The NBA will not hand down any further punishment against Victor Wembanyama after the Spurs star elbowed Minnesota Timberwolves forward Naz Reid in the chin Sunday evening, according to ESPN.
The Timberwolves won Game 4 of their second-round playoff series against the San Antonio Spurs, but the focus of the postgame conversation wasn’t their comeback victory, but rather the possible suspension of the 7-foot-4 superstar. Wembanyama was ejected in the second quarter after delivering an elbow to Reid’s face. Officials gave him a Flagrant 2 foul upon review, which meant an immediate ejection from the game. There was speculation that Wembanyama could face further punishment from the league, but the French big man will instead be suited up and ready for Game 5.
While we now know Wembanyama won’t face any further punishment, let’s break down why that ended up being the case based on the league’s rulebook, past examples and just plain old logic.
Victor Wembanyama ejection could haunt Spurs, but Mitch Johnson is ‘glad he took matters into his own hands’
Brad Botkin
What the NBA rulebook says
This isn’t as black and white a situation as one would hope. The NBA rulebook doesn’t explicitly dictate whether there should be an automatic suspension when a player elbows another player. If it were a punch, which it was not, then Wembanyama would’ve been facing at least a one-game suspension, per the league’s rulebook.
However, because it was an elbow, the decision on what to do in this situation was left to the league. Officials likely weighed several factors, like Wembanyama’s prior history with fouls like this, precedent from other similar incidents and the context of the situation, given it’s Game 5 of a tightly contested playoff series.
What history says
There are several examples of players throwing elbows, most notably when Metta World Peace hit James Harden with a vicious elbow in 2012. World Peace was suspended seven games for that incident, including the first six of the playoffs. Given his reputation as someone who was no stranger to suspensions, the league factored his history into that lengthy punishment.
Wembanyama doesn’t have a checkered reputation, so there’d be no reason to believe a suspension like that was ever on the table.
A closer example to Wembanyama’s incident is Hassan Whiteside in 2016. He elbowed Boban Marjanovic in a regular-season game and served a one-game suspension. Whiteside’s elbow to Marjanovic didn’t appear as egregious as Wembanyama’s, but again, Game 5 isn’t a random regular-season game, so the context is certainly different.
In 2021, LeBron James was suspended for one game after elbowing Isaiah Stewart, which escalated the situation between both teams. James’ was closer to a punch, though, as the side of his fist connected with Stewart’s face as he swung his elbow back while fighting for positioning on a free throw.
Given the precedent, it would’ve been reasonable to expect the league to suspend Wembanyama. Maybe not seven games like World Peace, but something.
What logic says
While there are tons of examples to suggest Wembanyama’s elbow fits the bill of getting a one-game suspension, there was plenty of reason to think it wouldn’t happen. For starters, Wembanyama doesn’t have a history of being a “dirty” player or of regularly getting into situations where he reacts like this, so the league probably took that into account.
Since the ejection happened so early in the game — there was 8:39 left in the second quarter — they might’ve also used it as a time served situation, given he missed most of Game 4 already.
Most importantly, though, it would’ve just been very surprising to see the league suspend Wembanyama in the middle of this heavyweight battle between the Spurs and the Timberwolves. Look at how the NBA handled LaMelo Ball during the Play-In tournament. Ball grabbed at Bam Adebayo’s ankle, causing him to land awkwardly and sustain an injury that kept him out of the remainder of that game. Ball was given a Flagrant 1 foul, which the league upgraded to a Flagrant 2 and a $35,000 fine after the game ended. However, despite public opinion that Ball should’ve been suspended for Charlotte’s next Play-In game against the Magic, he was not.
There are certainly differences to the situation; Ball wasn’t ejected from the game, though the league upgrading the flagrant foul meant they thought he should’ve been. History tells us that the league would’ve been warranted in suspending Wembanyama, but this is a high-stakes situation. This is the playoffs and the league wants Wembanyama out there too.
