NBA Won’t Upgrade Victor Wembanyama’s Uncalled Foul To Flagrant
The physicality between the Spurs and Knicks in Game 3 has been a prominent topic of discussion among fans and coaches alike following Monday’s hard-fought contest, a 115-111 San Antonio win.
A first quarter play involving Victor Wembanyama and Jalen Brunson was a particular point of contention, as Brunson took exception after the Spurs star shoved him by the back of the head (Twitter video link via ESPN).
However, the NBA has reviewed the play and opted not to assess Wembanyama with a flagrant foul, per Marc Stein of The Stein Line (Twitter link).
Senior vice president of referee development and training Monty McCutchen spoke to ESPN on Tuesday and admitted that the play should have been called a foul, notes ESPN’s Shams Charania (via Twitter), but also explained what the process of reviewing such an incident is and why it would take something definitive to overrule the in-game referees.
Wembanyama is two flagrant foul points away from a suspension, due to the flagrant two he picked up when he elbowed Timberwolves forward Naz Reid in the head in the second round. If he had been assessed a flagrant one for the play on Brunson, Wembanyama would’ve moved to within a single flagrant point of a one-game suspension. As it stands, he will face no further discipline.
Spurs Notes: Castle, Fox, Wemby, Rotation
After making just 5-of-14 field goal attempts and committing four turnovers in the Spurs‘ Game 2 loss last Friday, guard Stephon Castle bounced back on Monday, scoring 23 points on 8-of-14 shooting while turning the ball over just twice. He also helped the seal the victory in the game’s final moments by knocking down a key three-pointer with just under two minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, then hitting a pair of free throws with seven seconds left to extend San Antonio’s lead to four.
As Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes, Castle is hardly an elder statesman at 21 years old, but star big man Victor Wembanyama said the guard “might be the most mature player on our team,” pointing out that the former NCAA champion is no stranger to high-pressure situations.
“He’s been in big games before the NBA,” Wembanyama said. “He’s shown over and over again that he’s capable and that we are right to put our trust in him.”
Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox actually received the inbounds pass from Castle with the Spurs up by two points and 9.4 seconds left on the clock, but the veteran quickly tossed the ball back to his second-year teammate before the Knicks could intentionally foul him (video link). The play reflected Fox’s complete trust in Castle’s ability to rise to the moment and make the free throws necessary to secure the win.
“His personality, his demeanor, that’s the way he is,” Fox said. “He’s kind of always cool. That’s just being young. But his game is definitely mature beyond his years. He was big for us. He hit a big three toward the end of the shot clock. Knocks down two big free throws for us. He’s guarding his tail off the entire game.”
We have more on the Spurs, who will be looking to even the NBA Finals at two games apiece on Wednesday:
- Fox had his second rough game of the series — late in the fourth quarter, his 3-of-13 shooting line was identical to the mark he posted in Game 1. However, Fox made his 14th shot of the night, converting a mid-range jumper to put the Spurs up by five points with 12 seconds left. “De’Aaron’s been one of the best closer in this league for the last, I don’t know what it is, five to seven years,” head coach Mitch Johnson said, per Orsborn. “He’s been a great closer for us. We trust him with the basketball in his hands.”
- Between Wembanyama’s big Game 3 performance – including 32 points, eight rebounds, and six assists – and a perception that he’s been getting away with missed fouls, the 22-year-old has become the newest villain at Madison Square Garden, writes Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic. “I guess,” Wembanyama said with a smile when asked if being New York’s newest villain is “the ultimate compliment” (Twitter video link). After a brief pause, he added, “I’m nowhere near Trae Young level though.”
- Zach Kram of ESPN takes a look at the key players from Game 3 and the lessons learned from the Spurs’ first win of the series, noting that the club closed with a three-guard lineup, as Dylan Harper took Julian Champagnie‘s place with the rest of the starters. Veteran forward Harrison Barnes was also out of the rotation on Monday, earning his first DNP-CD of the postseason, Kram observes.
Knicks Notes: Towns, Brunson, Bench, Sprays
Karl-Anthony Towns has arguably been the best player on the floor through two Finals games, and it’s not just Knicks fans who are appreciating his stellar play.
Many Timberwolves fans have been following the former No. 1 overall pick from Minnesota, not with bitterness at the success he’s experiencing far removed from the team that drafted him, but with joy for a player and personality they came to love during his nine years with the Wolves, Jon Krawczynski writes for The Athletic.
Towns, the player, has long been criticized, whether for his defensive limitations, his losing years in Minnesota, or even the way he carries himself. Meanwhile, Towns, the person, has built a reputation as one of the genuinely good people in the league.
“Towns has taught me so much about dealing with the loss of my mom two years ago,” one Wolves fan told Krawczynski. “He also donated $5,000 to my mom’s GoFundMe when she was battling pancreatic cancer. He is a great human. Me and my family will forever root for this man. So happy for him.”
Now, the Minnesota fan base has come together to watch Towns, the player, play the best basketball of his life, and be lauded by many of the same people who once criticized him. His composed, disciplined defense on Victor Wembanyama has been possibly the most important aspect of the Knicks’ play through two games, and he has carried the team through stretches when it needs a go-to scorer.
It hasn’t been easy to reach this level. It’s taken a mid-career transformation to address the inconsistencies in his game that came about at the most important stage of his career, Steve Popper writes for Newsday (subscriber link).
“Taking all that experience this year, I’ve had to do it on the fly. It wasn’t like game by game. It’s been quarter by quarter. That comes with experience and just knowledge of the game and just time. Time playing the game, time putting shots up, time reading defenses, seeing defenses, offenses,” Towns said. “One game Jalen [Brunson] got hurt, that’s when I have to be a primary scorer. Other games when he’s cooking, I’ve got to be a facilitator, a hub, assist maker, aggressive in play-making. Then there’s games when I need to do both when he’s in and I’m in and be able to do both when his shot is warming up. There’s also days where I got to be a decoy, I got to be the best screener, I got to be the best spacer for our offense. So I think that right now, whatever it takes to win, especially when you’re in the NBA Finals, I’m willing to do.“
We have more Knicks news and notes:
- Brunson had a simple response when asked by a reporter what teams missed when they allowed him to fall to 33rd overall in the 2018 draft: “Everything,” he said with a laugh (Twitter video link via SNY Knicks). The three-time All-NBA guard has struggled to find his scoring rhythm against the Spurs’ elite backcourt defense, shooting just 33.9% from the field and 23.5% from three with a 1:1 assist-to-turnover ratio. But, true to form, he has found ways to contribute in the biggest moments, hitting clutch shots to seal both games and collecting five steals in Game 2.
- Coming into this season, much of the focus on the hiring of Mike Brown revolved around how he could better empower the Knicks’ bench so that the team didn’t break down in the playoffs. As the Knicks look to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the NBA Finals, the second unit has provided a constant boost for Brown’s team, Vincent Goodwill writes for ESPN. Landry Shamet, the last player signed to the Knicks roster in the offseason, has become a critical part of the rotation. Mitchell Robinson has been a strong defensive presence against Wembanyama, despite playing through a broken bone in his hand. Jose Alvarado, acquired at the trade deadline, provided a huge boost for the team in Game 1 when Brunson went to the locker room with an apparent knee injury. It took all season to find the right balance, but it’s come together at the right time. “One of the many things I learned from [Gregg Popovich] and [Steve Kerr]. Steve was really good at trying to play a lot of different guys,” Brown said. “Not only that, a guy that hadn’t been in the rotation for a while, one game [a coach] might throw him out there as a starter. That kept guys engaged or on their toes.”
- A key bit of vocabulary needed to understand the Knicks’ success against the Spurs is the word “spray,” according to The Athletic’s John Hollinger. Sprays, or kick-outs from inside the paint to shooters outside the three-point line, are a critical part of Brown’s offensive ideology, whether off a Robinson offensive rebound or a Brunson drive to the paint. No play better embodied the concept than a sequence in the second quarter where four different Knicks penetrated off a pass, sprayed to a shooter, and the team ultimately got an open three to beat the shot clock. This movement is critical in terms of getting Wembanyama in motion and not allowing him to set up in a position to provide easy help, but it requires players ready to make quick decisions: either drive, pass, or shoot. “We have to try to keep touching the paint, trying to spray it if Wemby comes,” Brown said. “If you’re open, let it fly.”
Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Castle, Knicks Defense, Popovich
The ending of Game 2 of the Finals was chaotic and unpredictable, as the Spurs watched a golden opportunity to tie the series at one game apiece slip away.
Victor Wembanyama knows he bailed the Knicks out of the game, between his costly late-game turnover and back-to-back missed perimeter jumpers to take the lead in the final minute. The Knicks know it too, and they’re aware they can’t expect the same luck next time, Kristian Winfield writes for the New York Daily News.
“You can’t do that to the team that is that good, give chances like that,” Mikal Bridges said. “We got to be way better.”
As for Wembanyama, he’s undaunted by the 2-0 hole his team faces heading into New York, embracing the challenge of trying to overcome that deficit as part of the Spurs’ “journey,” Michael C. Wright writes for ESPN.
“This is everything that I wished for,” he said. “There’s really no reason to overthink it. This is what I’m built for.”
He is determined to take the right things away from his first two Finals games, even if they didn’t go the way he wanted.
“It felt like we did a lot of things wrong, but we were also relentless and kept pushing, but kind of wasted that effort,” Wembanyama said. “I know it’s not wasted because our lessons are learned. I know we’re not going to make the mistakes of the past again. But in a moment like this, we need to make these things matter.”
We have more from the Spurs:
- Stephon Castle sat out much of the fourth quarter of Game 2 after landing on Bridges’ foot while coming down from a jumper. He’s not worried about it going into Game 3, Peter Sblendorio writes for the Daily News. “It feels a lot better than I thought it would initially. Obviously, I had some adrenaline running, [and] kind of once I settled down, I started to feel it,” Castle said. “Waking up the next day, actually felt really good.” Castle’s defense has been a critical part of the Spurs’ efforts to slow down Knicks’ star Jalen Brunson, who has shot just 2-of-10 with Castle as his primary defender during this series. The Spurs are entering Monday with no one on the injury report, Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News notes (via Twitter).
- One thing the Spurs will have to figure out to get back into this series is how to deal with the Knicks’ defensive scheme, Howie Kussoy writes for the New York Post. Karl-Anthony Towns‘ combination of size and mobility has made it difficult for Wembanyama to get to his spots comfortably, though the Spurs’ big man has still managed to put up impressive box score numbers. “It’s very different from [the] previous series,” Wembanyama said after Game 2. “It’s bringing us into difficult areas because they’re good players. [Towns is] a good player… We need to put ourselves in better [positions]. We’re digging ourselves a hole. That’s been the theme so far.”
- Knicks coach Mike Brown has multiple connections to the Spurs, including spending two-and-a-half years as De’Aaron Fox‘s head coach in Sacramento. But his ties go back further, to the three years he spent from 2000-03 as an assistant coach under Spurs legend Gregg Popovich. However, a simple reason prevented Brown from reaching out to Popovich coming into the Finals series, according to Melissa Rohlin of the New York Post. “He’s savvy,” Brown said, tongue-in-cheek. “He’s very competitive. If I reached out to him and asked him for some advice, he’d give me some BS that worked against us.” Brown credited Popovich for teaching him the value of a coach connecting with not just the players on the roster, but the rest of the organization and the city as a whole. ““He’s second to none [in] how he treats people off the floor in their personal lives,” the Knicks’ said. “I grew a lot personally. Everybody goes through good times and bad times off the floor in their personal life. When I was here, I went through good times and bad times. He helped me tremendously with those.”
Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Castle, Game 2, Biyombo
After veteran forward Harrison Barnes implored the Spurs not to take being in the NBA Finals for granted, Victor Wembanyama compared the team to a group of “spoiled kids,” writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required).
“They (the Knicks) understand how fortunate they are to be in the Finals, and they know it’s not guaranteed they’ll ever get another chance like this,” the 22-year-old star told a French reporter in their native language.
“As for us, we’re kind of like spoiled kids,” Wembanyama added. “For some of us, it’s our first season, or one of our first seasons, and we’re already in the Finals. We don’t fully realize it yet. And to me, the team that appreciates the position we’re in the most will be the one that wins.”
The Spurs are the second-youngest team to make the Finals, Orsborn notes, just a little older than the 1977 Trail Blazers.
Here’s more on the Spurs:
- The Game 2 loss, which put San Antonio in a 2-0 hole as the series head to New York, taught Wembanyama a valuable lesson about how difficult it is to become a champion, Marcus Thompson II writes in an excellent story for The Athletic. While Wembanyama spearheaded a furious late-game rally, he was responsible for a disastrous turnover and subsequent foul that gave the Knicks back the lead, then missed a potential game-winning jump shot in the closing seconds. The third-year center has been open in his pursuit of greatness, and every all-time great has experienced similar low points. As Thompson puts it, “the road to being legendary is paved with hard lessons and heartbreaks.”
- Second-year guard Stephon Castle stepped on Mikal Bridges‘ foot in Game 2 and was forced out of the game for about six minutes. He said the injury was feeling much better on Sunday, according to Orsborn (Twitter link). “It’s been feeling good…It feels a lot better than I thought it would initially,” Castle said. “Obviously, I had some adrenaline running, kind of once I settled down, I started to feel it. Waking up the next day, actually felt really good.”
- Zach Kram of ESPN.com takes a closer look at the most important moments from Game 2.
- Veteran center Bismack Biyombo recently spoke to Marc J. Spears of Andscape about being a mentor to Wembanyama.
Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Game 2, Castle, Barnes
As Victor Wembanyama released a 20-foot shot that would have given San Antonio the lead in the closing seconds Friday night, his teammates had complete confidence that it was going in, Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News writes in a subscriber-only story.
“He’s made that shot a thousand times,” Stephon Castle said.
“That’s a shot he makes in his sleep,” Dylan Harper added.
“He makes that shot nine times out of 10,” De’Aaron Fox echoed.
But when it mattered most, the ball clanged off the back of the rim, and the final buzzer sounded before the Spurs could get off another good shot, leaving them facing a 2-0 deficit as the NBA Finals heads to New York. It capped a rough ending to the game for Wembanyama, who committed a devastating turnover a few seconds earlier when his outlet pass bounced off the back of Castle, who wasn’t expecting the ball.
“Am I going to regret it? Yes, of course,” Wembanyama said. “Am I going to use that to fuel me and fuel us next game? Absolutely.”
There’s more from San Antonio:
- Coach Mitch Johnson called it “not acceptable” that Wembanyama only took four shots in the first half and acknowledged that players, the coaching staff and the French star himself have to make a better effort to keep him involved in the offense, McDonald adds. Wembanyama returned to his usual dominance after the intermission, finishing with 29 points, nine rebounds and four blocks and helping the Spurs erase a late 12-point deficit. “We came in (at halftime) and we were like, ‘We need you to be aggressive,’” Fox said. “That is what it is. He came out in the second and was much better for us.”
- Turnover problems reemerged for Castle in the Game 2 loss as he gave the ball up four times in 28 minutes, notes Tom Orsborn of The Express-News (subscription required). Johnson said the second-year guard is getting caught in the air too often while deciding what to do with the ball, and Castle agrees. “I think just trying to overthink some reads sometimes,” he said. “I got caught in traffic, especially deep in the paint. It’s something I can go back and look at and see how I can fix.”
- Thirty-four-year-old Harrison Barnes has been telling his younger teammates to make the most of this trip to the NBA Finals and not assume they’ll be back every year, Orsborn relays in a separate story. Barnes reached the Finals with Golden State during his third and fourth seasons but had to wait another decade to return. “Every single year you have to begin at the start of the journey, the start of the mountain and climb, and health is a major part of it,” Barnes said. “So, I don’t think it’s necessarily a mentality where we say, ‘This is their only shot,’ (or) ‘Just because we’re young, we have a lot of different opportunities.’ This may be the last time both teams are in the Finals for a while. We have no idea.”
Spurs Notes: Game 2, Fox, K. Johnson, Wembanyama
The Spurs have remained calm since losing Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday, viewing it as one more bit of adversity that needs to be overcome on their way to a title, according to Michael C. Wright of ESPN. Victor Wembanyama said he isn’t “worried in the slightest” about how the team will respond when the series resumes tonight.
“We know we’re not here by chance,” Wembanyama said. “We’ve been through some weird, weird, situations [or] whatever. It’s reassuring to know that these guys, the 18 guys we’ve got, are built this way. [They] are resilient.”
Wright notes that the Spurs weren’t viewed as ready to be championship contenders when the season began, and there were worrisome injuries hanging over the team as it gathered for training camp. Wembanyama was returning from deep vein thrombosis that forced him to miss the final 36 games of last season, Dylan Harper just a few weeks removed from surgery to fix a partially torn ligament in his left thumb and De’Aaron Fox was uncertain for camp due to a lingering hamstring strain.
Even with the health questions and concerns over having so many young players in the rotation, general manager Brian Wright was a firm believer in the roster he assembled.
“When we were whole last year you saw flashes of it,” he said. “And the bulk of our group is incredibly young. The one thing you could bank on was improvement, whether that be Vic, Steph (Castle), as well as Keldon (Johnson) and Devin (Vassell). There’s Julian (Champagnie), too. They’re still growing. Just with the evolution of the guys we have and then someone of Fox’s caliber being here in the offseason, there’s a real chance we could match up and play with all the teams at the top of the league. Obviously, you’ve got to do the work. But we believe in the group we have.”
There’s more from San Antonio:
- As the veteran in the Spurs’ backcourt, Fox needs to have a better showing in Game 2, states Kelly Iko of Yahoo Sports. Fox only had seven points in 38 minutes in the opener while shooting 3-of-13 from the field and missing his all attempts from outside the paint. “I’ve got to make shots,” he said. “Obviously I’m not shooting the ball as much. But coming here, I knew that was the way it was going to be. As a player, you sacrifice for the betterment of the team. There are times where I need to take shots or times where I don’t take as many shots, but at the end of the day, you need to make the shots that you take.”
- Game 1 was also a disappointment for Johnson, this season’s Sixth Man of the Year, who scored just three points in eight minutes, Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News writes in a subscriber-only story. Johnson promises that it won’t affect him for the rest of the series. “When you get in a series like this, once the game is over, you process it that night and then we come back and we break it down today,” he said. “And then you got to let it go. You can’t let it linger on to other games. You can’t get too high, you can’t get too low. You got to try and stay as even-keeled as possible. I’ll correct those mistakes and be back at it tomorrow.”
- Jared Weiss of The Athletic examines the marketing strategy to make Wembanyama the most popular athlete in the world, including his statement to Nike executives last year that “I’m not gonna give basketball a choice of who the face is going to be.”
Finals Notes: Wemby, Brunson, Rotations, Sochan
After entering the NBA Finals as favorites, the Spurs are now considered underdogs to win the series following their Game 1 loss to the Knicks. However, San Antonio’s top players are unfazed by the deficit, according to Jeff McDonald of The San Antonio Express-News (subscription required), who points out that the team also lost Game 1 of its Minnesota series and was down 2-1 and 3-2 to Oklahoma City before coming back to advance.
“We feel like we’re the better team,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle said. “We didn’t play well and still had a chance to win.”
Big man Victor Wembanyama, meanwhile, stated that he isn’t “worried in the slightest” about San Antonio’s ability to respond to the Game 1 loss. Like Castle, he pointed out that the Spurs played a subpar game by their standards and still had a chance to pull out a win in the fourth quarter.
“It’s almost like I have to play normal, not even good (in Game 2),” Wembanyama said, per Michael C. Wright of ESPN. “It’s just (about) doing the right things enough. When we play bad, when I play bad, is when we shoot ourselves in the foot. This is why I’m not worried. We’re going to be so much better. I’m going to be so much better.”
Here’s more on the NBA Finals as the Spurs and Knicks gear up for Game 2 on Friday night:
- The difference in Game 1, writes Jared Weiss of The Athletic, was that Knicks guard Jalen Brunson knew had to close out the victory, while Wembanyama “looked a little lost by comparison.” However, Wembanyama has proven to be a quick learner over the course of his first playoff run and his teammates are confident in his ability to figure things out going forward. “I feel like that is kind of who he is. He never backs down from the moment,” Spurs guard Dylan Harper said. “He always kind of steps up and meets it.”
- The NBA is investigating an incident that took place near the end of Game 1, according to NBA insider Chris Haynes, who reports (via Twitter) that Brunson took exception to a pair of courtside fans who were directing “profane” and “derogatory” comments toward him. As Haynes explained during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show (Twitter video link), Brunson spoke to referee Scott Foster at the end of the game about those fans.
- As Law Murray of The Athletic observes (via Twitter), both the Knicks and Spurs pared down their rotations from 10 players to nine during the second half of Game 1. Veteran guard Jordan Clarkson was the casualty for New York, while rookie forward Carter Bryant was San Antonio’s odd man out.
- Former Spurs forward Jeremy Sochan, now a member of the Knicks, has played in just five of the team’s 15 playoff games so far, exclusively in garbage time, but he said ahead of Game 1 that he’s “staying ready” and trying to be the best teammate he can be, per Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). “Not all 18 guys can play on the court, so you have to accept that part and not be a cancer to the team,” Sochan said.
And-Ones: Seattle, Murray, Canada, Aspiration, Extensions
In addition to announcing that Melinda French Gates is joining the Seattle Kraken’s ownership group as a minority investor, Samantha Holloway, the majority owner of the NHL team, confirmed that she’s assembling a group that will make a bid for an NBA franchise based in Seattle, writes Emily Kaplan of ESPN.
Holloway also pointed out that the Kraken’s ownership group has strengthened its case to bring the NBA to Seattle by acquiring a majority stake in Climate Pledge Arena, where the Kraken and the WNBA’s Seattle Storm play.
“The City of Seattle certainly could use an NBA team, and the fans here are ready for it,” Holloway said. “If that happens, they will all buy their Kraken friends beers because it wouldn’t happen without them. So we are hopeful, we are working on it, and stay tuned.”
We have more odds and ends from around the basketball world:
- Exploring at greater length why Jamal Murray isn’t expected to play for the Canadian national team in international competition anytime soon, Josh Lewenberg of TSN.ca explains that Canada Basketball was seeking three-year commitments from its players, and the Nuggets guard wasn’t able to commit to being available for each of the next three summers. “If guys don’t commit this summer, they’re not in,” new national team coach Gordon Herbert said. “When I was with Germany, we had six or seven NBA guys and three guys didn’t come, they didn’t want to come. All of sudden they wanted to come (in) year two. Sorry. You can’t be successful in anything without commitment, in my opinion.”
- Joseph Sanberg, the co-founder of the now-bankrupt green banking company Aspiration, was sentenced this week to 14 years in federal prison, writes Baxter Holmes of ESPN. Judge Stephen V. Wilson described Sanberg as “greedy, brazen, callous” and said he would “put the grade of his fraud at the zenith,” as Holmes relays. Kawhi Leonard‘s sponsorship deal with Aspiration and Steve Ballmer‘s investment in the company are at the center of the NBA’s investigation into possible salary cap circumvention by the Clippers. In advance of his sentencing, the league said in a letter to Wilson that Sanberg “substantially assisted” its probe, while Ballmer’s attorneys advocated against leniency for the Aspiration co-founder, writing that Sanberg “flagrantly defrauded” the Clippers owner.
- Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama is the only player eligible for a rookie scale extension who is likely to sign a maximum-salary contract this offseason, in the view of Keith Smith of Spotrac. However, Smith – projecting possible deals for each member of the 2023 draft class – view Hornets forward Brandon Miller (five years, $200MM), Rockets guard Amen Thompson (five years, $185MM), and Jazz guard Keyonte George (four years, $152MM) as strong candidates for lucrative extensions.
Finals Notes: Wemby, Castle, Brunson, Kornet, More
While their playing styles and physiques bear little resemblance, Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is providing the rest of the NBA’s teams with the same sort of unique challenges they faced three decades ago when Shaquille O’Neal emerged as a superstar in Orlando, writes Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Like Wembanyama, O’Neal led his team to the NBA Finals in just his third year in the league.
“He’s Shaq,” one veteran NBA head coach said of Wembanyama, per Windhorst. “He eats clean, worries about how his water is filtered and doesn’t break backboards like Shaq did, but he presents the same problem. None of us know what the hell we’re going to do to stop him.”
“Of course people are going to compare him to Shaq but he’s actually Shaq 2.0,” a rival general manager added. “Because he takes care of his body and plays a modern game, shoots the three and can make free throws. Yeah, he’s our nightmare.”
While O’Neal eventually won four NBA championships, he didn’t earn his first one until 2000, well after he had left Orlando for Los Angeles. In 1995, he and a young Magic team entered the Finals as favorites, but were swept by Hakeem Olajuwon and the Rockets, who were defending their ’94 title. As Windhorst writes, the Spurs and Wembanyama will also enter the Finals without the edge in playoff experience, but they’re determined to avoid the same fate as O’Neal’s Magic.
“The lack of experience is a strength for us,” Wembanyama told ESPN’s Malika Andrews. “Because we could do impossible stuff … because we don’t know it’s impossible.”
Here’s more on the NBA Finals, which will get underway in a matter of hours:
- Stephon Castle‘s ability to slow down Knicks star Jalen Brunson will be one of the key factors of the Finals, according to Vincent Goodwill of ESPN, who notes that Brunson expressed nothing but respect for Castle at media day on Tuesday. “He’s great. I think his intensity and tenacity is special,” Brunson said. “He plays with a chip on his shoulder. He’s had that since I’ve seen him at UConn. The way he’s played over these first couple years of his career, he’s going to be a great player, great defender.” While the sample size is small, Castle has defended Brunson well in the past, holding him to 27.3% shooting (3-of-11), per Goodwill.
- Kurt Helin of NBC Sports passes along some of the notable quotes from Knicks and Spurs players at Tuesday’s media day, while Ben Golliver of ESPN ranks all 30 players involved in the series, from Wembanyama at No. 1 to Bismack Biyombo at No. 30.
- Facing the Knicks in the Finals represents a “full-circle” moment for reserve Spurs center Luke Kornet, as Howie Kussoy of The New York Post relays. Kornet spent the first two years of his NBA career with New York, playing on a two-way contract as a rookie. “I had a great time in my first two years, especially in Westchester,” Kornet said on Tuesday. “I feel like the group that we had, it was some really fun basketball that we played. That’s what I remember the most. We had a lot of talent and young guys and it felt like an extension of college. I felt like I was growing my game a lot at that time. A lot of guys always talk about the G League like you can’t wait to get out of it, but I really enjoyed my time.”
- Whichever team claims this year’s championship, it will be a win for the Philippines, according to Miguel Alfonso Caramoan of ESPN. As Caramoan observes, either Spurs guard Dylan Harper or Knicks guard Jordan Clarkson will become the first Filipino-descended NBA player to win a title.
- In a pair of stories for The New York Post, Andrew Crane digs into how the Knicks and Spurs acquired each of the 15 players on their current standard rosters.