Tony Brothers' 'Foot-to-Knee Contact' Ruling Still Makes Zero Sense

Had it contributed to a Timberwolves loss, a bizarre ruling from referee Tony Brothers late in Monday night's Game 2 in Denver would've been a much bigger story. Even after a Minnesota victory, the call is still worth discussing because of how difficult it is to understand.

The play in question happened with about three-and-a-half minutes left and the Wolves leading by three points. Off an Anthony Edwards miss, Nikola Jokic fed an outlet pass to Christian Braun, who proceeded to miss a dunk as Jaden McDaniels contested. Brothers, the nearest official, blew his whistle for a foul and motioned that McDaniels' left hand made contact with Braun's hip.

Chris Finch and the Wolves, believing the contact was minimal, decided to challenge.

"That's not a foul," said Austin Rivers, one of NBC's two analysts on the broadcast, as the review was shown.

"They would call that marginal contact," added Brian Scalabrine, the other analyst. "In this series, that's marginal contact. That's not real contact in this series. In this game, that shouldn't be a foul."

It wasn't a particularly lengthy review for Brothers and his crew. After taking the headset off, he got on the microphone and announced his ruling.

"After review, there is foot-to-knee contact on the drive to the basket," Brothers said. "Therefore, there's a defensive foul on the play. The challenge by Minnesota is unsuccessful."

While everyone was wondering about the significance of McDaniels' hand lightly touching Braun's hip and stomach area during the play, Brothers came out of left field with an entirely different justification for upholding the call. The issue is that his specific explanation simply doesn't make any sense when looking at the play.

As he lifts off the ground, Braun's foot makes extremely slight, marginal contact with the knee of McDaniels, who hadn't left the ground yet. In no world is that specific element of the play worthy of a foul. It was a truly odd ruling from Brothers, who could've just gone with his initial indication of McDaniels' left arm being the problem, even if that would've been questionable as well.

“Foot to knee contact” pic.twitter.com/5LIJP0tXM8
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) April 21, 2026

"Nah, man," Rivers said. "C'mon guys. TB's a legendary ref, but he's a prideful guy. That is not a foul. Especially considering the contact (we've seen). If we're gonna say that's a foul, then I could call ten up the floor when they're hand-checking each other the entire game. Just let the players decide."

"That's a tough one," Scalabrine said.

Braun wound up missing the second of two free throws, so the Wolves remained up by two. Because they had lost their challenge, they then couldn't do anything about a clear off-ball flop from Jokic that resulted in an offensive foul on Rudy Gobert a couple possessions later.

Still, the Wolves found a way. Gobert had a big offensive board and dunk over Jokic, Donte DiVincenzo hit a clutch three, and Braun missed another huge free throw with a chance to tie the game in the final seconds. Julius Randle then sunk a pair to put the Wolves up three, Jamal Murray took a contested long two-pointer that missed, and DiVincenzo got a breakaway dunk to seal it.

Even though it didn't end up deciding the game, Brothers' ruling is one of the stranger replay review determinations we've seen in a long time.

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