult position.
In the first quarter of Game 3, the Spurs star center and Jalen Brunson, the Knicks star guard, got tangled up in a play that in real-time appeared to be a somewhat minor dust-up. After the ABC broadcast showed a replay of the incident, however, it was clear that the referees missed a very clear foul on Wembanyama for shoving Brunson’s head towards the ground and then smiling when Brunson recovered and pointed at him as if to warn him.
The play went viral on social media within minutes, with fans wondering how the game’s three officials missed the call, why they couldn’t go back to review it, and what would happen after the game, when the league reviews all hostile acts for potential retroactive upgrades to flagrant fouls if deemed necessary.
Victor Wembanyama got away with a clear shove of Jalen Brunson's head/neck in the 1st quarterpic.twitter.com/Xd8zhbfuh7
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) June 9, 2026
Fans have been calling for it to be called upgraded to a flagrant foul, and that’s where the NBA is now in a very difficult position.
League rules state that a player is only allowed to accrue three flagrant foul points in the postseason, with a fourth leading to an automatic suspension. A flagrant foul penalty one is one flagrant foul point while a penalty two is two flagrant foul points.
Wembanyama already picked up a flagrant foul penalty two in the Spurs second round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, when he viciously elbowed center Naz Reid in the head. He was very quickly ejected from the game, picking up two flagrant foul points just like that.
Now, if Wembanyama is assessed a retroactive flagrant foul penalty one, he’ll be out of flagrant foul points for the remainder of this NBA Finals run. That means any additional flagrant foul will be an automatic one game suspension, regardless if it’s a penalty one or penalty two.
With how physical this series — and the Spurs playoff run in its entirety — has been, it would be in the NBA’s best interest to leave the one flagrant buffer there just in case an incident or foul happens that needs to be upgraded to a flagrant foul. But even then, if the league decides to do nothing about this last incident with Brunson, a flagrant foul penalty two for Wembanyama would mean an ejection from the game AND a one game suspension.
From the Knicks side, however, they’ve felt like Victor Wembanyama has gotten away with a number of overly aggressive and borderline dirty plays that should’ve resulted in flagrant fouls. The latest include this play with Brunson in Game 3 as well as grabbing Knicks guard Jose Alvarado around the head and seemingly tossing him out of the way in Game 2. Neither were upgraded as of Tuesday evening.
Wemby didn’t like Jose Alvarado boxing him out
pic.twitter.com/56P7kGavPN
— Kyle Ingram (@SnapshotKyle) June 6, 2026
There are a lot of things at play here as the league explores its options. It’s likely the San Antonio Spurs and the NBA themselves will, if they haven’t already, privately warn Victor Wembanyama about the potential ramifications of his some of his aggressive plays.
In related news, Josh Hart has accrued two flagrant foul points this postseason and can receive one more flagrant foul point before the next one would mean a one-game suspension. Additionally, Jalen Brunson also picked up his first flagrant foul point with a penalty one in Monday night’s Game 3 loss against the Spurs, so he’ll be allowed two more points before his fourth would mean a one-game suspension.
Game 4 of the NBA Finals will tip off on Wednesday, June 10th at 8:30PM EST on ABC.
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