Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Kornet, Champagnie, K. Johnson

Victor Wembanyama was overcome with emotion when the Spurs defeated the defending champions on Saturday night to advance to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014, writes Anthony Slater of ESPN.

“Winning the Larry O’Brien, it’s a childhood dream,” Wembanyama said. “Having a real shot at it, having a chance, tangible chance at winning it, realizing a dream. … The day we win it, speaking for myself, it’s going to be an amazing day of a realization of a dream. It’s hard to put into words. It’s almost like the meaning of my life.”

Former NBA guard and current NBC analyst Jamal Crawford told Jared Weiss of The Athletic he knew Wembanyama had a special ability to handle pressure and quickly learn new skills when he worked with him in the 2024 offseason. The French big man said learning how to channel his emotions has been one of the keys to his success, even if it’s an ongoing work in progress.

“This game is so hard, this team [The Thunder] is so good, that you gotta use every single emotion you got in you in order to win,” Wembanyama said on NBC’s postgame show. “Like, sometimes, these emotions (are) passion. It’s love for the game. Sometimes it’s anger. Sometimes it might even be jealousy, but I don’t wanna weigh myself down with any of these energies. I use them on the court.”

According to Weiss, Wembanyama has leaned on his teammates, coaches, franchise legends and his camp and family as he navigates his first postseason. The French big man “hugged every member of the Spurs organization he could find” after the final buzzer, and after he was awarded the Magic Johnson trophy for winning Western Conference finals MVP, he brought it over to Spurs fans to let them touch it and show his appreciation.

“I would say what I learned is I can go through hurdles that I didn’t know those hurdles could get so high,” Wembanyama said. “It’s just pushing through. I found resources inside of me, relentlessness. I already knew that, but doing it at this level, this is the best basketball on the planet that’s being played right now.

“The crazy thing is, maybe I’m crazy for that, but I want to do that 15, 20 more times,” Wembanyama said. “Let’s hope it doesn’t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.”

Here’s more on the Spurs:

• Wembanyama received plenty of help in Saturday’s Game 7 victory in Oklahoma City. De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Julian Champagnie and Keldon Johnson all delivered in key moments, but the Spurs say the biggest play of the game may have belonged to backup big man Luke Kornet, according to Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscriber link). With the Spurs up six with about six-and-a-half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Kornet had an epic chase down block on Isaiah Hartenstein, who was going for a breakaway dunk after stealing Castle’s entry pass. “I’ve never seen Luke run that fast,” Champagnie said. “He was hauling, man, hauling.” As Orsborn notes, Castle made a pull-up jumper to put the Spurs up eight after the block then Champagnie hit a three-pointer to push the lead back up to 11. “That’s a momentum play. If they get that dunk, the crowd gets into it, guys start to feel good, and you never know what happens,” Champagnie continued. “Guys make some shots and instead of it being a six-point game it’s a two-point game, a whole different ball game. So shout out to Luke. I think that was the biggest play of the game. It took all the life out of the building. That play right there gave us the step we needed to keep the lead and keep pushing.” As
• As Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports details, Champagnie struggled in the first four games against the Thunder but he delivered again with San Antonio’s season on the line, pouring in 20 points while making 6-of-10 from long distance, grabbing six rebounds and playing high-level defense. He was a game-high plus-16 in 38 minutes. “Julian is amazing,” Wembanyama said. “He deserves everything that he gets. And he’s the type of guy that makes you wanna die for him on the court because he gives so much effort. And he’s got such an amazing story — he got cut in the NBA a few years back. He’s had tough moments, but he keeps pushing and now he’s taken his team to the NBA Finals.”
• Johnson, the longest-tenured member of the team, has had relatively quiet postseason after being named the league’s Sixth Man of the Year. However, the 26-year-old said his confidence never wavered after scoring eight points in the fourth quarter on Saturday. “My teammates and my coaches continued to believe in me,” he said, per Orsborn (subscription required). “I continued to believe in myself. I knew the tide would turn eventually. I didn’t know when. I didn’t know how. But I knew that as long as I just stayed engaged, stayed locked in, it would pay off. I couldn’t write it any other way than how it went today. It’s been a hard playoffs for me. There’s no denying that, but it makes it all worth it when you have big moments like this in Game 7.”