One of the key talking points from the Knicks’ Game 3 loss was the amount of physicality the officials allowed the Spurs to play with. There was a controversial incident in the first quarter where Victor Wembanyama shoved Jalen Brunson down from the back of his neck, which raised a lot of eyebrows around the league.
Brunson frustrated at Wemby 😳 pic.twitter.com/0xd2HO78NV
— ESPN (@espn) June 9, 2026
Not only was there no foul called on the act, but ESPN’s senior NBA insider, Shams Charania, has also now confirmed, upon the league’s review, that there will be no further action taken against Victor Wembanyama.
After taking a closer look, it was also later spotted on social media that Jalen Brunson had a fistful of Victor Wembanyama’s jersey, which led the French star to push himself away from Brunson. Due to the sheer size difference between Wembanyama (7’5″) and Jalen Brunson (6’2″), his arm reached the back of Brunson’s neck at the first point of contact.
Closer look 🔍
Jalen Brunson appears to have a hidden fistful of Victor Wembanyama’s jersey, while attempting to pin him in place.
Wembanyama reacts by swatting him away, and the chain reaction ends with Stephon Castle catching contact in the face while Brunson hits the deck.… https://t.co/RqOx47JJMM pic.twitter.com/BqgbK90FtK
— SpursRΞPORTΞR (@SpursReporter) June 9, 2026
Furthermore, after the incident, Wembanyama received a lot of support from former NBA players like Shaquille O’Neal and DeMarcus Cousins as well, for using his size to dominate Brunson physically.
“This is what you want to see from your big man. I like that move right there from Wemby,” said Shaquille O’Neal during the halftime show.
“You’ve got to let those little munchkins know… Get your little a– off me. Listen, from a guy that’s won four championships, some people want to win by tactics, some people want to win by killing. You know what? You keep doing it, that ain’t no dirty play, [Tell Brunson] get your little a– out the way. If I’m not winning by tactics, Ernie, I’m busting your a–,” O’Neal further added.
Cousins heard O’Neal’s opinions and voiced his support of Wembanyama as well during today’s episode of Run It Back.
“Hey, I do agree with that. If I did that, they would have probably ejected me. But I’m not mad at him. I get out of the way. I’m not mad at him. Get out of the way, man. I agree with Shaq,” Cousins said.
Chandler Parsons pointed out that this act from Wembanyama at least warranted a technical foul, if not a flagrant.
“Maybe so, but it’s still sending a message at the end of the day. It’s a lot of things that the small guards and the smaller defenders get away with when it comes to bigs,” Cousins concluded.
Jalen Brunson did not speak on this incident in detail beyond saying “you saw what you saw”, but the Knicks’ head coach, Mike Brown, made sure to voice his concerns with the officiating in detail.
Wembanyama dominated with his physicality and size on both ends of the floor. The French star finished Game 3 by leading all scorers with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists, two steals, and three blocks to stuff the box score. He shot 11-18 from the floor (61.1 FG%) and 2-4 from beyond the arc (50.0 3P%).
The Game ended with a 115-111 win for the Spurs, at least for Game 5 at home in this series, instead of risking a potential sweep on the road. Game 4 is scheduled for tomorrow night, Wednesday, June 10
