NBA fines Spurs’ Victor Vembanyama for throwing ball into stands

NEW YORK – Victor Wembanyama’s shot into the stands while celebrating a basketball turned out to be costly.

The NBA fined the San Antonio rookie $25,000 on Sunday for the act, which occurred at the end of the San Antonio Spurs’ 130-126 overtime win over the New York Knicks on Friday.

On the final play of the game Wembanyama caught a long pass for a steal, wrapped his arms around the ball, high-fived a fan on the court and then threw the ball into the crowd.

He had 40 points, 20 rebounds and seven assists in the game. It was the first such statistic recorded by an NBA rookie since 1974.

Meanwhile, point guard Jalen Brunson had the second-highest scoring game in Knicks history with 61 points, and a ball boy working on the team’s bench ran to retrieve the ball from a fan who caught it as it was a It was a valuable souvenir.

According to ESPN Stats and Information, this is just the second time in NBA history that one player had a 40-point, 20-rebound game and the other had a 60-point game. The second instance occurred in 1961, when Elgin Baylor scored 63 points and Wilt Chamberlain had 78 points and 43 rebounds.

Wembanyama, the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft, is the unanimous favorite to win the Rookie of the Year award. He is averaging 21 points and 10.5 rebounds this season.

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst and The Associated Press contributed to this report.