Huit de moins
2026 NBA Finals, Game 2
I Am a Rock - The 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs have made a lot of history during this magical journey that has taken us from thirteenth place in the West last season to Western Conference Champions and playing in The Finals right now. On Friday night, we squandered a second consecutive opportunity to end New York’s double-digit playoff winning streak by losing Game 2 to the Knicks in heartbreaking-fashion 105-104 at Frost Bank Center. If you’re reading this you already know what went spectacularly wrong (by our own making) at the end of Game 2 and as a result of our inexplicable loss of composure in the biggest moment of the season so far, we are down 0-2 and now face our biggest series deficit of this entire postseason. As a consequence, in order to redeem what is (in it’s immediate aftermath) one of our four most gut-wrenching playoff defeats of all-time (and get Friday’s loss erased from that infamous list), we are now going to have to make some more history by becoming the first team to win a championship after dropping the first two games of the NBA Finals at home. (If you’re curious about the other three most gut-wrenching playoff defeats in Spurs history they are: 1) “The Ray Allen shot” in Game 6 of the 2013 NBA Finals against the Miami Heat 2) “Manu Fouls Dirk” in Game 7 of the 2006 Western Conference Semifinals against the Dallas Mavericks 3) “Point Four” in Game 5 of the 2004 Western Conference Semifinals against the Los Angeles Lakers.) I remain steadfast in my conviction that coming back to win this series after blowing the first two games at home is exactly what we are about to do. We have no choice. It cannot be written in the annals of league history that the New York Knicks were the best team in the year of our basketball gods 2026 because it’s simply not the case. Give Jalen Brunson credit, he has made clutch shots down the stretch in both games in San Antonio which has allowed the Knicks to earn this 2-0 series lead + three opportunities at home to get the two remaining wins they need to secure the title. That being said, neither of these games would have been close enough for Brunson’s clutch shooting to be decisive if we hadn’t been consistently beating ourselves for too many of the minutes leading up to crunch time in both games. We should have won both of those games by double digits. The only reason why we didn’t is because our collective youth has still not fully adjusted to the pressure of playing on this stage. Our collective youth is yet to shake loose from its Finals jitters. Obviously, part of being the best team in the league is having more composure on basketball’s biggest stage than your opponent and the more experienced Knicks have outperformed us in that regard by a wide margin during the first two games. If they continue to outperform us in having more composure on the Finals stage, they will indeed win this series and if that were to happen, I will tip my cap and acquiesce that the New York Knicks were the best team in 2025-26. But we aren’t even close to that scenario becoming reality. This is not a series that feels like one team is heading home for a coronation. This feels like a series where the other team has taken some tough home losses but is finally getting comfortable on this stage and is on the verge of figuring out the first team and figuring them out for good.
The Spurs have won at least one of the first two road games in every series so far this postseason. If we can keep that streak going for a fourth consecutive series, I like our chances to flip the composure edge the deeper this series gets. New York hasn’t played under any real pressure since the first week of the postseason back in April. We’ve been swimming in pressure for over a month. Anyone who believes it’s a foregone conclusion that just because the Knicks were able to get both of the first two games in our building they are going to sweep us now that they will have home court advantage for the next two in Madison Square Garden is severely underestimating our ability to perform under pressure on the road. We have proven for seven weeks now that we have a resilience as a group and hostile road environments have not been a barrier to us reaching our highest possible level of play, a level that I have yet to see evidence that our Finals opponent is capable of matching. If I am correct and the Spurs are finally comfortable on the Finals stage and I’m also correct we have figured some things out about how play New York, it doesn’t matter how much the Big Apple wants to celebrate in the world’s most famous arena this week, the Knicks are going to have to come back to San Antonio on Saturday with more work to do and while experiencing pressure for the first time since late April after going down 2-1 in the first round to the Atlanta Hawks. Give them credit, winning 13 playoff games in a row means you don’t have to face adversity but it also means it’s that much more unpredictable how you will respond when you finally end up facing some. The Knicks have been riding this incredible wave of momentum and good vibes that has them projecting as world beaters but keep in mind, they were a very erratic team over the course of the season. New York had a stretch in January where they went 2-8. It may only take the simple act of the Spurs winning one road game to snap New York’s winning streak and the Knick’s unfamiliarity with experiencing adversity could unleash the Mr. Hyde undisciplined, disconnected, uninspired version of this team (you know, the version of the team that lost to the lowly Dallas Mavericks 114-97 at home on January 19th) that deep down, every Knicks fan knows is still inside their shiny seemingly infallible Dr. Jekyll.
One thing is for sure, if the Knick’s 13-game winning streak has in any way been the result of the basketball gods bestowing good karma on the city that never sleeps, that is reportedly about to come to a screeching halt in Game 3 due to the expected attendance in Madison Square Garden of Knick’s fan Donald Trump. If he does attend, it should be assumed that all of the momentum the president’s favorite basketball team has been riding for the past seven weeks is about to dry up faster than one of his single (and ready to mingle) supporter’s Tinder matches as soon as they make the mistake of adding “maga” to the bio on their profile. An NBA franchise cannot both invite a would-be authoritarian ruler (who is hellbent on eviscerating 250 years of American democracy for his own personal glory and enrichment) to be a guest in their arena so he can cheer on their team and also continue currying favor with the basketball gods. The two things are mutually exclusive. It’s gonna be some sweet poetic justice to watch the gods’ disapproving wrath for the Knick’s decision to host a tyrant rain down on the Big Apple from the basketball heavens like Zeus unloading thunderbolts during the Titanomachy. New York City is about to find out how much damage the “Trump Effect” can have in the basketball deity polls and the court of karmic opinion. When you add on top of it the additional bad karma the Knicks will receive from the record-setting astronomical prices fans are being asked to pay for tickets to attend the first NBA Finals games in Madison Square Garden this millennium—prices that are precluding most real fans from attending the event and rendering entry to these games to be a golden goose accessible only to the rich and famous celebrity bourgeoisie and elbow-rubbing corporate elites or in other words, ensuring that the unfettered late stage racial capitalism of Trump’s America is working spectacularly well at only benefiting those who it is intended to benefit, New York’s karma goose is cooked. When asked by White House correspondents on Air Force One about everyday Americans being priced out of purchasing tickets for Games 3 & 4 this week in Madison Square Garden, our (somehow) sitting president said, “They can watch it on television. It's sort of semi-free to watch it on television, but that's the way life goes. Now if the game wasn't a big, if the team wasn't a big success, you could go very easily. But that's the way life is." What an out-of-touch and heartless comment by a spoiled-rotten despicable excuse for a human being. To make matters worse, Trump’s insistence on making himself a part of the story for the most captivating Finals matchup this decade placed further undue burden on the proletariat by forcing the cancellation of the real Knicks fan’s outdoor MSG watch party due to it being logistically infeasible to accommodate both that and the Secret Service security protocol to get the sitting POTUS in and out of the building. This man’s utter lack of concern for the welfare of the hardworking American people knows no bounds. It is now the duty of every patriotic American to root for the San Antonio Spurs to rally and help ensure that this would-be despot and his fellow elitist Knicks fans experience soul crushing disappointment in the next two weeks. (I guess for Donald himself, it would just be regular disappointment since he has no soul to be crushed but it will be satisfying nonetheless). If you believe in the restoration of democracy and that there should be no kings in America, it is your duty to join the national proletariat in making “Go Spurs Go” ring from sea to shining sea so forcefully it pleases the basketball gods and spurs them (pun intended) to manifest a colossal karmic storm to be unleashed down on Gotham for the next few days in the form of an epic series-evening comeback by the visitors that spoils their party and rains on their parade. Even for those in the Knicks-repping conflicted NYC proletariat, there is still time to put your country first as well as stand in solidarity with the working class (not to mention stick it to the president personally for cancelling your watch party). There’s plenty of room still over here on the right side of history. The New York Knicks are the party of Donald Trump, filthy-rich celebrities and the oligarchs. The San Antonio Spurs are for the people. And Victor Wembanyama is for the children.
Speaking of Wemby, I won’t lie. Watching him make such a massive mistake on Friday night at such a critical moment with the entire world watching was agonizing. I literally shed tears of sadness in reaction to a Spurs loss for the first time since the Ray Allen shot in 2013. Attempting to recover this weekend from the disappointment of climbing all the way back from 14 down in the final six minutes of the game (an extraordinary comeback fueled by player of the game De’Aaron Fox, Devin Vassell, Dylan Harper, and Wemby himself) only to squander it away in the end because of Victor’s ill-timed calamitous error (an error with the potential to be immortalized in infamy for the rest of time in the annals of basketball history) has been emotionally challenging. The extra travel day off to sit with it between games hasn’t helped. Objectively, when I ruminate on the basketball that has been played so far in this series, our situation being in an 0-2 hole is concerning but at the same time, all of the evidence points to us being up against an opponent we can easily handle by just regressing back to the mean with our level of play. We have had crunch time leads in both games after playing some of our worst basketball of the season. Meanwhile, it has taken consistent shot-making under duress (often with the shot clock about to expire) just for New York to force two 50-50 games and even then, it still took clutch shots by Brunson at the end of both games to punish us for our struggles to the tune of two home losses in a series that could easily be 2-0 the other direction and with all things being equal would most likely be tied 1-1. Objectively, I know we are more than capable of walking this thing down and we have proven for this entire playoff run that we have the ability to dig deep to find what we need in order to play our best when our backs are against the wall. I think what has made recovering from our Game 2 loss this weekend so emotional is knowing how costly it can prove to be to throw away a Finals game like that combined with the historical weight of now having to become the first team to ever comeback from losing the first two Finals games at home combined with what a blemish that turnover could prove to be on Wemby’s legacy. It has been a lot to process. The good news is if we come out focused tonight and play our brand of basketball the right way, we will take the first of four steps towards erasing all of that heaviness and replacing it with the sheer joy associated with the realization of what has admittedly become (here on the Monday afternoon before Game 3 as we’re peering up from this 0-2 series hole) a distant and improbable dream. All of the pressure is now squarely on the New York Knicks not to choke this series away. They are expected to win this thing now, especially by their delirious fan base. The #BlackAndSilver have the opportunity to play pressure-free basketball in Games 3 & 4 in the world’s most famous arena and see what happens. Victor Wembanyama, specifically, has the opportunity to make lemonade from the lemons of his massive mistake by asserting himself as the best player in the series moving forward. As I stated earlier, the calamitous error has the potential to to be immortalized in infamy for the rest of time in the annals of basketball history and provide a permanent blemish on Wemby’s legacy but the key word is “potential,” it is not yet set it stone. It also has the potential to be a remarkable part of the origin story for how he became the greatest basketball player of all-time, a seemingly unrecoverable self-inflicted bout with adversity that he accepted as a teaching moment, learned from immediately and persevered through to capture his first NBA championship during his first trip to the playoffs in defiance of the sizable odds and the weight executing a comeback which has no precedent in history. The circumstances over the past six days that have brought us to this moment in time where our dream of winning this series is now distant and improbable are in the past and we can’t change them, for better or worse. But to give my perspective as an eternal optimist, the distance and improbability stands to provide so much depth and enrichment to the realization of this dream and make it substantially more rewarding. In the end, isn’t it the distance and improbability that makes the fulfillment of every child’s hoop dreams so rewarding from the moment they first touch a basketball? The headline image for this post is a photo of me holding a basketball in a shooting position as a two-year-old while looking up at the distance and improbability of making the attempt on a 10-foot regulation basket and defiantly dreaming that I can make it (circa 1980). While that shot was, of course, impossible for me at the time, I stuck with basketball throughout my childhood and eventually got to the point where I could realize my two-year-old self’s original hoop dream very easily as well as realizing many other hoop dreams that came after throughout my basketball journey (see photo circa 1995 below). And while the dream of an NBA title currently feels distant and improbable, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs still have an opportunity in front of us this season to realize one of the most sacred of all hoop dreams that every child has at some point soon after they first touch a basketball. Starting tonight, I know we are going to apply the lessons provided by the adversity we have faced so far in these Finals and use them to help us stare down that distance and improbability and defiantly dream on.
#GoSpursGo
Featured Image Source: MSN
Sept de moins
2026 NBA Finals, Game 1
Still D.R.E. - On June 2nd, 1991, Michael Jordan lost the first NBA Finals game of his career at home. Magic Johnson and the more experienced Los Angeles Lakers defeated Jordan and his Chicago Bulls 93-91 at Chicago Stadium. His Airness scored 13 points in this fourth quarter to erase a seven point deficit to start the frame and take a small lead down the stretch only to blow it in the final moments. The narrative in the media after that game was the Bulls were too overwhelmed by basketball’s biggest stage and experience was going to win out. Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls did not blink and proceeded to win the next four games straight to capture the 1990-91 NBA Championship, their first of six titles. 35 years and one day later, Victor Wembanyama lost the first NBA Finals game of his career at home. Jalen Brunson and the more experienced New York Knicks defeated Wemby and his San Antonio Spurs 105-95 at Frost Bank Center. The Alien scored 11 points in the fourth quarter to erase an eight point deficit with six minutes left in the frame and take a small lead down the stretch only to blow it in the final moments. The narrative in the media after this game will be the Spurs are too overwhelmed by basketball’s biggest stage and experience is going to win out. Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs will not blink and god help every single overconfident spoiled obnoxious rich Knicks fan who is buying up tickets in San Antonio as well as the ones who are spending even more money to secure tickets inside of Madison Square Garden. I’m really going to enjoy watching Victor Wembanyama watching Knicks fans watching history repeat itself.
* * *
While it is obviously disappointing to drop Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals at home (and have a blemish now in what was previously a 6-0 record in opening games of NBA Finals series in franchise history), my confidence is still unwavering that we will win this series. Nothing about what happened on Wednesday night set off any alarm bells for me that the Knickerbockers are the better team. Everything that contributed to us taking an L is correctable. Let’s start with the fact we shot 32-89 from the field (36%). New York is a solid defensive ball club but our horrid shooting night was much more about us than it was about them. Our offense was generating all kinds of good looks the entire night, we were just missing them. Case in point, we underperformed our expected effective field goal percentage by 10.1%, our worst such underperformance of the playoffs and second-worst of the entire season. The play that epitomized our inability to knock down good looks in a nutshell was De’Aaron Fox missing a nine-foot pull up in the paint (a shot he makes in his sleep) after getting himself wide open off the two-man pick and roll game with Wemby down two points with 1:31 left to play in the fourth quarter. This missed opportunity to put the pressure back on New York to regain another lead was the most costly of numerous examples of us just missing good shots we normally make. I chalk this up to “first NBA Finals game ever” jitters affecting multiple players throughout the night. That being said, Fox going 3-13 (0-4 from deep) was unquestionably one of most glaring correctable components of our Game 1 performance and that needs to be fixed immediately. I have complete confidence that it will be fixed immediately and he will silence the naysayers once again in Game 2. He’s a gamer. Every time the chirping has started this postseason he’s had response to silence the noise because that’s what gamers do. Also, I don’t think it’s mentioned enough how commendable it is that De’Aaron has continued to grind these games out one after another without ever once using his high ankle sprain as an excuse in the games like Wednesday night where he hasn’t played up to his normal standards. He just puts his head down and goes back to work the next game. Last time I checked, we have been eliminated from the 2026 playoffs exactly zero times due to our veteran star struggled in a close out game while attempting to perform on one leg. De’Aaron Fox will be ready tonight. He’s gonna ball out in Game 2.
In a game that we lost by 10 but led 95-94 with 2:16 seconds remaining, we gave up 10 offensive rebounds for 23 second-chance points. In fact, on the very next play after Wemby sank a free throw to to give us that 95-94 lead, the Knicks looked discombobulated by our lockdown defense and OG Anunoby was forced to settle for a deep three but we neglected to box out Jalen Brunson who tipped it to Mikal Bridges and then drifted to the corner where Bridges gave it right back to him for a wide-open dagger corner three. That was a needless second-chance opportunity we gave New York’s best player and he capitalized on it to swing the momentum for the last time in the game. We didn’t score again after that. Giving up too many second-chance points in the first five games almost cost us the last series. But in Game 6 & 7 with our backs up against the wall facing elimination, we dug in with our attention to detail and had the discipline to correct that correctable which ultimately played a huge role in us outlasting the champs. The “playing in the NBA Finals for the first time” jitters will be gone tonight. We understand the urgency of every game from here on out so I expect us to play with the discipline to correct that correctable for Game 2 and for the rest of the series. Speaking of something we regressed on in Game 1 of the Finals, an important correctable we can also look to our experience playing OKC for lessons moving forward is we cannot turn the ball over five more times than our opponent again in this series like we did on Wednesday when we lost that battle 13-8. We gave the ‘Bockers five extra possessions and lost by ten. (Damn straight I just gave the Knickerbockers a sardonic nickname, we’ve got to deal with these pestiferous interlopers for another two weeks, after all.) Failing to protect the basketball is a correctable we have corrected more and more the deeper we have gotten into each series. Once again, with the stakes of ever game so heightened in the Finals, I fully expect that timeline to get sped up for Game 2 and for the turnover issue to get corrected this night and stay corrected for the duration. Speaking of turnovers, we obviously still need to talk about Victor’s performance. He had six of them, including one in the guts of the game that all but assured our fate. The play was a microcosm of Wemby’s frantic, sped-up night. There’s no question that the “playing in my first Finals game” jitters affected him more than anyone else on our team. Given that he’s the greatest player in the world, that’s recipe for disaster and it certainly was one. It jumped out of the television screen how amped up The Alien was to showcase his talent for the first time on basketball’s biggest stage and seeing him make so many “I want it so bad” mistakes was adorable but Vic had his worst (full) game of the playoffs and that is the number one correctable that needs to be corrected moving forward. The WCF MVP had decent top line stats with his 26 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks, two assists, and a steal but he shot an abysmal 6-21 from the field including only 2-9 from deep. Combine the terrible shooting with the aforementioned six turnovers and it all adds up to the type of performance where you’ve gift-wrapped Finals victory for your inferior opponent on your own home floor. Based on what I saw from the ‘Bockers on Wednesday night, they are going to need three more performances like that from the best player in the series to have any chance of raising a banner in October. Unfortunately for them, they’re not going to get any more. You can take it to the bank that that correctable is getting corrected. Every single time this postseason that Victor has failed to live up to expectations for a game, he has responded with the fury of a thousand suns. I expect tonight to be no different. I expect The Alien to put on such a dominant performance in Game 2 that it will demoralize a team that had been on a 12-game winning streak to the point that they forget how it will ever be possible to win against him again. I’m so excited to watch the alien abduction tonight of all of the momentum New York has been riding for these past twelve playoff games.
To end on a positive Game 1 performance note, Dylan Harper was the player of the game. Our 20-year-old prodigy rookie guard became the youngest player in history to score in double-figures in the NBA Finals. Dylan had 16 points, eight rebounds, one assist, and one steal in his Finals debut. His electric performance was reminiscent of Magic Johnson’s 16 point, 10 assist and nine rebound performance as a 20-year-old rookie against the Philadelphia 76ers in his debut during the 1980 NBA Finals. Harper may very well have pushed his rebound and assist stats closer to equaling Johnson’s had he played more minutes but San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson only played Dylan 28 minutes (and had him on the bench with the game in the balance during crunch time) whereas Magic played 40 minutes in his debut in 1980. Mitch’s rationale for keeping his highest performing player of the game on the bench to close was that it had nothing to do with not trusting Dylan in that spot but rather he just felt good about sticking with the group who had walked down the ‘Bockers from eight behind in the fourth to take that one point lead with two and a half minutes left. Who’s to say if having Harper on the floor down the stretch could have changed anything about giving up the offensive rebound and Brunson three that flipped the lead and the momentum for the final time but either way, I have a sneaking suspicion that Coach Johnson will have Dylan Harper in the closing group if/when we have another clutch game down the stretch in these Finals. With all of the formalities out of the way, I’m filled with nothing but excitement to watch Game 2 tonight and confidence that we will win it handedly. Just like Wemby, I’m not worried in the slightest about Wednesday’s setback. Despite us giving that one away in the end + having to deal with the annoyance of the six to eight percent penetration of the New York fans (especially the celebrity ones) celebrating in the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio (our house), there is so much still to remember and celebrate about the pageantry of Game 1 and the accomplishment of having this next generation of Spurs players take that stage for the first time. Fear and anxiety will not be part of the equation for me while watching Game 2 tonight. Also like Victor, I have visualized us rolling this inferior opponent tonight and that’s exactly what I expect to happen. I do not harbor the slightest bit of concern that this good (but not great) New York squad is going to not only ride a six-week hot streak to the Eastern Conference championship but is also going to ride it to snatch away from the #BlackAndSilver what we have earned by defeating the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder eight out of twelve times this season including a Game 7 in the Western Conference Finals on the road in their building—the right to call ourselves the best team in the league at the end of the season. The absurdity of considering the scenario where the 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs slay the dragon that was the OKC juggernaut, the dynasty in the making, the team that prognosticators were saying as recently as December could set a new NBA record for most wins in a season this year only to then blow the championship round against the Knickerbockers (of all teams) provides me complete inoculation from the cognitive state of uncertainty otherwise know as doubt. As Benjamin Franklin said, “When in doubt, don’t.” Indeed, doubt will find no safe harbor in my living room or in my mind tonight while I’m enjoying watching my favorite team in any sport perform in my favorite sporting even around in my favorite city in the world. Just like Victor Wembanyama, I am a rock.
打纸老虎
Too amped from the lights
Gleaming brighter than ever
Time to settle in
And play the game the right way
For our rightful crown awaits
Written June 2026 in Aurora, CO
Featured Image Source: NBA.com
Headline Image Source: Sports Illustrated
Douze de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 7
Kick In the Door - Wavin’ the .44. All you heard was, “Wemby, don’t hit me no more.” Ladies, gentlemen, sisters, brothers, and siblings, it is now official. Like a chestburster shedding it’s skin and replacing it’s cells with polarized silicon in order to become a fully grown xenomorph, Victor Wembanyama has shed the “ascending” and is now simply the greatest basketball player in the world full stop. League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t relinquish his perch at the top of the NBA pecking order without a fight. Let the historians record and the bards cantillate the sensational spectacle that was the breathtakingly epic clash between the San Antonio Spurs and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the 2026 NBA Western Conference Finals. It was a war of attrition fought over seven grueling battles and it was closely contested all the way until the bitter end. Even though SGA fought admirably to extend his reign as greatest player in the world in Game 7, scoring 35 points and dishing out nine assists, ultimately after Caron Wallace missed a three down six with 12 seconds left in the seventh and decisive battle and Julian Champagnie soared to snag the rebound before quickly hitting De’Aaron Fox with the outlet who then kicked it ahead to Devin Vassell for the break away dunk and eight point lead with four seconds left that sealed the series victory for the Spurs, there was no question that the changing of the guard of the greatest player in the world was earned by Wemby and it was earned through mutual respect and through trial by fire. The Alien wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.
When the dust settled and the Spurs were the last team standing having just closed out the champs, defeating them 111-103 in Game 7 of the WCF on their home court at Paycom Center in downtown Oklahoma City on Saturday, May 30th in the year of our basketball gods 2026 to extend our season into June, a series that started on the very same court 13 days earlier with the star player of one team winning a most valuable player trophy ended with the star player of the other team winning a different most valuable player trophy that puts an eternal asterisk on the first award that was given before the war was fought. To be fair, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was a deserving recipient of his MVP award based on regular season performance but when the NBA MVP loses in the playoffs to another MVP finalist, that fact will always be remembered and legitimate questions on whether the voters got it right that year will come attached to that part of that MVP winner’s legacy forever. I suspect, though, while those questions are indeed now permanent for SGA, assuming Wemby keeps on his current trajectory, they will become more muted over time for the same reason those questions have become more muted for Charles Barkley (1993) and Karl Malone (1997). People hold it against you less when you suffer that type of embarrassment in your MVP season at the hands of the greatest player of all time. That was the case for Barkley and Malone losing to Michael Jordan (who still remains the goat to this day—the only acceptable name you could put forward to have a reasonable debate on the matter is Bill Russell—you can miss me with that LeBron is the goat nonsense—LeBron has had the best NBA career of any player in any era based on production and longevity but greatness is measured in winning at the highest level and LeBron is 4-6 lifetime in the NBA Finals). If Victor Wembanyama continues on his current trajectory, in 15 years (or so) the asterisk on Shai’s 2025-26 NBA MVP award will have been reduced to a tiny one as it will have born out by then that the embarrassment was suffered at the hands of what will be at that point in the future the new undisputed greatest basketball player of all time 🐐
Back to the here and now for a sec, the debate is officially over on who is the current greatest player in the world. Victor took that title away from SGA because the Spurs defeated the Thunder to win the West and Wembanyama (not the two-time defending regular season MVP) was named MVP of the 2026 Western Conference Finals. He has arrived, indeed. If Vic continues on his current trajectory, the debate over the current greatest basketball player in the world is going to be shut down for the next decade or more. Instead (to the point I was making above about how SGA’s humiliation will age gracefully), we will have a new debate to fixate on if Victor continues on his current trajectory. The new debate will be over how long before Victor Wembanyama earns his place on the NBA pantheon for greatest players of all time with Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul Jabber, San Antonio’s very own Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Stephen Curry + how long will it take him to surpass Michael Jordan as the greatest basketball player to ever walk on this planet? This paradigm shift has also arrived and the first notch in Wemby’s “goat belt” can be punched within the next two and a half weeks. If you want start walking down Michael Jordan (and Bill Russell) in the goat conversation, it not only means you need to make it to the NBA Finals a bunch of times but it also means (as Tim Duncan came so painfully close to being the third player to post this type of resume) you need to win it every single time you make it. Based on his Game 7 postgame comments, Victor already gets this and he will be ready to seize the opportunity now in front of him in the 2026 NBA Finals. Case in point, speaking to the press after winning the Oscar Robertson Trophy with his team and the Magic Johnson Trophy individually, Vic observed., “This is the best basketball on the planet that’s being played right now. And the crazy thing is, maybe I’m crazy for that but I want to do that fifteen or twenty more times. Let’s hope it doesn’t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.”
With those preliminaries out of the way, let’s party like it’s 1999 because the San Antonio Spurs are going to our seventh NBA Finals!! And awaiting us is the New York Knicks, the team we beat to win our first NBA Finals in the last year of the last millennium. With this next generation of dynastic talent on the Spurs roster, playing the Knicks and getting to play NBA Finals games in Madison Square Garden (basketball’s Mecca) again is such a full circle moment. It’s also so wild to me to be feeling this aberrantly euphoric sense of anticipation (which is unique to a Spurs’ finals run) for the first time in twelve years. I’m not surprised that we’re here (more just awestruck in appreciation to be once again experiencing such a fleeting revelry in the afterglow of arriving), I am an eternal optimist in my Spurs fandom, after all. Writing Un de fait after being on hiatus from this project for seven years felt like embarking into the unknown much like it felt when I wrote One Down in 2013 but on both occasions I envisioned the blog series taking us on a journey that would stretch into June because in both cases, I had an instinctive supposition this was a year the Spurs could make a run to The Finals. I won’t lie, though, unlike 2013 (when I had the confidence of rooting for a core group of players who done it many times before), considering our youth, it feels surreal that we actually pulled it off on Wemby & company’s first attempt. The 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs are the youngest team to make it to the NBA Finals since the 1976-77 Portland Trail Blazers. In other words, this is a once every 50 year outlier and since I’m forty-seven that also means that the 25-26 Spurs are the youngest team to make it to the NBA Finals in my lifetime and in all probability will remain the youngest team to make the NBA Finals for the rest of my lifetime which is mind-blowing. Perhaps a more apt comparison than 2013 (when I first started writing about every Spurs playoff run) to how surreal this moment feels is in fact the aforementioned 1999 run to the NBA Finals. (Also, before we continue (just to name it out loud), another reason to limit the comparison between now and 2013 strictly to the similarity of embarking into the unknown with writing the Black & Silver blog series for the first time—or first time in a long time—is 2013 proved to be the necessary exposition in a two-part story with the 2014 redemption title being the resolution. This journey we are on 2026 is undoubtedly a standalone origin story.)
Now back to the year where I pulled an all-nighter the night before seeing a first run screening of The Matrix in a movie theatre and as consequence, fell asleep 45 minutes in and missed everything else the first time I ever watched the dopest movie made during my formative years (no joke). In other words, back to 1999. It’s so poetic that it’s once again the New York Knicks. It’s so poetic that it’s once again a new crop of Spurs playing their first NBA Finals in the Garden. It feel so incredibly fresh. And it’s that newness of it being the first time we are experiencing it (or in this case the first time with this new generation of players) that creates its own “pinch me, this can’t be real” temporary plain of existence that is simply phantasmagoric. Perhaps the hint of imposter syndrome that comes with doing something for the first time adds an extra ingredient to elevate the provocation of the moment. As similar as this euphoric dream state I’m momentarily floating through feels to ‘99, the imposter syndrome ingredient is even more pronounced this time around because this team is way younger and way newer than the first squad that ever put Larry O’Brien in a boat parade on the San Antonio River. Tim Duncan, our 22-year old superstar and best player was young and new at the same time that Bill Clinton was establishing Pride Month by presidential proclamation, but the rest of the 1999 title team was a veteran ball club. (Happy Pride, San Antonio 🌈) Did I mention that the ‘26 Spurs are the youngest team in 49 years to make the NBA Finals? Yeah. I think it’s safe to say I’m floating on cloud nine in an incomparable way. I can’ t wait to get this thing started. But before we can, we still have some more house keeping to do on that immortal team performance in Game 7 of the 2026 WCF.
Seven players scored in double figure for San Antonio in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals and all seven of them scored in the fourth quarter (we call that the seven and seven) as OKC was tightening the screws hoping to make us crack. This was a complete team effort to hold the champs at bay. As predicted in Onze de faits, Wemby played with determination and force setting the tone from the jump. His first bucket of his first-career NBA playoff Game 7 was an homage to his pantheon mentor Tim Duncan—an 11-foot bank shot to settle down the thunderous crowd. The Alien went on to hit step back threes, volleyball spike a layup attempt by the MVP into the first row, cram right on Chet Holmgren’s lifeless face (to name a few highlights), and played a steady, effective up-for-the-moment game finishing with a team-high 22 points, seven rebounds, two assists, and one endearingly emotional response to winning his first conference title and MVP trophy. The second leading scorer was Julian Chanpagnie with 20. Jules stayed in rhythm dropping the Thunder off for a back-breaking six triples on 6-10 from deep. Hitting six threes to help end a title defense in a Game 7 in the title holder’s own building takes such a NY street ball mentality. Now, the kid from Brooklyn gets to take that cutthroat fearlessness and give his hometown ball club a little something with it in the Garden. Also predicted in the last post, all three of our star guards stepped into the moment of opportunity provided by a Game 7 and seized it with contributions that totaled 43 points, 14 assists and 13 rebounds. I think it’s safe to say Wemby got the help he needed from his buffet menu of sidekick mega-talented all-world guards. The iconoclast Stephon Castle had 16 points, six rebounds and six assists while once again making SGA have to work hard for everything on the other end. De’Aaron Fox (our Iceman 2.0) had been struggling with his shooting after returning to the series in Game 3 from the high ankle sprain he suffered in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves but thankfully his cold-blooded sniping returned just in time for Game 7. He hit timely buckets to thwart OKC’s momentum in multiple key stretches in the decisive contest on Saturday night. De’Aaron’s calming veteran presence was absolutely critical to our Game 7 success. Overall, the two-time all-star scored 15 points (on 6-12 from the field and 3-7 from deep) and five assists. Last but not least among our three-headed guard trio, the prodigy Dylan Harper also made some of the clutch-est plays a 20-year-old rookie has ever made this deep into the playoffs in NBA history. Dylan had 12 points (on 5-8 shooting including two massive three pointers), three assists, and seven huge rebounds including two of the most important offensive rebounds of the second half where we went on to score critical points off those rebounds. I said we needed big performances from all three of our star guards in Game 7 to have any shot at knocking out the champs and predicted we would get them so it was really satisfying to see it come to fruition. The Slash Brothers and “Unc” were spectacular on Saturday night.
The last two remaining Spurs players of the seven who scored in double figures in Game 7 were our two longest-tenured players, Keldon Johnson and Devin Vassell who both put up eleven points. KJ was able to shake off his up and down postseason so far to come up with a sixth-man-of-the-year-level performance in the fourth quarter with the game in the balance scoring eight of his 11 points on two massive fourth quarter threes in a row (to bookend a Cason Wallace three on the other end) and then scoring a transition bucket later in the frame. Deven played a steady all-around game with stingy defense to help Steph with the MVP (creating two steals) and his series-ending emphatic dunk to seal our seventh trip to the NBA Finals is a play I will never forget. Ironically, the player of the game was not any of the “seven and seven” Spurs. The player of the game was Luke Kornet. Congratulations, Luke. I don’t even have to go back and do the research to know that you have set the record for the least amount of minutes played in earning a Black & Silver player of the game honor. The most underrated free agent signing of the 2025 NBA offseason logged a whopping six minutes of game action in his award-snatching performance and put up the jaw-dropping stat line of two points on 0-3 shooting and four rebounds. Unless you just came out of a coma, you already know why Luke earned player of the game honors. (And if you did just come out of a coma, thanks for immediately turning to theLeftAhead as your trusted news source for catching up on what’s been happening in the world.) Luke may have very well saved our season with his divine intervention of a Isaiah Hartenstein fast break dunk attempt. I can’t emphasize enough how massive that play was in swinging what could have been a four or three point OKC deficit to an eight point Spurs advantage with six minutes to play (after Steph his a midrange jumper on the other end after the block). Luke’s block was the highlight of our entire season so far and it may prove to be the biggest NBA playoff block since LeBron James’ chase down block of Andre Iguodala in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals. One thing is for sure, it will be forever memorialized in Spurs playoff lore. Watching it never gets old so I’m just going to leave this right here below for you to enjoy on repeat as many times as your heart desires.
We wouldn’t be providing a comprehensive retrospective on the best playoff series of the decade so far without saying goodbye to some of the OKC villains who (because every chapter in the blog series is organic and each post is written under varying degrees of “time crunch” pressure depending on length of time between games and other outside demands on my attention) didn’t get the Black & Silver coverage over these past seven posts that they deserved. Let’s start by saying goodbye, Alex Caruso. You will not be missed. Your performance was at times chaotic at times brilliant and at times borderline dirty but it was also almost outcome-altering. So good riddance, Caruso. I’m glad we don’t have to see your pale face again until next season (lol). When the Thunder were up 3-2 in the series through five games, one could make a reasonable argument to have Caruso as the front runner for MVP of the 2026 Western Conference Finals. Many pundits were also prematurely trying to give the two-time champion a place amongst the greatest role players of all-time. (Settle down, NBA punditry. Alex Caruso has a long way to go to get in the same conversation as Robert Horry.) Thankfully, Caruso’s out-of-nowhere 31 point (including eight three pointer) off the bench Game 1 performance came in a loss and when the lights got brightest, The Bald Mamba couldn’t rise to the occasion going only 1-6 from deep (and 3-14 overall) in Game 7. We also need to say goodbye to you, Isaiah Hartenstein. Peace out, you ogre. Watching you play football by committing 55 fouls a game on Wemby (knowing the refs will only call four or five of them) because you can’t stop him playing actual basketball was a camp performance in a flop of a movie series that I’m thankful we don’t have to view again. Last but not least, goodbye, Jared McCain. It would have been extremely frustrating if the reason the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder advanced back to the 2026 NBA Finals because of Daryl Morey’s idiocracy. Your inclusion in this good natured ribbing is purely circumstantial, by the way. I think you’re a great shooter and I love watching you play. It just would have been extremely frustrating if you had swung this series simply because the Philadelphia 76ers were too cheap to keep you around and too dumb to realize your value. Thankfully, you didn’t. Well folks, that’s all the goodbyes we need to make to OKC villains from this epic series. Not to pile on but we don’t need to say goodbye to you, Chet Holmgren. Thanks to the Vulcan death grip that Victory Wembanyama has on your soul, you never bothered to show up for the 2026 Western Conference Finals in the first place. And on that note, it’s onward to getting ready to watch the San Antonio Spurs play Game 1 of our seventh NBA Finals tonight back home in the comfy confines of the Frost Bank Center. I am overcome with joy and excitement and can’t wait to get this thing rolling. The #BlackAndSilver have the opportunity to crush a lot of dreams and guarantee it becomes at least 54 seasons that New York Knickerbocker fans have been waiting to celebrate a title. The 1999 nostalgia is going to be fierce with this match up. Just like 1999, we are still the better team and we are still the team with a 22-year old superstar who is the best player in the series. In the intervening 27 years since this Finals match up last occurred, we have won five world championships and established ourselves as one of the greatest franchises in all of pro sports while the Knicks have mostly been in the wilderness. I’m happy the Knicks are finally back to relevance but the more things change, the more they stay the same. We are still the franchise that has been hanging banners in the rafters ever since 1999. We are still D.R.E.
P.S. Congratulations to our old friend Jeremy Sohan for winning his 2025-26 NBA Championship ring.
Featured Image Source: Medium
Headline Image Source: Sole Retriever on Threads
Onze de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 6
Two Six - For every move there’s a counter move. Playing out of check in Game 6 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals, Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs have cross-checked reigning two-time MVP Shai Gilgeous Alexander and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder with one cunning move. The home team shoved away the pressure of our first playoff elimination game (as a group) and won going away 128-91 on Thursday night. In doing so, we have now forced the Thunder (the very same team that went undefeated through the first two rounds of the playoffs) to face the first elimination game of their title defense. After blowing out OKC for the second time this series (and extending our season series lead over them to 7-4 in the process), we once again proved that (even though it requires suspending disbelief thinking in these terms about a team whose three franchise cornerstone pieces have an average age of the greatest player in franchise history’s jersey number) we’re already, at worst, on equal footing with the defending champs. When you have played an opponent eleven times in a season and have outscored them by a cumulative total of 1303 to 1201, it’s hard to continue to argue for what should be the conventional thinking: a team this young and inexperienced should not be a significant threat to dethrone the most recent team to raise a banner. Even with a Game 7 still ahead of us and despite the outcome of the series still being in the balance, the upstart Spurs have already made a forceful statement in this conference finals. Knotting this epic clash back up at 3-3 on Thursday night was the exclamation point. It can no longer be argued that it will require more seasoning for a Wemby-led San Antonio squad to compete at the highest level. The world now knows we are here for all of the smoke right in this very moment and ready to crash an NBA Finals party that we weren’t supposed to be getting invited to for at least another couple of seasons. The world now knows you can’t use conventional thinking to predict what something as unconventional as an extraterrestrial life form (that walks among us) can or cannot do. The world now knows that The Alien and those pesky whippersnappers from San Antonio are more than capable of marching straight into our first Game 7 on the road in insolently hostile Oklahoma City and knocking off the defending champs. Not only does the world know this but, to the delight of Adam Silver for getting to keep swimming in the reverie of his ratings bonanza, it will be on the edge of its seat holding its breath tonight to see if we pull it off.
Game 6 marks the seventh time the Spurs have held an opponent under 100 points this postseason and the second time against OKC. The type of suffocating defense we played on Thursday is virtually unbeatable. If we can repeat bringing such a ruthless onslaught of physicality and pressure again tonight (and the refs allow the players to decide the game), we will win the series. The problem is that it’s hit or miss whether or not our defensive A game is going to show up on any given night. Luckily, it’s not a home versus road question; we have proven our ability to play at our defensive best on the road during these playoffs. To me, there are two things we need to do in order to ensure that the top-secret otherworldly weapons possessed in Area 51 are unleashed on downtown Oklahoma City tonight. First, we need to come to play with the proper focus and urgency that a Game 7 requires. Every mistake is magnified. Every lapse of concentration could prove to be the thing that ends your season. The Spurs have proven throughout this inaugural playoff run that we always bring the proper focus and urgency on the defensive side of the court when our backs are against the wall and I expect nothing different tonight in our second elimination game. I’m supremely confident that we will bring the necessary focus and urgency to our first Game 7 in order to play defense with the respect and desperation it will require in order to come out on top. The second thing we need to do in order to ensure we paint a defensive masterpiece tonight is we have to protect the basketball. Let’s be honest, the Thunder’s half court office is kinda mid. The reason this team has been elite the past three seasons and won last year’s title is because of their exceptional ability create turnovers and then punish the opponent with the transition buckets those turnovers generate. When they are unable to dominate the turnover and transition battle, the Thunder are not an elite team. With Stephon Castle at the point of attack and Victor Wembanyama lurking in the shadows, the MVP had no answers to the test if the game is played in the half court. If we limit our turnovers tonight, it will allow us to guard in the half court where we will be able to clamp down and slowly turn the screws to suffocate OKC’s offense. The raucous Frost Bank Center crowd shouted “Spurs in Seven” with about 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter of Game 6 on Thursday night and with San Antonio maintaining a comfortable 20+ point lead. If we want to make that chant prophetic, we need to limit our turnovers throughout this Game 7 on the road in as hostile an environment as this group has experienced together so that our singular collection of defensive talent can suffocate the champs in the half court and destroy a city’s hopes of being the first to repeat in eight years.
It was obvious OKC was in trouble for Game 6 the minute Victor entered the Frost Bank Center wearing a thobe in honor of the Muslim holiday Eid al-Adha on Thursday at 5:00 pm CT. Two and a half hours later when he came out with the conviction and determination of Prophet Musa by draining his first two threes in the opening minutes and then racking up another five points (11 total), five rebounds, one assist, one steal, and one block in the first quarter, I was like, okay, Vic. Assalamu Alaikum, brother, Inshallah. The biggest barometer for which team wins any given game in this series has been who had the best player on the court that night. When Wemby has been the best player on the court, the Spurs have won. When two-time reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been the best player on the court, the Thunder have won. After storming out the iron gate like the Battle of Khaybar in the first, Wemby played aggressively but with intention the entire night and slotted Game 6 in his “best player on the court that night” column with ease. The ascending greatest player in the world finished the game with 28 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks, two assists and two steals, By contrast, the MVP had his worst game of the series posting 15 points on 6-18 shooting with only three free throws. You heard me right, only three. The contrast between the two stars has never been starker than it was on Thursday. Wemby simply outclassed the MVP on this particular occasion. Given the series trend, Victor’s performance tonight needs to be a tikrar of Game 6. If Wemby is the best player on the floor tonight, the San Antonio Spurs will almost certainly advance to our seventh NBA Finals. The thing that can remove “almost certainly” from the equation and make it a sure thing is if one of our other three all-world talents is also at their dynamic best. In the Game 6 blowout victory, we got that type of performance from the player of the game (and only draft pick in the 25-26 class to make the all-rookie first team and also play in the conference finals) Dylan Harper. Having had a limited impact on the series since injuring his right abductor in Game 2, the straight outta Rutgers electric prodigy exploded in Game 6 for 18 points, six rebounds, four assists and most-importantly only one turnover in 22 exhilarating minutes. Dylan got his groove back just in time to help us save our season at home and set up this winner take all scenario back in OKC. I’ll be elated if he can duplicate that performance again tonight and be the Spurs guard who provides the punch that’s going to be necessary to pair with a dominant Wemby performance in order for us to put ourselves in position to win this game but we know it can be any of the weapons in our three-headed “all-world guard” monster backcourt. Keep in mind, we’ve been saying this entire postseason run Stephon Castle is built for this for a reason. Like Derrick Henry on a Power-O, Steph has plowed straight through every obstacle that has gotten in his way this postseason. There is no question Stephon Castle is built for Game 7. And while it seems the least likely because he has been severely limited in this series with the high ankle sprain suffered during the back nine of the Minnesota series, I have a sneaking suspicion that the former clutch player of the year is going to be able to dig deep enough to find something tonight that he can provide to further cement his reputation as one of the coldest-blooded players in the league. Once again, we are going to have more dynamic talent all over the court tonight than our opponent. It requires one of our three “all-world” guards to have a night alongside Victor for us to beat the champs but as I’m mentally preparing this afternoon for this evening’s proceedings, I’m exuding nothing but calm because I’m filled with the resolve that we’re going to get memorable performances from all three to help ensure this a legendary Game 7.
For my money, there is nothing better than the memories created by a legendary Game 7 in the NBA playoffs. I have fuzzy memories of watching Larry Bird and the Boston Celtics defeat Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 7 of the 1984 NBA Finals with my family when I was five but the first one I truly remember is the epic 1988 NBA Finals Game 7 clash between Magic’s Lakers and Isaiah Thomas and the “Bad Boy” Detroit Pistons when I was nine. My dad was born in Detroit and was a lifelong fan of all of the city’s major sports teams so our family had a strong rooting interest in that game. Isaiah Thomas was a super hero to nine-year-old me. After spraining his ankle in Game 6 only to score 25 points in the third quarter (the NBA Finals record for most points in a quarter still to this day) but coming up one point short of sealing the title in six, I was convinced he could repeat the feat and finish the job in Game 7 but it wasn’t meant to be as Thomas was less effective performing through the injury two days after having suffered it and the Lakers closed out the series by the skin of their teeth winning Game 7 at home by only three points. Nine-year-old me was very sad but Zeke and the Bad Boys got sweet revenge the next year sweeping the Lakers in the 1989 NBA Finals to the delight of ten-year-old me. More recently, two of the most memorable Game 7s that come to mind for me are Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals when LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers (after climbing out a 3-1 hole) took down the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the Bay in stunning fashion and Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals when the late Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Boston Celtics in a war of attrition for Kobe’s fifth and final title. Of course most of my most vivid Game 7 memories in my four decades + of watching the NBA playoffs involve the San Antonio Spurs. Some painful, some euphoric. The most painful, given the stakes, was obviously Game 7 of the 2013 NBA Finals. After somehow putting the Ray Allen shot and the most heartbreaking defeat in franchise history behind us in 48 hours in order to get ourselves to what we now refer to as a “clutch time” situation on the road in Miami in Game 7 only to come up just short to the Heatles after Tim Duncan missed a six-foot jump hook he makes 98 times out of a hundred was devastatingly painful. The only other one that even comes close to that level of disappointment was the 2006 second-round Game 7 at home against Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks where after playing from behind the entire game, Manu Ginobili hit a three to give us a three point lead in the final seconds only to commit a boneheaded foul while Nowitzki was driving to the basket on the very next possession which allowed the German hall-of-famer to convert a three-point play to send the game to an overtime where the visitors eventually prevailed. On the positive side, you can’t get more euphoric than the Game 7 we played the year prior to the Dirk debacle, a Game 7 that took surviving a rock fight against the three-time (and defending) champion Detroit Pistons to earn the third title of our own. Watching the Spurs win Game 7 of the 2005 Finals on June 23, 2005 was the most emotional sports-viewing experience of my entire life because the euphoria from watching my team grind out one of the hardest fought titles in league history was soon engulfed with conflicting emotions when I called my dad (who had recently been diagnosed with dementia) after the game and told him that my Spurs had beaten his Pistons. While he was happy for me that my team won but he also asked me, “Who scored the most touchdowns?” That was the moment that I knew the opportunity to make new Game 7 memories with my dad (like the ones we made watching his Pistons take on the Lakers in 1988) was gone forever which was hard at first but over time allowed me the cherish those Game 7 memories I had made watching with my dad even more deeply. The San Antonio Spurs euphoria-inducing Game 7 victory which is most applicable to the task at hand tonight is the Game 7 from the 2008 Western Conference Semifinals against early-prime Chris Paul and the New Orleans Hornets. Even though it was a Game 7 victory against a less experienced opponent that only secured a conference finals birth (a regular occurrence during the Duncan-era), there are two reasons it is the most applicable Game 7 victory for facing the champs in OKC later this evening. First, it’s the only time in franchise history that we have won a Game 7 on the road. It really was the epitome of the Spurs’ pound the rock mentality. We just kept plugging away and plugging away throughout the series until eventually the damn broke in Game 7. This brings me to the second reason this Game 7 memory is most applicable. In that second-round series against the Hornets in 2008, there was no doubt in my mind that we were the better team. We just couldn’t figure out a way to maintain the upper hand long enough to knock them out in five or six but ultimately talent won out and our superiority as a team proved to be a more decisive variable than the opponent having the precious advantage of hosting the win-or-go-home contest in their building. The way I felt about our matchup with the New Orleans Hornets in 2008 is exactly how I feel about our matchup with the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder in 2026. I believe we are the better team and I am confident that our superiority as a team will be a more decisive variable than the champs having the precious advantage of hosting this contest that will decide the Western Conference in their building in a few short hours. I believe the #BlackAndSilver are going to make us (their fans) a euphoric new memory tonight by winning only the second road Game 7 in franchise history and in so doing, slaying the championship dragon that is currently still standing in the way of us getting where we believe we deserve to be. Not where we deserve to be in a couple of years. Not where we deserve to be after taking our playoff lumps. We believe we are the best team in the Western Conference and therefore, we deserve to be in the NBA Finals right now. Tonight, I believe we are going to kick in the door.
Featured Image Source: 24Hip-Hop
Headline Image Source : The Athletic
Six de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 5
Ride - I know, I know. The Bone Crusher was back again on Tuesday night doing his best Michael Myers impression with the way he was butchering easy-to-see-no-brainer calls. Like a C-List actor making a cash-grab to play the lead in an awful new Halloween reboot trilogy, Tony Brothers has been assigned to officiate three San Antonio Spurs playoff games now and each of his performances was worse than the one before. Some of The Bone Crusher’s blown calls in Game 5 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals were so inexcusable, they were farcical. Remember the part where he literally missed three basic calls (a clear goal tend, a ball that obviously went out of bounds off Thunder All-Star Chet Holmgren’s foot, and a Mitch Johnson signal for a challenge—who he then teed up to compound the mistake) in a 30-second stretch in the third quarter? It was at that point that I could no longer tell if I was watching an NBA playoff game at Paycom Center or amateur night at Bricktown Comedy Club. The proverbial outrage at the officiating being said, the refereeing was not the reason the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 127-114 on Tuesday night. Let me repeat. The refereeing was not the reason the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night. We lost Game 5 because (with the exception of three players) we were not physically or mentally ready to anticipate and match OKC’s desperation in order to give ourselves a chance (on the road in a hostile environment) for a repeat of our Game 4 results. Having three players appropriately locked in might have been sufficient to allow us to keep it close enough to give ourselves a chance to steal it in the end but only if one of those three locked in players was our All-NBA first team alien and, as we all know, not only was Victor Wembanyama not one of those players, instead he had his most passive and dumbfoundedly ineffective (complete) game of the entire playoffs.
Yep, Wemby (individually) and the San Antonio Spurs (collectively) picked a bad time to have our most nonchalant, sloppy, undisciplined, “young and inexperienced” game of the 2026 postseason. Ughhhhhhhhh. That was so incredibly disappointing. The game was right there for the taking after we got out to a 16-8 lead to begin the first quarter. League MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was in his head second-guessing his answers to the test and the defending champs looked like they were on the verge of cracking the same way Minnesota did when we put it on the Wolves in their building in Game 6 of the last series. One of the players who came ready to play and helped get us out to that early lead was Julian Champagne. He drained three triples in the opening frame and finished the game with 22 points, eight rebounds, three steals, and one dime. The second player who was locked in to meet the challenge of WCF Game 5 on the road because “he was built for this” was iconoclast Stephon Castle. Steph continued where he left off in relentlessly hounding SGA on defense while also offering up 24 points (on efficient shooting), six assists, five rebounds, and three steals in his “steady as she goes” performance. Last but certainly not least of our “up for the challenge” trio was your favorite basketball player’s favorite teammate, sixth man of the year Keldon Johnson. After suffering through a mostly subpar inaugural playoff campaign to this point, KJ brought the type of energy off the bench on Tuesday that earned him the aforementioned award, hustling and bullying his way to 15 points, four rebounds, and two assists. While Keldon’s stat line doesn’t scream off the page, he provided the right type of energy and enough punch off the bench to (after squandering the early opportunity to put the champs behind the eight ball) give us a puncher’s chance get the game into a clutch time situation where from that point, victory could’ve been there for the taking. In the end, it wasn’t meant to be and we have nobody to blame but ourselves for allowing our opponent to be the more connected and desperate team. And to have the best player on the floor. Somehow in Game 5 after squandering our early lead, chess aficionado and ascending greatest basketball player in the world Victor Wembanyama broke concentration just long enough to allow the two-time NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to put us in check.
As a result, we’re definitely going to find out what we’re made of in Game 6. Tonight will be another playoff first for Victor Wembanyama in his singular quest for all of the greatness right now all at once. It will also be another playoff first for Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Julian Champagnie and Carter Bryant. Game 6 will be all of these players first time facing elimination from the NBA playoffs. This group (plus our three rotation players who have prior playoff experience—De’Aaron Fox + former champions Luke Kornet & Harrison Barnes) has proven over and over again that we treat every challenge as an opportunity to go out and seize. No one said it was supposed to be easy. The defending champions have us up against the ropes at the moment but there are only three teams left that can win the 2025-26 Larry O’Brien and we’re one of them so as long as we have another game to play, we have an opportunity to win that game and then another and then another and then another and then another and then another and then we can rest. Victor, the chess aficionado, can envision this opportunity because he believes this latest tango with adversity is simply an obstacle that must be removed because it is standing in between him and a prize he believes is his to have now. The reason Wemby has had an emphatic answer every time he has faced adversity in the 2026 NBA playoffs is because building the greatest legacy in NBA history requires a strong foundation and there’s no stronger foundation than winning the Larry O’Brien trophy on your very first attempt. Tonight will be no different. An opponent has put basketball’s Bobby Fischer in check for the first time. For every move there’s a counter move and as Fischer himself said, “Chess is war over the board. The object is to crush the opponent’s mind.” Vic will be ready for Game 6 and god bless the MVP’s soul if he is not. For the rest of our special group, I have full confidence they will earn the moniker again tonight and keep this magical journey going. We have more dynamic talent on our roster than OKC and as a result we have match up advantages to exploit on both sides of the ball when we bring the proper focus and attention to detail. We’ve got the blueprint for vanquishing champions. We always have. We’ve used that blueprint to slay dragons like the Shaq-Kobe Los Angeles Lakers in ‘03, the Iron Five Detroit Pistons in ‘05 and the LeBron-Wade-Bosh Miami “Heatles” in ‘14. If the #BlackAndSilver go out and pound the rock tonight and then go pound the rock again on Saturday, we can slay this dragon too. That’s the blueprint. We’ve had it so long it’s practically a load-bearing wall in our practice facility, Victory Capital Performance Center. Let the legend one day be told of how the greatest player to ever walk this earth joined the greatest franchise in all the land and together they vanquished a champion before hoisting their sixth trophy on his very first try in two six.
POUND THE ROCK
WHEN NOTHING SEEMS TO HELP, I GO AND LOOK AT A STONECUTTER HAMMERING AWAY AT HIS ROCK PERHAPS A HUNDRED TIMES WITHOUT AS MUCH AS A CRACK SHOWING IN IT. YET AT THE HUNDRED AND FIRST BLOW IT WILL SPLIT IN TWO, AND I KNOW IT WAS NOT THAT BLOW THAT DID IT, BUT ALL THAT HAD GONE BEFORE. — JACOB RIIS
Featured Image Source: r/NBASpurs on Reddit
Headline Image Source: Lost Otros Murals
Dix de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 4
Supersonic - That was for Downtown Freddie Brown, Spencer Haywood, Lenny Wilkens, Gus Williams, Jack Sikma, Dennis Johnson, Slick Watts, Xavier McDaniels, Detlef Schrempf, Nate McMillan, Dale Ellis, Shawn Kemp, Gary Payton, Rashard Lewis, Ray Allen and Kevin Durant. That was for the city of Seattle + every former player, coach, team employee and fan of the Supersonics and their iconic emerald and gold. Seattle is a beautiful, special city. Trust me, I would know. I’ve been everywhere, man. At one point or another in my life, I’ve visited 48 states and nearly every major city in this country (Burlington, VT and Anchorage, AK are the only two that come to mind that I have yet to visit but plans are in the works because I’m hoping to join the All Fifty States Club by next year) so I think my frame of reference is grounded when I tell you Seattle is a top-five American city. I have spent more time in Seattle than anywhere else besides Denver (where I live) over the past ten years and I know many wonderful people there who still talk about how much the Sonics are missed so cry me a river Thunder fans but it’s an objective fact that Seattle deserves their NBA franchise way more than Oklahoma City. The good people there didn’t deserve to have their Sonics stolen away because a greedy, two-faced rich guy owner cared more about being a big shot in his hometown than being the steward of a renowned franchise and a past-his-prime commissioner cared more about short-term profits than the longterm health of the league. In 2007, Clay Bennett used the lack of a new tax-payer funded arena as a pretext to move a beloved franchise from a vibrant, booming city to his obscure, mundane backyard and NBA Commissioner David Stern committed a dereliction of duty by allowing it to happen. As a lifelong NBA fan, there has been a faint but ever-present nagging melancholy providing a slight but real diminishment from my overall enjoyment of the league over the past eighteen seasons, the melancholy being the NBA is simply not the same without the Seattle SuperSonics. A league without the Sonics will always have something missing. So yeah, when Seattle-native and current San Antonio Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson made the necessary game-to-game adjustments on Sunday night to help the Spurs go supersonic on the Thunder in our Game 4 103-82 Western Conference Finals-evening victory, that was definitely for the city whose team was stolen by Oklahoma City. That was for Seattle. And given that the architect of OKC’s most humiliating defeat since winning the title is the son of a legend from the Sonics 1979 championship team, most of all, that was for Mitch’s father. That was for John Johnson.
On Sunday, the #BlackAndSilver delivered one of the most dominant team defensive performances I have ever seen in my 45 years of watching the NBA playoffs. The adjustment made by Mitch Johnson giving Stephon Castle the sole responsibility for relentlessly guarding the point of attack worked to perfection overall but especially in accomplishing its primary objective. Two-time reigning league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (who had been comfortable in Games 2 & 3 and picking our defense apart) was back to seeing ghosts again. While Steph’s point of attack defense was the catalyst, it took a total team effort to spook OKC’s leader. Every player gave maximum effort and stayed disciplined with our attention to game plan detail for defending the MVP the entire night. It was a sight to behold. With Castle hounding the ever-loving hell out of Shai immediately every time the Thunder gained possession, Wemby and Luke Kornet met him in the paint (while also covering the weak side) and our perimeter defenders crowded him inside the arc (while still getting out to contest shooters). All five Spurs defenders were connected playing on a string the entire night. The most important byproduct of Mitch giving SGA a pop quiz in parapsychology (that he didn’t yet have the answers for) was it prevented the best playmaking guard in the league from elevating his teammates in Game 4 the same way he had been the previous two games. OKC’s role players, who had played like world beaters in Games 2 & 3, were forced by our suffocating defense to start regressing to the mean. Remember how Jaylin Williams and Alex Caruso shot a combined 8-11 from deep in Game 3? Clearly the adjustments worked because in Game 4, Jaylin Williams shot 1-7 from distance and Alex Caruso (whose stellar play in the first three games of the series had the media’s talking heads impulsively anointing him as the greatest role player of all time 🙄) laid a goose egg (zero points on 0-1 shooting). All told, Oklahoma City shot 6-33 from deep and 30-91 overall. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s a putrid 18 percent from beyond the arc and a frigid 33 percent from the field. It all added up to 82 points, OKC’s third-lowest final score in their playoff history. There’s no question San Antonio (led by the tenacity of Stephon Castle) gave a defensive performance for the ages last night. Perhaps the most exciting part of getting that type of defensive performance in response to our backs being up against the wall for the first time in the 2026 NBA playoffs is that it’s proof of concept that when we play at our best, there is not a team in this league that can match our ceiling. Even though it’s supposed to be way too early because we’re supposed to still be way too young, when we play at our best, we are already unbeatable.
“Wembanyama, I think he’s gonna go. I think he’s gonna go… from half-court. Got it!” As the spotlight and stakes keep getting bigger and bigger, the player of the game’s ability to always meet the moment (when responding to adversity) is a stunning thing to continue to witness over and over again. Wemby was aggressive throughout Game 4 tallying 33 points (11-22 from the field, 3-7 from deep, 8-9 from the line), eight rebounds five assists, three blocks and two steals in the process of racking up a team-high +29 point differential in his 33 dominant minutes. His magical half-court buzzer-beater at the end of the first half was not only amazing in a vacuum but in this particular scenario it had the outsized psychological impact of allowing us to go into the break with a double-digit lead and momentum just when it looked like the Thunder (after cutting another 15-point first quarter lead down to nine) were going to start walking us down for the second consecutive game. Just when things were starting to tighten up and it was starting to feel like OKC was possibly going to claw there way back, the longest shot of Victor’s career (so far) provided reassurance heading into halftime that Game 4 wouldn’t be a repeat of Game 3. The Spurs never looked back in the second half and won the game running away. Considering that going down 2-1 in the WCF to the defending champs is supposed to be the type of pressure that a team as young and with as little playoff experience as us is supposed to wilt under, it was quite a rewarding experience to watch San Antonio respond so emphatically by playing our best game of the entire season. Unfortunately, there’s no time to savor the moment. We’re back in the orange and blue Paycom Center belly of the beast tonight and we’re still playing the champs, a team with a short memory and one that is more than capable of figuring out an adjustment to our adjustment, winning Game 5, and putting our back squarely back against the wall. How would Victor Wembanyama and company respond to the adversity of facing elimination from the 2026 NBA playoffs for the first time? That is not a question I want to be faced with answering 12 hours from now. The good news is we won’t have to if we replicate the same level of effort and performance that we displayed on Sunday. It’s clear that the San Antonio Spurs when playing at our best can already reach a level of play that the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder can’t match. It won’t be easy to do what we did on Sunday again tonight on the road against a now equally-desperate team and in front of 18,000 hostile spectators but if any team is too young and too inexperienced to know that we’re not supposed to march into OKC in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals and replicate our best performance of the season, it’s the 2025-26 San Antonio Spurs. Can’t hurt to give it a shot. We’ve already secured another home game on Thursday. The pressure is squarely on the two-time defending MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the champs tonight to come up with some answers to the latest test. If we play with the same defensive intensity tonight as the last game and combine it with playing fast and loose on offense, we’re going to be one step closer to heading somewhere we haven’t been in 12 years. The inaugural playoff run of the Wembanyama-era has been quite a journey already and I have a sneaking suspicion it’s still far from over. Chapter 16 will be written tonight so sit back, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.
Cinq de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 3
Sleep Now In the Fire - Give them credit. They were the better team in Game 3. Not by the margin they won by but there’s no arguing they weren’t the better team last night. This is the first time I’ve had to objectively concede another team outplayed us in the 2026 NBA Playoffs. Considering the first game against Portland was five weeks ago and it took until Memorial Day weekend before we even blinked once, I don’t expect us to blink again for a while if at all but that was a tough loss. It’s also a valuable teaching moment. We almost broke them in the first few minutes of the game but when we didn’t, we lost our edge and weren’t able to get it back. We should now know that letting your guard down in that scenario against a team this good means you lose. That’s a hard lesson we couldn’t have received any better way than being schooled by the MVP and his defending champs. So yeah, it’s a hard loss but one I expect us to learn from and grow because if we don’t, the Thunder are good enough to make us more than blink. If we don’t draw a line in the sand by coming out in Game 4 with a focus that shows we know our season is on the line for the first time and we don’t like this feeling cause we don’t want it to end so we’re angry and about to do something about it, the champs will wrap this up in three blinks of an eye.
I don’t know about y’all but I’m not ready for this magical season to end. It would be very easy to kick our feet back after Game 4 tips tomorrow evening and just enjoy the show stress-free. The 2025-26 season has already been a smashing success, after all, with us having already completed one of the greatest one-year turnarounds in NBA history from 13th in the West last year to the Western Conference Finals this year. Even this Thunder team we are trying to dethrone got bounced in the second round on their first crack at the postseason (2023-24). It would be very easy to allow ourselves to finally succumb to accepting the premise that it is impossible for a team with a core this young to win the title after starting the postseason as playoff virgins. Your lack of experience will eventually bump up against a team that knows how to exploit it ergo the only way this thing can possibly end is with us taking our playoffs lumps. It certainly would be very easy to succumb to that premise but I say screw that. That premise just doesn’t fit with how anomalously special this team has been this season. This might be the most talented young core ever assembled on an NBA roster and I haven’t even yet mentioned the variable that renders a premise derived from historical data null and void…the magic of who Victor Wembanyama is as a basketball player is singularly unprecedented. If anyone is supposed to be capable of computing the ways in which his team was beaten on Friday at AMD Ryzen speed and then making the necessary adjustments to punch right back tomorrow, it’s the fierce young challenger from Le Chesnay, France who’s been prophesized to be basketball’s messiah and hath risen to meet every challenge of his basketball career head on so far. I expect nothing different tomorrow night. I’m not ready for this season to end and while I’m concerned that we are down in a series after three games for the first time, I’m not panicking and I’m certainly not succumbing to the premise that this inaugural postseason run has met an expiration date because I know Wemby is not interested in taking incremental steps. There is a trophy available for us to be bold enough to bear down and take this year. There’s no question that Victor understands this and will treat the opportunity with the resoluteness necessary to meet the moment and tie this series.
Not even an alien can do it alone, though. It’s a team sport, after all. It requires not just individual talent but also five teammates executing a game plan together and when the opponent solves your game plan, it requires making the necessary adjustments in strategy to give them a new puzzle. The second most important person in determining if the Spurs will punch the champs right back to even the series after losing Game 3 123-108 at home in the Frost Bank Center on Friday night isn’t De’Aaron Fox (and what we can get from our all-star vet on an ankle sprain that won’t stop getting re-aggravated) or Dylan Harper (and what we can get from our rookie prodigy on an abductor strain) or Stephon Castle (our 2nd-year iconoclast who has finally corrected his turnover issues by only coughing it up once in Game 3) or even player of the game Devin Vassell (who had 20 points, seven rebounds, and two assists while earning the distinction by being the only player on the team to continue playing Game 3 with the appropriate sense of urgency after OKC had answered our 15-0 start). The second most important person in determining whether we will win Game 4 isn;t any of Wemby’s teammates, it’s the son of a 1979 NBA champion, a Gregg Popovich-protege and our 2nd-year head coach, Mitch Johnson. The Thunder have solved our game plan predicated on limiting the MVP by making Shai Gilgeous-Alexander play in a crowd and daring his teammates to try to beat us from the perimeter. In Game 3, they did.
Last night, SGA’s supporting cast accepted our dare and made us pay. Jaylin Williams and Alex Caruso alone made 8-11 from deep. Control of the series has flipped so the most important thing that needs to happen tomorrow night besides Wemby reasserting his dominance is Coach Mitch has got to make an adjustment with how we are defending SGA. Now that we know Gilgeous-Alexander has the answers to the test, the Stanford graduate who accepted the responsibility of following in the footsteps of a legend among legends needs to give the MVP a pop quiz in parapsychology. Mitch (with a scheme adjustment courtesy of his defensive guru associate head coach Sean Sweeney) needs to get Wemby back in the types of defensive positions that will get Shai seeing ghosts again. Not only does he have Sweeney’s world class defensive scheme designs to draw from in order to get SGA back to being uncomfortable in order to walk down this series but he also has the stories his dad, John Johnson, must have told him about the Seattle SuperSonics responding from a gut-punching Game 5 loss at home to the Phoenix Suns to go down 3-2 in the 1979 Western Conference Finals only to win two straight and clinch the series in seven as well as the guidance of his mentor, Coach Pop, who has won the Western Conference Finals six times. Mitch Johnson has done a phenomenal job so far at the impossible task of replacing one of the most decorated and revered basketball coaches of all time. One of the reasons he has been so successful is that he’s learned from Pop the power of drawing from every available resource to gain the decisive edge over the opponent. Tomorrow night, I expect Coach Mitch to make the definitive adjustment of this series and show the basketball-viewing world that the #BlackAndSilver have no intentions of letting this magical season end. The irony or perhaps the symmetry of the opportunity that the Spurs head coach and Seattle native has to immediately flip this series back on its head is that he’s facing the city that stole his beloved team, the team his father helped win its only title and the team that served as a tapestry for his entire childhood. If any city deserves to be on the receiving end of the first masterclass coaching performance of Mitch Johnson’s career, it’s Oklahoma City. Tomorrow night, the bright young coach who used to bleed green and gold will have Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs ready to stare down the Thunder and go straight up supersonic.
Featured Image Source: The Economic Times
Headline Image Source: The New York Times
Quatre de moins
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 2
The Road Goes On Forever - The Bone Crusher stood at the center of the ring looking out over his conquest utterly chuffed with what he had accomplished. He had done a number on the number one contender and as a result, he knew there would be another bout and now that it was officially on the card, he anticipated it was going to do record-breaking numbers. ”The Promoter is going to be so pleased with me when we meet for lunch tomorrow at Ramsay’s Kitchen” he thought as he wiped the sweat from his brow and watched the Oklahoma City crowd jovially disperse from the arena and into the buzz of a celebrating city. “I wonder if I can expect silver to be on top of my agreed upon compensation package for ensuring the desired result? The promoter best remember I told him BC been tryin to diversify my portfolio.” Shaking his head with visions of how to spend his pay off dancing in his head, he nodded to Josh Tiven and Karl Lane in his corner and then vacated the ring. He strolled intently back towards the locker room ready to get changed and get back to the hotel so he could start making calls. He had campaign donors to woo for his Norfolk, VA mayoral bid, after all.
Back at the hotel later that night, The Bone Crusher was just sitting down in a booth in the lobby bar to order a double crown and coke and start calling potential donors when he noticed his phone was buzzing. He looked at the caller ID only to discover it was The Promoter. He wondered suspiciously, “The hell he want that can’t wait until we meet tomorrow?” He let it go to voicemail because first things first, he needed to order his drink and then waited for the beverage to arrive to see if The Promoter was going to leave a message. Annoyed when, drink in hand, no text or voice message popped up, he begrudgingly dialed The Promoter back.
The Promoter: Hello, this is Adam.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, it’s Tony, I’m just calling you back.
The Promoter: Oh yeah, I just called to let you know I moved our Ramsay’s reservation to one. I have a deal to close tomorrow morning on that third-rate product we’re creating for those suckers in Europe.
The Bone Crusher: Okay, whatever. I got nothing on my schedule tomorrow afternoon other than counting my money.
The Promoter: Don’t worry, I got your message about diversifying your portfolio. You will be well compensated. See you at one.
The Bone Crusher: That all you got to say to me?
The Promoter: Yeah. What am I forgetting?
The Bone Crusher: How about “Good job, well done, thank you for the ratings bonanza you just ensured for me?”
The Promoter: You did the job that I paid you to do and last time I checked, you asked to be paid in currency not in thank you’s. Go hire a prostitute with the money I’m paying you if you want your ego stoked.
The Bone Crusher: Screw you, Adam.
The Promoter: You too, Tony. [Click]
The Bone Crushed took a sip of his cocktail and looked at his watch. “Ugh” he muttered. Frustrated that he hadn’t even called one donor yet and it was already 2am in Norfolk, he thought, “Screw it, I’ll make these calls tomorrow. Even the club owners and bookies back home are gonna be annoyed if I try to call them this late there.” He looked up at the TV above the bar where they were showing a replay from the contest earlier. The part where he bobbed and weaved while Isaiah Hartenstein pulling Stephon Castle’s hair went uncalled and as a result, the home crowd got to cheer a momentum-shifting triple that never should have been allowed. He chuckled to himself, “If I wasn’t on the take, I would’ve thrown his ass out for that one. Probably should be suspended too but The Promoter ain’t never gonna allow for that.” Noticing he was dry he signaled to get the attention of the bartender.
The Bartender: Another double?
The Bone Cruncher: Yeah. And what time does the kitchen close?
The Bartender: You got it. The kitchen closes in 20 minutes.
The Bone Cruncher: Let me get the ribeye rare, mashed potatoes. And can I substitute cheese grits instead of the side salad?
The Bartender: No problem. Say, aren’t you Tony Brothers? Great job tonight letting us maul that alien the entire game. We weren’t going to be able to stop him without your help. Your meal is on the house.
The Bone Crusher: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Why are you all up in my business, anyway? I don’t know you from Adam. Damn straight that food better be free.
The Bartender: My apologies, sir. Here’s your drink. I’ll leave you to it.
Turning back to his phone, The Bone Crusher tried to put the obnoxious bartender out of mind but before he could he thought, “That fool is right about one thing. I could’ve called 86 fouls on them tonight, 37 on Hartenstein alone. This city that stole the Sonics is lucky they got one last year. They have no chance in a straight up game of basketball against them young San Antonio kids.” Gulping down a healthy first sip on the second double, he opened his phone’s browser to the page for the blood red Mercedes-Maybach S680 he’d been eyeing. He thought, “Maybe it’s time to pull the trigger after I stop by the bank tomorrow?” As he was clicking to refresh the page to see if the price might’ve changed, his phone started buzzing again. “What now?” he grumbled. He looked at the caller ID but the numbs was listed as “Unknown.” He hesitated while deciding whether or not to answer but then his curiosity got the better of him. After all, “It could be a high-dollar donor” he thought.
The Bone Crusher: Who this is?
Unknown: Hey Tony, it’s Popo. I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Popo? How’d you get this number? Uh, uh…never mind that, how the hell are you? It’s been too long. I was really sad to hear about your ugh medical thing. We were all keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.
Unknown: I don’t remember receiving your sympathy card.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, well…uh, why are you calling?
Unknown: I already told you. I called to tell you I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Popo? How’d you get this number? Uh, uh…never mind that, how the hell are you? It’s been too long. I was really sad to hear about your uh medical thing. We were all keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.
Unknown: I don’t remember receiving your sympathy card.
The Bone Crusher: Yeah, well…uh, why are you calling?
Unknown: I already told you. I called to tell you I know what you did.
The Bone Crusher: Hey, uh, look Popo, first, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Second, if you think you know something about something, what are you talking to me for? Don’t shoot the errand boy. If you’ve got a score to settle, take it up with The Promoter. The only thing that matters to Adam is maximizing ratings. You know that.
Unknown: From the intel I’m receiving, you’re being compensated quite handsomely for an errand boy. Also, you can rest assured that I also have also already delivered a message to The Promoter.
The Bone Crusher: Okay, so you know what I did. So what? You want to threaten me now? You going to send your CIA operatives to start harassing me back home?
Unknown: Possibly. My associates may or may not be interested in some of your recent and impending bank transactions as well as investigating some possible campaign finance ethics allegations that have surfaced recently in Norfolk. But that’s neither here nor there.
The Bone Crusher: So what, in God’s name, do you want?
Unknown: Just to give you the same friendly message I already gave to Adam.
The Bone Crusher: Which is what exactly?
Unknown: That it’s not going to work. Make sure to tune in on Friday and Sunday because it’s going to be a show. We’re used to playing eight on five and despite all of that, I’m going to personally ensure that we kick so much ass this weekend, Tuesday’s ratings will tank because no one tunes in for a foregone conclusion. You made your bed. I’m going to enjoy making you lie in it. [Click]
* * *
Well, I guess Tony Brothers just can’t help but make himself a part of the story. We all have eyes. We all can see that what the Oklahoma City Thunder are being allowed to get away with in order to provide the NBA with any chance of the ratings bonanza they are hoping to generate from an extended Western Conference Finals coming to fruition. On Wednesday night, the defending champs literally UFC’d their way to evening the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals at one game apiece at the Paycom Center in Oklahoma City. The Thunder (with the assistance of Tony Brothers, Josh Tiven, and Karl Lane turning a blind eye to actual hair pulling among other dirty tricks that completely make a mockery of the spirit of the competition and are the byproduct of the opponent’s recognition that they are simply not talented enough to compete with us in playing the game of skill we call basketball) defeated the San Antonio Spurs 122-113 in Game 2. I could go on and on about the Thunder’s dirty tactics, the refereeing, the league office, being forced to play eight on five but it’s all par for the course at this point. We knew that winning a championship wasn’t going to be easy and it’s going to require us to be able to continue to impose our will against all of the forces which are converging to not allow us to be the biggest outlier in NBA history by stamping our greatness with a title this young and this fast. We embrace the challenge and we will be ready to face it head on back home in San Antonio tonight.
Despite another nine turnovers, the player of the game on Wednesday night was Stephon Castle. Considering De’Aaron Fox sat his second consecutive game with a high ankle sprain and after losing Dylan Harper to a leg injury with 4:50 remaining in the third quarter, our second-year warrior gave a herculean effort carrying most of the ball handling and playmaking load while demonstrating once again that he is one of the fiercest competitors in the league. I simply cannot get enough of watching Steph Castle compete on a basketball court. On the night, Steph racked up an impressive 25 points, eight assists, five rebounds and a steal. His 25-5-5 stat line made him the youngest player to reach that milestone in the conference finals in NBA history. It is already clear only two games into this series that if we take care of the basketball and limit OKC’s ability to get easy transition buckets from live ball turnovers, they are not talented enough or a good enough team to match our level of execution and hang in this series. Tonight we are returning to the friendly confines of the Frost Bank Center in lovely San Antonio, TX for the first time in ten days. Hopefully we get a healthy De’Aaron and a healthy Dylan to help Steph with the ball handling duties but (in spite of a perfect storm of the current of forces we are swimming upstream agains) the comfort of finally playing back home in front of the most-electric fans in the NBA in and of itself will play a role in helping us limit turnovers and prevent us from contributing to the only way OKC can keep this series close, through generating enough fast break opportunities. One thing I know is the #BlackAndSilver led by our fearless 21-year-old floor general will be ready to meet the challenge head on tonight. I fully expect us to come out scorching and make this iconoclastic dunk a foreshadowing of how the defending champs, regardless of all the help they’re getting from the refs and the league, better prepare to sleep now in the fire.
Neuf de faits
2026 NBA Western Conference Finals, Game 1
Paint It Black - I just kept thinking over and over again… this is as good a chance as we can expect to get here, we have to cash it in. Over and over again. Build a lead. Over and over again. Give it back. Over and over again. Build another one. Over and over again. Give it back. Over and over again. Go down a bucket. Over and over again. Get it back. Over and over again. Punch them back on their heals. Over and over again. Swing again and miss. Over and over again. Make a clutch shot. Over and over again. Give up a clutch shot. Over and over again. Score to put them away. Over and over again. Let them score right back. Over and over again. 48-minute grind isn’t enough. Over and over again. Play five more. Over and over again. Go to the mat in OT. Over and over again. Get up and deliver a body blow for the ages. Over and over again. 53-minute grind isn’t enough. Over and again. No choice but to grind some more. Over and over again. Battle physical and mental fatigue. Over and over again. Don’t be the one to blink first. Over and over again. Finally knock them out in double OT. Just keep pounding the rock. Over and over again.
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That was so huge. It doesn’t guarantee we will win this series. Far from it but damn that was so huge. After the 58th minute had been played and the buzzer sounded with a scoreboard that (blink twice) really was in our favor, I melted with relief into the couch faster than a bag of Reeces Pieces left on a car’s dashboard during a triple-digit summer day. That’s right, there I was on my couch, one giant bag of melted relief-es pieces. As relieved as I was to come out on top in one of the greatest “battle of wills” basketball competitions I have ever seen in my life, one of the first points of reference my mind went to as soon as the game was over in order to make a comparison to the relief I felt given the gravity of such a massive Game 1 victory on the road was Tony Parker’s game-winner on the road in American Airlines Arena to defeat the defending champion Miami Heat in Game 1 of the 2013 NBA Finals. I remember thinking at the time, “we just stole home court advantage and now they have to beat us four out of the next six times.” We all remember how that worked out. Of course, there is one glaring difference we can point to now with this current iteration of the Spurs that should bring us some comfort for our prospects moving forward in this year’s Western Conference Finals against the backdrop of the most painful and traumatic series loss in team history; if Victor Wembanyama had been playing for the 2012-13 San Antonio Spurs, the Ray Allen shot would have been blocked into the third row.
Space-time continuum hypotheticals aside, the point is that the massive advantage gained from edging out the champs in the 2013 NBA Finals did not prove dispositive in winning the series. This should serve a warning to every Spurs fan that we cannot let our guard down for one second against an Oklahoma City Thunder team who has overcome this type of adversity before (they lost both Game 1 of last year’s Western Conference Semifinals to Aaron Gordon and the Denver Nuggets as well as Game 1 of last year’s NBA Finals to Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers at home on back-breaking last second game winners and still came back to win both series in seven games). Case in point, home teams who win Game 1 go on to win the series 85% of the time historically in seven-game NBA playoff series after winning Game 1 whereas road teams only win the series 53% of the time after winning Game 1. There is no question it was massive that we outlasted the champs on Monday night (one bounce of the ball in a slightly different direction and we could be looking at a massive uphill battle to advance) but it far from guarantees victory. All that we actually accomplished edging them out in Game 1 is that we gave ourselves even odds to advance. It’s basically either team’s series to go win from here. Statistics aside, I think the more important reason I felt so much relief that we were the last team standing in Monday’s 15-round heavyweight fight is that it would have been ten times the psychological body blow for us to have come up just short in a contest like that than it was for them. There is absolutely zero guarantees we will get another opportunity that clearcut against the champs at Paycom Center to secure the essential road victory we need to win the series so had that opportunity slipped through our fingers, it would have been extremely difficult for us (as the infamously less experienced team) to simply set the near miss to the side and give undivided focus to putting ourselves in the same position in Game 2 and this time closing it on top. For them, it’s rough to have given away a home game by such thin margins but coming back to win series from that type of adversity is something they are well versed in. Luckily, we were able to capitalize on being in position to steal home court advantage the first time we put ourselves in position to do so in Game 1 and because of that, I’m very relieved. As Victor Wembanyama put it in his postgame interview on NBC, “Winning one game means something but it doesn’t mean everything, you know, so we’ve got to stay down to Earth and hopefully if it’s a long series, we’re going to need this win.” (By the way, the irony of an alien saying “we’ve got to stay down to Earth” is not lost on me.)
Speaking of the obvious player of the game, after witnessing another player receive the 2025-26 KIA NBA MVP trophy first-hand, the extraterrestrial competitor made a resounding Hakeem Olajuwon-esque “real MVP” statement in Game 1 tallying 41 points (14-25 from the field, 12-13 from the line, and 1-2 from the line), 24 rebounds, three blocks, three assists, and a steal in an all-time “I want to earn the title of undisputed goat before I am legally old enough to rent a car in my adopted country” epic performance. It was the type of performance that the grandchildren of children who are Spurs fans today will tell their grandchildren that their great great grandparent was alive to see it. It was the type of performance that poets (including this one) will someday write epic poems about. (It’s high time I took a crack at writing my first chanson de geste.) Not only was Wemby’s performance a masterclass in one individual two-way control over the happenings of an athletic competition that also involves nine other participants, it was also record-breaking. At 22 years and 134 days old, Vic surpassed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Lou Alcindor at the time) as the youngest player in NBA history to have 40 points and 20 rebounds (or more) in a playoff game. Victor Wembanyama was so utterly dominant on Monday night it was stupid. I can’t think of a better way to sum it up than to simply share this video of the logo three Wemby pulled (from a portion of the Paycom Center hardwood previously owned by Stephen Curry) that is unquestionably the biggest shot (to-date) of his NBA career.
Victor wasn’t the only Spurs player to have a record-setting performance on Monday in the Game 1 “instant classic.” After learning that starting point guard De’Aaron Fox was going to be a late scratch due to the ankle injury he originally suffered in Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Minnesota Timberwolves and then reaggravated while closing out the Wolves in Game 6, our 20-year-old rookie prodigy Dylan Harper also learned that he would be starting his first career playoff game and fifth career NBA game overall. The soon-to-be first team all-rookie played like a seasoned vet against the champs in Game 1 bringing all of his craftiness to bear carving through OKC’s top ranked defense en route to producing the jaw-dropping stat line of 24 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, and an eye-popping seven steals. What might have been the most impressive stat of all from Dylan’s boxscore and the one that best demonstrates the beyond-his-years composure he is showing in these pressure-packed playoff road environments is that he only committed one of the Spurs’s way-too-many 21 turnovers against the Thunder’s ball hawking perimeter defenders. Back to setting records, Harper’s seven steals set a new Spurs franchise record for most steals in a playoff game but the one that gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling when I was laying in bed on Monday night still thinking about it was (while the three players that earned more rookie of the year votes than the Spurs No. 2 overall draft pick [Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and V.J. Edgecomb] were sitting on their respective couches watching him from home), Dylan Harper set a record in Game 1 of the 2026 Western Conference Finals as the youngest player and only second rookie ever to record 20+ points, 10+ rebounds, 5+ assists, and 5+ steals in an NBA playoff game. The other rookie to ever do that and the one whose age record Dylan broke on Monday was Magic Johnson. I’m pretty sure we got a keeper in last year’s draft.
This game had so many twists and turns, strategic “chess match” adjustments, clutch shot making, etc. etc. in the final 16 minutes, it deserves a play-by-play breakdown that I simply haven’t had time to write in the short 48-hour turnaround before Game 2 (especially given the complicating factor that I’ve been traveling these past couple of days). Hopefully there will be an opportunity to revisit this game at some point later in this season of Black & Silver and provide some evocative wordsmithery justice to what we collectively just witnessed. Time may be an illusion after all but for right now, I’m out of it. While there may be an alien who walks among us who can help me access the requisite portal to the fourth dimension necessary to transcend time, I’m pretty sure he’s a bit preoccupied in Oklahoma City at the moment preparing once again for battle with the Thunder. Tonight’s Game 2 is going to be a war now that we have the champs on the back foot in a must-win scenario. If we thought Monday was an exhaustive physical and mental battle of wills, we should expect all of that and more plus the added ingredient of desperation from this proud group defending their home court and a title. Given their proven track-record of overcoming adversity, the door won’t be completely shut on their season should the 2025 NBA Champions drop another home game tonight but it would put them in a hole which they don’t have a point of reference for climbing out from. This is a splendid opportunity for the #BlackAndSilver to provide OKC with a brand new galaxy of adversity to navigate. With the intergalactic being on our roster who’s looking to both slam the door on the Thunder’s season as well as the argument of who the greatest basketball player in the world is at present, I like our chances but regardless of what unfolds tonight in Oklahoma City, I know our going to learn and grow from it and use the experience to keep getting better. No matter what challenge or adversity has been put in front of this special group throughout our first playoff journey, we continue grinding and we just keep pounding the rock. We’re both here now but also our future is so bright, the road goes on forever.
Headline Image Source: The Oklahoman