Yahoo Sports Daily hosts Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz react to Victor Wembanyama’s ejection in San Antonio Spurs Game 4 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves and discuss how a potential suspension could change the NBA playoffs. Watch the full episode of Yahoo Sports Daily on YouTube or YahooSports.TV.
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Video Transcript
One of the biggest stars in the league, one of the biggest names we’ve seen, one of the superstars we’ve talked about so much, Victor Wembanyama, ejected with 8:39 left in the second quarter.
You see it there, the earliest an All-Star has been ejected from a playoff game in the play-by-play era, and he was ejected for going full Nature Boy, throwing an elbow.
Absolutely chaotic moment in the game.
Stunner for all of us that saw Wemby kicked out.
But we needed some drama.
I mean, like, you know, Knicks-Philly, like, wasn’t going to give us any sort of drama.
Nothing juicy from that series.
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The juiciest thing was the just sheer number of Knicks fans represented in Philadelphia.
So we needed some juice.
We needed some drama.
We needed some tea, and we needed some controversy.
I just didn’t know it was going to come at the hands of Victor Wembanyama.
Victor Wembanyama did a dumb thing that hurt the team last night, and it may continue to hurt the team.
We don’t know.
It’s been widely speculated and debated since last night of will Victor Wembanyama be suspended for at least a game, if not more?
They went in with the opportunity to win this game even without Wemby.
I think it is fair, though, to look at this moment and wonder how it changes the playoffs.
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Because if he’s suspended, if it’s even one game, how much does that change the way this entire series plays out?
Now all of a sudden you’re going into this situation.
Instead of being up 3-1, now they’re stuck in a 2-2 series, and they might be without their most important player.
And I struggle to know what the league’s gonna do here because part of me looks at it and says, look, any time a play ends, you sort of have a, a second, and then you turn around and you elbow somebody, you’re going to get kicked out of a game.
And this looked particularly brutal in part because of Wemby’s size.
I mean, when he goes to throw this elbow, he’s at a spot where he’s elbowing somebody right in the throat.
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Like, this isn’t a, oh, it’s a weird elbow to the chest.
It isn’t a weird elbow to the shoulder.
It’s an elbow directly to the throat.
It felt like a WWE moment.
And when you do that, and, and again, part of that’s just because Wemby’s a massive human being, but he’s gotta be aware of that.
So look, if, if he doesn’t get suspended additionally, and I could see the league coming in and saying, “Hey, he missed so much of this game, that basically counts as a one-game suspension.”
I could see them doing that.
If he’s back on the court, no harm, no foul.
You can figure this out.
If he misses a game, it could change the entire trajectory of the NBA playoffs.
