Finals Notes: Champagnie, Alvarado, Castle, Brunson, Robinson, MSG Ticket Prices

The Spurs‘ Julian Champagnie and the Knicks‘ Jose Alvarado have a rivalry that began long before their meeting in the NBA Finals, writes Zach Braziller of The New York Post. They’re both New York City natives who squared off several times during high school in the Catholic League.

“I won’t lie, they definitely got the better of us quite a bit when he was at Christ the King and I was at Loughlin,” Champagnie said. “But always good memories. He was a great guard, quick, crafty, feisty.” 

Braziller notes that those old memories sparked again in the first game of the Finals as Alvarado made a shot over Champagnie and punctuated it with some trash talk. Champagnie scored against Alvarado later on and responded in kind.

“I think it’s just friendly banter, honestly and truly. Obviously, I’ve known Jose for a while,” Champagnie said. “Yeah, he makes one, he talks. I make one, I talk. That’s just how New York is. That’s how it goes.” 

There’s more from the NBA Finals:

• Spurs guard Stephon Castle has drawn a series of challenging defensive assignments in the playoffs, including two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the conference finals and Knicks star Jalen Brunson in this round. Castle talked to Peter Sblendorio of The New York Daily News (subscription required) about how he approaches players of that caliber. “They’re very similar in ways,” Castle said. “I think Shai is more of a threat to get all the way downhill, all the way to the basket. I think Jalen likes to use angles a lot more, uses probably a little bit more pump fakes than Shai. Mostly it’s angles, trying to get to his spots, not really trying to draw fouls as much, but trying to get to his mid-range and get to spots to where he likes.”
• A fan who was verbally harassing Brunson during Game 1 has been barred from sitting at courtside for the rest of the Finals, per Stefan Bondy of The New York Post. Brunson had to be restrained from charging the fan by Alvarado and referee Scott Foster after the game ended.
• A technical foul (Twitter video link) that Knicks center Mitchell Robinson received midway through the second quarter of Friday’s game has been rescinded, the league announced (Twitter link).
• Ticket prices for the upcoming games at Madison Square Garden are already setting records, according to Adam Zagoria of NJ.com. As of Friday, the cheapest available ticket for Monday’s Game 3 on Gametime was $9,130. For Wednesday’s Game 4, when the Knicks could potentially wrap up their first NBA title since 1973, nearly all prices on StubHub top $20K, with courtside seats in the range of $70K to $140K.