{"id":702902,"date":"2026-06-14T04:09:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702902\/"},"modified":"2026-06-14T04:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T04:09:08","slug":"victor-wembanyama-flagrant-foul-controversy-explained-should-spurs-star-be-suspended-for-possible-game-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/702902\/","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama flagrant foul controversy, explained: Should Spurs star be suspended for possible Game 6?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Wembanyama flagrant foul controversy, explained: Should Spurs star be suspended for possible Game 6?<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama<\/a> caught the ire of Knicks<\/a> fans across the world partway through Game 5. It remains to be seen whether he’ll face repercussions as a result of it.<\/p>\n

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The Spurs<\/a> supernova was the subject of a flagrant foul controversy after a contentious close out on New York standout Jalen Brunson<\/a>. The incident \u2014 and lack of a foul call \u2014 had some wondering whether Wembanyama should’ve been assessed a flagrant foul.<\/p>\n

With that, here’s what you need to know about Wembanyama’s confrontation with Brunson, as well as what it could mean for Wembanyama’s prospects for the remainder of the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

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Victor Wembanyama flagrant foul controversy<\/p>\n

Partway through the third quarter, Wembanyama leapt while attempting to contest a Jalen Brunson triple. While Brunson dismounted, Wembanyama slid his feet beneath the Knicks star. Brunson landed awkwardly, his ankle buckling as he trotted atop the San Antonio<\/a> standout’s foot.<\/p>\n

The incident appeared to meet the criteria for a “landing area” flagrant foul. No foul was assessed to Wembanyama \u2013 neither a common foul nor a flagrant. Brunson appeared frustrated with the lack of a call.<\/p>\n

If Wembanyama was assessed a flagrant, that would have been his fourth penalty point of the postseason, triggering an automatic one-game suspension.<\/p>\n

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What is a ‘landing area’ flagrant foul?<\/p>\n

A “landing area” flagrant foul, as defined by the NBA Video Rulebook<\/a>, refers to a defender “not allowing an airborne shooter to return to the floor safely.” Those who are found to have impeded upon a shooter’s landing zone are assessed a flagrant foul, penalty 1.<\/p>\n

The rule was established ahead of the 2017-18 NBA season. Also know as the “Zaza Rule”, the decree was established after the 2017 Western Conference Finals. In Game 1 of that series, Warriors<\/a> big Zaza Pachulia<\/a> slid under then-Spurs star Kawhi Leonard<\/a> while he attempted a two-point jump shot.<\/p>\n

Leonard landed on Pachulia’s foot, rolling his ankle and re-aggravating an injury he suffered earlier in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Leonard proceeded to exit the game and miss the remainder of the series. San Antonio fell in four games to Golden State.<\/p>\n

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Can NBA retroactively change foul into flagrant 1?<\/p>\n

The NBA, indeed, has the authority to deem missed calls as flagrant fouls. The league has wielded that authority on numerous occasions, including, most recently, when it upgraded a missed foul call on LaMelo Ball<\/a> to a flagrant foul, penalty 2. Ball was deemed to have deliberately tripped Bam Adebayo<\/a> during the Hornets<\/a>‘ play-in win over the Heat<\/a>. He was not whistled for a foul during the game.<\/p>\n

What happens if NBA retroactively changes foul to flagrant 1?<\/p>\n

If the NBA were to retroactively assess Wembanyama a flagrant 1, he would receive his fourth penalty point of the postseason. That would trigger an automatic one-game suspension which would go into effect if San Antonio was to send the series to a sixth game.<\/p>\n

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Will Victor Wembanyama be suspended?<\/p>\n

There’s a very good chance that Wembanyama will be suspended. It seems highly probable that the league will retroactively issue him a flagrant 1 given the nature of his apparent violation. If so, that would see him miss Game 6 \u2014 if the series runs that long, that is.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama flagrant foul controversy, explained: Should Spurs star be suspended for possible Game 6? originally appeared on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":702903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8910,55423,36783,45193,11653,25169,25179,355,6999,99,32090,4202,303871],"class_list":["post-702902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-bam-adebayo","tag-flagrant-foul","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-jose-alvarado","tag-kawhi-leonard","tag-knicks","tag-lamelo-ball","tag-nba","tag-san-antonio","tag-sports","tag-victor-wembanyama","tag-warriors","tag-zaza-pachulia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/702903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}