The Knicks are in Victor Wembanyama’s head.
By now, surely every person on the face of the earth is aware that the Knicks gave fans a night they’ll never forget in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday (June 10), rallying for a crowd-stirring comeback that ultimately led to them taking down Wembanyama and the Spurs with a final score of 107-106.
The game was inconceivably electric in its final minutes, and emotions ran high inside Madison Square Garden, where the Knicks charged back from a 29-point deficit and OG Anunoby clinched the win with a tip-in coach Mike Brown later declared “the most iconic shot in the history of New York basketball.”
At a presser after the Spurs’ undeniably embarrassing loss, Wembanyama, certainly no friend to the Knicks or New Yorkers at large right now, couldn’t help but concede that there was real pain felt among himself and his fellow defeatees. Asked to pinpoint how things “fell apart” in the fourth quarter, he argued the deterioration actually began earlier in the game.
“Can’t really explain it right now,” Wembanyama said after a long pause. “I don’t know. I think it’s just, I mean, execution, greediness of some sort. We clearly weren’t the most hungry in the second half.”
In response to another question, Wembanyama proposed two paths for the Spurs moving forward.
“What’s going through my mind right now [is] I think it’s gonna go one of two ways,” he said. “One of two ways, a bad one and a good one. The bad one would be giving up, the good one would be getting stronger through this.”
As for the team’s emotional state, Wembanyama at first seemed reticent to elaborate but ultimately admitted to a sense of hurt.
“I don’t know about the emotions, but it was painful, of course,” he told reporters. “It feels like we’re missing … We work too hard and give up our leads, you know. It’s as simple as that. It just hurts.”
Going into Game 5, set for Saturday (June 13), the Knicks are now up three, meaning a win in San Antonio will give them the chip.
