Jalen Brunson and the Knicks pulled off a surprising win on the road in San Antonio to steal Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Spurs with a 105-95 win. Subsequently, the NBA is now reportedly looking into an interaction near the end of the game between Jalen Brunson and a disgruntled Spurs fan.
With 29.4 seconds left in the game, an unhappy Spurs fan apparently hurled some vulgar profanities at Brunson, which triggered him despite his team’s almost certain win at that point.
Brunson was engaging with the fan while OG Anunoby took free throws to push the game to a 10-point difference. NBA insider Chris Haynes first reported that the league is looking into the interaction.
“Sources: NBA is looking into two courtside fans who allegedly directed vulgar, profane ‘flopping’ remarks towards Knicks star Jalen Brunson late in Game 1 of Finals. Brunson met with official Scott Foster after the game to address the fans’ behavior, and the remarks continued,” wrote Haynes on X.
Instead of celebrating the win at the buzzer, the Knicks guard, who was clearly unhappy, ran over to Scott Foster, the chief crew official, to seemingly address the matter. He eventually lost his calm and had a few strong words for the fan.
A Knicks fan on social media compiled the timeline of events that were first caught on the Prime Video broadcast.
Who pissed off Jalen Brunson at the end of Game 1? pic.twitter.com/VBj0HrPxM9
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) June 4, 2026
This once again brings NBA fan conduct into the spotlight and reflects badly on the Spurs’ fans, two of whom faced lifetime bans earlier today after one of them stormed the court just to take a selfie with Victor Wembanyama. There are certain boundaries that NBA fans need to respect when it comes to their conduct with the athletes.
NBA fan conduct was brought into the spotlight earlier this season when fans started hurling profanity at players, even in public, for simply not meeting the expectations they set with their parlays and betting in sports. This forced the league office to take strict measures to enforce a conduct code on the fans in every NBA arena.
“It is critical that teams and arenas vigorously enforce the Code of Conduct and not tolerate any misconduct that impacts our players, fans, or otherwise disrupts the game,” the league reportedly said.
Brunson did not address the matter at the postgame press conference and even refused to comment on the incident when asked after practice today. It will be interesting to see if Brunson chooses to address the matter and what the league finds as a result of its investigation into the matter.
