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San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama isn't generally known as a dirty player who takes cheap shots. Still, his ejection from Sunday night's Game 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves certainly will get attention from the NBA.
In the game's second quarter, players were going for a rebound, with Wemby able to grab the ball while surrounded by two Timberwolves players, including Naz Reid.
He then began trying to clear out while holding the ball and threw an elbow directly into Reid's face, knocking him onto the court.
Immediately, the referees whistled the play dead with a foul on Wemby and went over to the monitors to review what had happened.
After several moments of reviewing the monitors, they determined it was a Flagrant 2 foul on the Spurs' former No. 1 pick, and they ejected the Spurs star from the game.
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After asking a Spurs teammate what the referee's call against him meant, a camera showed Wemby walking into the tunnel towards the locker room, clapping after his ejection.
He exited with four points, four rebounds, one assist, two turnovers, three fouls, and the ejection.
NBC's commentator Mike Tirico indicated it was the first time in Wembanyama's career that he had been ejected from a game.
Video clips immediately surfaced on various social media, including the Underdog NBA account on X, showing the hard elbow to Reid's face.
Reid got knocked down, but stood up and shook off the hard elbow, then later made a technical foul free throw. That helped the Timberwolves maintain a slim lead over their Western Conference foes.
Meanwhile, the key story here is Wemby's potential punishment after that foul. While Wemby's not known as a malicious player in the league, the NBA likely won't tolerate that overly physical shot to the face.
Typically, a player will receive at least a fine for a Flagrant 2. A recent example was the Charlotte Hornets' LaMelo Ball, who tripped Bam Adebayo during a play-in game several weeks ago, resulting in Adebayo exiting the game due to an injury and the Hornets winning in overtime.
The league fined Ball $35,000 for that incident, and then another $25,000 for his swearing during postgame remarks.
The Los Angeles Lakers' Deandre Ayton also had a Flagrant 2 ejection on April 26 after hitting the Houston Rockets' Alperen Sengun in the head with his forearm. However, many felt this foul should have been a Flagrant 1, and Ayton never received any additional fine for it.
Suspensions are also possible, but not always handed out as a Flagrant 2 penalty. If that is the case for Wembanyama after the league's review, it could certainly hinder the Spurs' chances at defeating the Timberwolves in this semifinal matchup.
Either way, it would be surprising if he doesn't receive at least a hefty fine for that sort of elbow to the face of his opponent, who fortunately wasn't knocked out of the game.
Based on Wemby's initial reaction to the call by asking his teammate what it meant, it seemed he didn't even know about that rule, so the young star is learning something new each game.
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