The NBA has announced that it has rescinded the technical foul called on Victor Wembanyama with 11 seconds left in the fourth quarter of Friday’s win over the Hawks. The call was part of a double technical that was handed to him and DeAndre Hunter after Hunter posterized Wemby with a high flying dunk to tie the game up. Hunter then stared him down as he lay on the floor, and the two started talking as Wemby stood back up.
Without knowing what Wemby said, it seemed like a cop out on the refs part to call the double technical since he didn’t seem to deserve it for merely responding and not escalating things further after Hunter’s actions. Most likely, the refs did not want a technical free throw to be a game-decider, so they took the easy way out since they had to call something.
Well, as it turns out, they made the wrong call according to the NBA. By rescinding Wemby’s technical but not Hunter’s, the league is acknowledging Wemby did nothing wrong, but Hunter did deserve the tech. That means the Spurs should have had a free throw, then gotten the ball back with the lead. The result likely would have been a Hawks foul and two Spurs free throws before the Hawks would have a chance to force overtime. Instead, the game was still tied after Hunter’s tech, the Spurs turned the ball over, and the Hawks had a chance to win it in regulation. Fortunately, they missed, and the Spurs took over in overtime, particularly Wemby after Hunter had poked the bear and given him an extra dose of determination.
Although the Spurs brought plenty of stress on themselves last night by not playing amazing defense and blowing their own shot at a game-winner with a turnover, it’s still probably a relief to the refs that they ended up winning, otherwise they would be getting a lot more flack than they did for copping out the with double-technical call instead of what should have been just a technical on Hunter, which in turn could have changed the outcome. Sometimes, the refs get lucky, too.
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