Victor Wembanyama's first real flashpoint of the 2026 playoffs has the basketball world arguing whether the league office is about to hand the Spurs another body blow before Game 5.
Wembanyama was ejected in the second quarter of San Antonio's Game 4 loss in Minnesota after winding up and catching Naz Reid in the jaw with a right elbow. The Wolves were up two at the time, went on to win, and evened the second-round series at 2-2.
Spurs interim head coach Mitch Johnson defended his 21-year-old star in postgame, but in language that ESPN's Stephen A. Smith warned could only make matters worse for the league's reigning frustration.
"Every single play on every single part of the floor, people are trying to impose their physicality on him," Johnson said. "He's gotten chucked. He's gotten pushed down in transition. He doesn't complain one time... but at some stage he should be protected. And if not, he's going to have to protect himself. I'm glad he took matters into his own hands."
Johnson clarified he was not endorsing the hit on Reid, but added: "It's starting to get actually disgusting just in terms of when he tries to fight through things and be professional and mature and deal with some of that stuff."
That is the moment Stephen A. picked up on. Speaking on First Take, he said the message was the right one but the timing was indefensible — and that Wembanyama could pay for it.
"Mitch Johnson was making a valid point as a head coach for Victor Wembanyama coaching in the NBA playoffs. His timing was awful," Stephen A. said. "You can't say that after what happened yesterday. Wemby had no business doing what he's doing. So quite honestly, if the NBA suspended him for Game 5, we wouldn't be surprised. You can't put yourself in that position. It's just that simple."
Stephen A. went further on the play itself, calling the flagrant 2 obvious and predicting only Wembanyama's box-office value could save him.
"Wemby winded up and flailed his right elbow. It was clearly a flagrant 2. It was an automatic ejection. Everybody knows he had no business doing that," he said. "We all know the only reason if Wembanyama doesn't get suspended... will be because he's Victor Wembanyama and everybody in the world wants to see him play. That might save him. But the play itself warrants not just an ejection but a suspension for Game 5."
Jay Williams and Kendrick Perkins both pushed back on the suspension talk while acknowledging the play crossed a line. Williams, who said he had 28 stitches in his face from his playing days, argued Wembanyama is simply learning what every great big man eventually learns.
"Maybe it's because I'm cut from an old school cloth in basketball," Williams said. "I'm not condoning Wemby's actions, but at some point as a grown man or as a player, you got to draw a line for yourself... Shaq did stuff like this. Michael Jordan did stuff like this. Isaiah Thomas did stuff like this. We had some of the best players in the game who had a nasty side to them because sometimes the moment called for it."
Perkins, who pointed out that he led the league in technicals one season with Kevin Garnett and Rasheed Wallace, said the lesson cuts the other way for the Spurs' star.
"Wemby has to know that this is going to come," Perkins said. "He's 7-foot-5. The only way teams could try to get into him is by frustrating him and getting physical with him. No other way around it."
The league had not announced any supplemental discipline at the time of taping. Game 5 is in San Antonio, with the series tied 2-2 and the Wolves believing — in Stephen A.'s words — that they can win without Wembanyama on the floor.
