Looking back at the Spurs Finals performance and towards the future

One of the great joys about being a fan of a team is sharing the experience with other fans of your team. That is why many of us wear our team’s gear around town – a “Go Spurs” greeting from a total stranger who sees your Spurs hat means that the two of you are no longer total strangers, at least for that moment. And that moment can becomes minutes, or more, if the two of you turn that greeting into a conversation. Most of you reading this live much closer to San Antonio than I do here in LA, so my “Go Spurs” encounters are few and far between – and that much more special. Last winter I had one on a bus coming back from skiing in Park City with my super-daughter. I also still remember one in Cancun, Mexico where a guy in a #21 Duncan jersey was thrilled to run into someone who wrote for Pounding the Rock.

That shared connection is why fans gather at each other’s houses, or at outdoor watch parties, or at the home stadium when the team is on the road to watch on the Jumbotron. Of course, best of all is being at the game itself, even if some participants in the front row spend the game looking down at their phones, or even worse, fall asleep in their luxury suites. If all goes extremely well, all the fans of one special team get to gather one last time for that season with a victory parade.

Knicks fans were the lucky ones who had their victory parade. Apparently, two million fans attended the parade. Two million! There were more people at the Knicks’ victory parade than the entire population of the cities of twenty-five of the NBA’s thirty teams.

Perhaps because New York is the media capital of the country, the media was all-in celebrating the Knicks victory, whether on the national nightly news, morning talk shows, or late night TV. Of course, that the Knicks had not won since 1973 mattered too. That was a long time ago: The top song of 1973 was “Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree” by Tony Orlando and Dawn. The highest-grossing movies were The Exorcist and The Sting, and the most popular TV shows were All in the Family and The Waltons. Put another way, the car I drove in law school was a used maroon 1974 Chevy Vega.

That car had not been built the last time the Knicks won the NBA Championship. Neither that car or I attended the Knicks’ victory parade.

I watched the games at home with friends, family and food – all very good, except for the outcomes of four of the five games. But while those outcomes, and the overall outcome, were very much not good, sharing those games with others brought the same sense of camaraderie that sports fans love to share. Long-time Laker season-ticket holder Mike jumped on my Spurs bandwagon early, and sat next to me for the games talking out what “we” (the Spurs) need to do in the next quarter, the next possession of (after a loss) the next game.

Two women who sit near my office at work would say “Go Spurs” as I left early to get home in time for that night’s tip-off – and we all then avoided talking about Game Four until very late in the afternoon the day after. A long-time friend called me near the end of the series to tell me that even though his mother and the rest of his family were from New York and Knicks fans, he was rooting for my Spurs because he wanted me to be happy. That meant a lot.

Many post-series conversations with sympathetic friends ended with how bright the Spurs’ future is. And while we all recognize that the future is not promised to anyone, I do like the “future is bright” mindset. Known as The Lil Ol Band from Texas, ZZ Top sings:

Things are going great, and they’re only getting better
I’m doing all right, getting good grades
The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades
I gotta wear shades, I gotta wear shades
I gotta wear shades

Other end-of-season thoughts

The outcome drives the narrative. Jalen Brunson was an easy choice for Finals MVP. And people are praising him as a “winner”, with the Knicks’ championship as proof. But the outcome drives the narrative. Most would agree that two plays that turned the Finals were Victor Wembanyama’s pass to Stephon Castle’s back at the end of Game Two and OG Anunoby’s game-winning tip-in to win Game Four. Both of those came off misses by the Finals MVP — Brunson missed a runner with the score tied that led to Victor’s rebound, followed by his disastrous turnover. People forget that after the ensuing foul, Brunson bricked the first free throw before making the second to give the Spurs the chance to win the game on their last shot — which would have made Brunson the goat for the missed free throw. On the OG tip-in, Brunson fired up a long three-pointer that missed. If that brick had gone anywhere else than the perfect volleyball-like set for OG, Brunson’s ill-advised three would have been the story. And if both of those plays had gone differently, the Spurs would have headed back to San Antonio with a 3-1 lead, with all the momentum and confidence to finish the Finals at home. But those plays broke the other way, resulting in Brunson rightfully winning the Finals MVP. The outcome drives the narrative.
A bit more on Brunson. His output in Game Five was historical, scoring 45 of the Knicks’ 94 points. He took 27 shots and had 3 assists. (I have played with guys like that.) Brunson’s game joins the list of all-time memorable close-out performances. These include Magic Johnson’s 42 point, 15 rebound and 7 assist game in his rookie year against a powerful 76ers team led by Julius “Dr. J” Irving; Michael Jordan’s 45 point game against the Utah Jazz in the Bulls’ 87-86 clincher in 1998, including MJ’s game-winning shot over Bryon Russell (after MJ subtly shoved Russell away); Tim Duncan’s 2003 near quadruple double (21 points, 20 rebounds, 10 assists and 8 blocks in Game Six against the New Jersey Nets, no, they have not always been the Brooklyn Nets), which the Spurs won by the ugly score of 88-77; and most recently, Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 50 points (out of a team total of 105), 14 rebounds, and 5 blocks, on 16 for 25 from the floor, and his stunning 17 for 19 on free throws by, frankly, a bad free throw shooter. In honor of the Knicks, let’s also include Walt Frazier’s Game Seven win over the Lakers in 1970: 36 points, 19 assists (an NBA Finals Game 7 record), 7 boards, 5 steals (unofficial), 12-for-17 from the field and 12-for-12 from the free-throw line.
Now we need to consider the elephant in the room, or more appropriately perhaps, the giraffe in the room. Have NBA fans soured a bit on young Victor Wembanyama? (Spurs fans have not.) The two million Knicks fans at the victory parade spent the last two weeks rooting against Victor. As mentioned above, the New York media is also very influential. And the narrative of Victor shoving little Brunson away ignored Brunson’s grab of the jersey which led to the shove. Coming after the elbow of Naz Reid (again after several uncalled fouls), the inadvertent elbow to KAT’s neck and the non-called “landing zone” foul on Brunson. Victor leading the team off the court without congratulating the winners did not sit well with many, including this ex-coach. Victor remains a thoughtful, funny, intense, fascinating and extremely compelling and competitive young man. I hope he does some soul-searching about both his game and his reaction to frustration. I am sure that Spurs legends, including Pop and the Great Duncan will be more than happy to assist.
Often a game, or a series, just comes down to making shots. In the Finals, the Knicks’ top four scorers (Brunson, OG, KAT and Bridges) combined to shoot 41% from three. The Spurs’ top four scorers (Victor, Harper, Castle and Fox) combined to shoot 27% from three. Yikes. Even with good shooting from Vassel and Champagnie, the Spurs still only shot 34% from three as a team — worse than the 40% by notorious bad shooter Josh Hart. in the Finals.

Some commentators have compared the 2025-2026 Knicks to the 2014 Redemption Finals Spurs’ championship. The comparison is based on (1) both teams “putting it all together” for a magical 5-game Finals victory and (2) a big scoring margin throughout the playoffs. From my recap of the Redemption Finals in 2014:

“After winning the NBA Championship Sunday night, several Spurs went out of their way to say that this wonderful season, and the way they dominated the Finals, made last year’s loss OK. Essentially, last year’s defeat gave them a common pain. That common pain bound the Spurs together in a common goal. They decided to do everything they could to make this season’s ending different. Perhaps included in that was the desire to play so well that the Spurs would not lose on the sort of freak plays that led to the Game Six loss last year – which means not allowing close games. As a result of that common goal, this year’s Spurs crushed teams in the playoffs. It takes 16 wins to become NBA Champions. In 12 of the Spurs 16 wins, the margin of victory was 15 or more. The Spurs essentially eliminated the margin of error that leads to close losses. One missed shot, funky bounce or bad call (or one Ray Allen step back three from the corner) doesn’t matter as much when you are winning by 20 points.”

I would love to see the 2026-27 Spurs take that same attitude. This season, Spurs and their fans really enjoyed the journey, but the team just missed reaching the destination. Next season, the Spurs hope to again enjoy the journey, and then reach the destination.

Finally, as is my tradition, like “One Shining Moment” at the end of March Madness, I will end this season with a list of Favorite Memories. I hope these Favorite Memories will sustain me (and you) during the barren wasteland of the NBA offseason — some from the distant past, some from the recent present. Upon further reflection, many of these are both Favorite Memories and things I look forward to seeing again when NBA play begins anew.

Michael Cooper in a defensive stance,
The Joker triple doubling,
The late great Jerry West dribbling hard right and pulling up for a clutch jumper,
The Spurs Beautiful Gaming the Miami Heat off the floor in the 2014 Redemption Finals,
Robert Horry spotting up in the last minute of a playoff game,
DannyGreen!! snuffing out an opponent’s fast break,
Dylan Harper attacking the hoop, finishing with either hand,
Steph Curry sprinting around the court, using multiple screens, looking for a split-second opening to catch, shoot and make a three — from distance!,
Magic Johnson running the middle dishing this way, wait, no, that way,
Patty Mills sprinting over to help a teammate to their feet after taking a charge,
Rick Barry under-handing,
The Oui Frenchman tear-dropping,
Earl the Pearl spin-dribbling,
A Shooter heating up, with the crowd joining in,
Stephon Castle defending,
Pistol Pete behind-the-backing,
The Great Duncan blocking a shot, controlling the ball, and throwing the long bounce outlet pass,
Victor pointing at the rim for a lob without needing to use the words “throw it up there”,
And in honor of the NBA champion New York Knicks and their two million fans, enjoying each other’s company one last time as the long season ends, celebrating.