Neuf de moins
tv off - The universe can be a cruel, cruel place. Having to endure two of the most devastating cut your heart into a thousand pieces with dull scissors and then put those pieces in a blender with the lid off but still turn it on and turn it all the way up to watch the now even smaller pulverized pieces splatter against the walls and ceiling losses in NBA Finals history in 13 years is so incredibly arduous but having to endure two of them in six days? That is just plain sadistic. I want to scream and cry and punch the air and curl up in a ball and clench my teeth and go for a run and pull my hair out and disappear in South America and smash a ceramic mug and float out into the ocean and write 16 bars for a diss track and snuggle with my cat and drive on the autobahn and binge-watch Friends and break a window with a brick and sleep for a day because more than anything, I just want to forget. My emotions are such a stew of anger, embarrassment, frustration, disbelief, befuddlement and disappointment but the star of the dish is indisputably sadness. As understandable as it is given our youth, It’s just so heartbreaking to watch us lose our composure and allow an inferior opponent to not only create their own luck but also continue to be this staggeringly lucky over and over again. The karmic injustice of the idea that we are not yet living in a universe where the ball is bouncing towards results that punish the wicked is excruciating. I refuse to submit to the despairing notion that we won’t be living in that universe soon so I suppose the comfort of knowing the sequence of events leading to its actualization has to begin now means exoneration from this unbearable pain is forthcoming. But forthcoming provides no relief from the barbarity of the moment. There is no way to alleviate the suffering just yet so I have no choice but acceptance. The pain is momentarily inescapable but thankfully there is an elixir that can help with its management. That elixir is hope and hope is a commodity I possess in abundance. I have faith that the ball will start bouncing towards results that reward the virtuous and in so doing, we will flip this series on our opponent in the exact same manner as they flipped the last game on us (but on the largest possible scale) and the satisfaction of experiencing jubilation take the place of misery (and knowing they are experiencing the reverse) makes the temporary suffering worth enduring through in order to eventually get to live in a better, more just universe. It’s the hope that saves me.
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Let me start by saying this is not De’Aaron Fox’s fault. He made the most mistakes in crunch time including one of the most inexplicable decisions in NBA Finals history but Victor Wembanyama also made mistakes in crunch time and so did Dylan Harper and so did Devin Vassell and so did Stephon Castle and so did Mitch Johnson. Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet, and Julian Champagnie also made second half mistakes. All of the cumulative mistakes were equally costly. (There were also some officiating mistakes that cost us but unlike Knicks fans…) We had such a margin for error with a 27 point halftime lead, it took a perfect storm of self-inflicted wounds for the San Antonio Spurs to lose Game 4 of the NBA Finals 107-106 to the New York Knicks but that’s exactly what we conjured up. After we matched our biggest lead of the game—29 points at 81-52 with 9:40 left in the third—we could have literally picked one or two of the possessions later in the quarter where we took three point attempts early in the shot clock and instead dribbled out the 24 seconds for a violation and with that alone, we would have won the game. Unfortunately, from the 9:40 mark of the third quarter on, we collectively (Mitch and the coaching staff included) fell into the seductive trap of relaxing in the comfort that a mistake here or there was no longer existential because we were playing with such a massive cushion and because of our immaturity in that area, the mistakes compounded possession after possession until all of a sudden, their cumulative impact was existential. It was a hard lesson but (despite the outside noise) a valuable one that we will learn and grow stronger from going forward to not only finish this season out on our own terms but also to build the proper foundation for the dynastic run we intend to have over the next ten to fifteen years. The bottom line is blaming De’Aaron Fox for what was clearly a collective failure is such a sophomoric reaction. Declaring him fully responsible and calling for him to be benched, traded, investigated for fixing the game, etc. is just plain lazy scapegoating. There’s no question he had a terrible second half. And do I wish he was the type of point guard who would have instinctually attempted to dribble the clock out until he got fouled up one in the fourth with the shot clock off? Of course. But, for better or worse, that’s not how he’s wired. He’s instinctually wired to go for the kill shot and his Swipa mentality has provided us a lot more better than worse this season. We wouldn’t be here without it. De’Aaron Fox is still going to play a major role in determining which team gets to lift the Larry O’Brien at the end of this series and yes, he had a rough night out on the prowl on Wednesday but he’s still a stone cold killer. Anyone who underestimates his capability to out-Brunson Jalen Brunson to decide the 2026 NBA Finals does so at their own risk.
We know we are more talented than our opponent and our deficit in this series is of our own making and that serves as the original position for why it is surmountable. If we start to legislate a performance worthy of the stage we are on for 48 minutes per night (rather than in fits and starts), all of human society will benefit from this series concluding with the crowning of the proper champion. There is no justice for anyone if history records New York breaking a 53-year title drought because San Antonio beat ourselves, least of all Knicks fans. Thankfully, the opportunity to put history back on its proper course still lies before us and the path to actualization can be found by reincarnating the beautiful game. Wednesday’s player of the game Dylan Harper, his iconoclastic ride or die partner Stephon Castle, and his iceman Unc De’Aaron Fox + Devon Vassell, Julian Champagnie, Keldon Johnson, Luke Kornet, Sean Sweeney, and Mitch Johnson all have to give of themselves to create the harmony for its manifestation but the two phoenices most central to rising it from its ashes are Victor Wembanyama and Gregg Popovich. The Alien is not only the best player in the series, he is the best player on the planet 👽 Greatness, however, must be earned and he’s three wins away from ending all argument that he’s not also already the greatest player on the planet. It’s there for Wemby’s taking and if he brings the same unrelenting focus and execution to elimination games in this round as he did while facing elimination twice at the hands of the defending champs, there is absolutely nothing the New York Knicks can do to stop him. Give them credit. They have a collection of talented players (including a couple of special ones in OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson) who play tough-nosed basketball and play really well together as a team but even the Oklahoma City Thunder had no answers when Victor played with pique concentration and desperation. The Knicks are not in the position they are in because they have unique answers for stopping a generational force, they are in the position they are in because they haven’t had to face it yet by Wemby’s own making. The big variable in the feasibility of the Spurs becoming the first team in Finals history to come back from an 0-2 hole at home that conventional wisdom is ignoring is the level of dominance Victor reached while facing elimination against the Thunder and the reality that that is a level New York is not equipped to overcome. He’s about to go there again and remain there for the rest of these Finals. He’s too competitive to expect anything less. Circling this back to reincarnating the beautiful game, I think the aspect of Wemby’s game that when fully unleashed will finally break this stubbornly unflappable opponent is his playmaking. As soon as Wemby starts using the threat of his scoring to unlock all of the dynamism of his teammates so that he is dictating the game on the offensive end with the same dominance with which he is dictating it on the defensive end, not only will he be able to conserve some more energy for crunch time but forcing the opponent to come to the realization that they have no answers for this version of The Alien will become demoralizing, especially for a team feeling the pressure not to squander their once in a half-century lighting in a bottle opportunity. The parallels I drew in Sept de moins haven’t come to bare but I think it’s because (knowing what we know now) it wasn’t my most astute observation about where Victor is on his journey. He doesn’t yet have the seasoning to win this title with the precision of a 28-year-old Michael Jordan in 1991. He’s going to have to win it with the imagination of a 20-year-old Magic Johnson in 1980. He’s going to have to dazzle.
The person most capable of helping to unlock Wemby as the hub for a reincarnated beautiful game was not in New York City this week but he is with the team back in San Antonio for Game 5 tonight. This of course is the mentor of the 2015, 2017, 2018, 2021 & 2022 title-winning coaches, the 2025 title-winning general manager and both of the coaches in the 2026 Finals, five-time NBA championship and one-time Olympic gold medal-winning coach Gregg Popovich. It’s easy to forget that Mitch Johnson—while ultra talented like his franchise players—is also incredibly young and is also learning on the job. Mitch is 39-years-old in his second year as a head coach and first playoffs going up against a 59-year-old in his twelfth year as a head coach and eighth playoffs in Mike Brown, someone with previous Finals experience. Johnson has done a fantastic job in leading us here but experience makes a huge difference in coaching the NBA Finals. Last year, 65-year-old 2011 title-winning coach Rick Carlisle led an overmatched Indiana Pacers team to a star player’s catastrophic injury at the beginning of Game 7 away from defeating 40-year-old Marc Daigneault’s vastly more talented Oklahoma City Thunder. Without taking away from the phenomenal job Mitch is doing and with complete confidence that he is learning and growing through this experience just as much as his franchise players, it needs to be mentioned that this wasn’t the plan. The plan was for Coach Pop to be coaching these upstart next generation Spurs supernovas through their first playoff experience and that was taken away from him in a sudden and lamentable way. Had this (often) cruel universe afforded him the opportunity to finish his coaching career on his own terms, he would be coaching in his seventh Finals right now and his impact would be incalculable but there’s no question that one of the greatest sideline game managers of all-time would at minimum have this series tied at 2-2 and more realistically would have the Spurs up 3-1. While he’s been robbed of having the type of real-time direct impact on what’s happening between the lines as he used to with a clipboard in his hand, the good news is that El Jefe still gets to have an impact on helping the beloved franchise he has devoted 32 years of his life to in overcoming our biggest Finals deficit ever. Every time Pop has spoken to our players after we’ve faced adversity in the 2026 postseason, we have responded. Not just with demonstrating the appropriate fear and playing with the appropriate focus but also with making the proper tactical adjustments. I expect nothing different in Game 5 and I predict the tactical adjustment Pop will help Coach Mitch make will unlock an overpowering dynamism in our offense that will expose the Knicks as a paper tiger and that we will soon fondly refer to as the beautiful game 2.0. It starts tonight in our third ever NBA Finals elimination game. If we improve our record to 2-1 tonight in Finals elimination games, we earn the opportunity to play to improve our record to 3-1. If we win that one, we earn the opportunity to play to improve our record to 4-1. If we win that one, we finish the season out on our own terms. With the help of our good ole reliable banner-raising institution of a former head coach and current president of basketball operations, Victor Wembanyama and the #BlackAndSilver will face elimination from here on out and they will do so prepared to shock the world.
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Faith is a glimmering sparkle out on the horizon. I cannot surrender my certitude that our journey is not ending when I can see the flickering light out in front on the path a week’s distance away. We have now endured more adversity than has ever been overcome but we accept and embrace the challenge and step forward towards the redemptive journey’s end that is still ours to pursue. We will never lay down. Our ability to harden through struggle and take another stride forward after every single time we’ve been knocked back on our heels gives us the strength to know we can stay the course and we will persevere. I still believe.
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