NBA Makes Decision on Wemby’s Shove of Jalen Brunson Amid Discussion for Upgrade to Flagrant Foul

Victor Wembanyama was not called for a foul when he shoved New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson in the first quarter of Monday’s Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals.

And he reportedly wasn’t given a flagrant upgrade either.

ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Tuesday the NBA decided not to upgrade the incident to a flagrant foul upon review. That means the San Antonio Spurs star will remain at two flagrant foul points for the postseason ahead of Wednesday’s Game 4.

The shove was part of a physical first quarter, as Knicks guard Josh Hart also picked up a technical foul following an exchange with Luke Kornet:

But it was the incident between Wembanyama and Brunson that drew far more attention given their status as the biggest stars of the series. Brunson was asked about it after the game and told reporters, “Whatever you saw is what you saw.”

While Charania reported the league decided it wasn’t a flagrant foul, NBA senior vice president and head of development and training for referee operations Monty McCutchen admitted during a Tuesday appearance on ESPN’s NBA Today that a foul should have been called.

“Well, most certainly I think we can all agree that a foul was missed on that play,” McCutchen said. “A big part of our job is on-ball, off-ball exchanges between referees. We did a poor job of that here, where we’ve got two people on ball and we don’t see the screening action. Lots of fighting over screens throughout the game. And if we break down in our fundamentals in even the smallest amounts, we have the opportunity to miss a clear foul as we missed here.”

That it wasn’t upgraded to a flagrant foul is a fortunate break for the Spurs.

After all, Wembanyama already has two flagrant foul points in the playoffs as a result of his flagrant-2 foul and ejection for elbowing Minnesota Timberwolves big man Naz Reid during the second round.

If a player gets four flagrant foul points during a single playoffs, he is automatically suspended for a game. The most famous incident of such a suspension came in the 2016 NBA Finals when Golden State Warriors Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 after his team built a 3-1 lead against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Cleveland ended up winning the next three games to take the championship.

As for Wembanyama, he would have been just a single flagrant foul away from a suspension had the incident with Brunson been upgraded to a flagrant-1. That may have impacted the overall physicality he played with for the rest of the series.

However, he now still has some breathing room after the NBA reportedly decided not to upgrade it.

And the Spurs have some momentum after he led the way with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists, three blocks and two steals in Monday’s 115-111 win that cut the Knicks’ lead in the series to 2-1.