San Antonio forward Victor Wembanyama and his young Spurs’ teammates could not close out another game in Game 5 of the NBA Finals series against the New York Knicks on Saturday evening.
The 94-90 loss to the Knicks allowed the Knicks to win their first NBA title in 53 years and kept the Spurs waiting for their first one in 12 years.
Victor Wembanyama and Co. Blasted for Knicks Handshake Snub
At the end of the Game 5 loss, as the Knicks celebrated winning the game, the series and the championship, the polarizing Wembanyama led the Spurs players off the floor to the dressing room in the bowels of Frost Bank Center.
After the game, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green was not amused by the Spurs’ failure to shake hands with the jubilant Knicks.
“Wow, they didn’t shake their hands… that’s not good,” Green said.
Only San Antonio center Luke Kornet was pictured shaking hands with the victorious Knicks players after the game. Spurs coach Mitch Johnson and Knicks coach Mike Brown also shook hands.
Wembanyama has become persona non grata in New York after several incidents between the forward and Knicks players during the series, including escaping a flagrant foul after a Game 3 shove on Jalen Brunson. He also had a passionate response aimed at Mitchell Robinson when the center was slapped with a flagrant foul in Game 4.
In response, the Spurs star was pelted with unidentified objects by Knicks fans outside the team’s hotel on Wednesday evening, keeping the series feisty.
During his postgame news conference, Wembanyama spoke to reporters and detailed lessons learned from his first NBA Finals, in which the Spurs squandered double-digit leads in all five games.
“It’s painful,” Wembanyama said. “But I’m not running away from that. I’m using it to fuel me. It doesn’t compare to anything before. This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment. I can’t tell exactly what the lesson is, but we’re learning from that for sure. I’m learning more than any other time in my life so far.”
“What I’m pissed about is that there’s probably a hundred games before we can be back in the finals. So, I don’t know how to say it in English, but I’m going to have to hold that inside of me and execute for a hundred games.”
Perhaps the defining moment of the series came in Game 4 when the Spurs exploded to a 29-point lead at Madison Square Garden before collapsing spectacularly, allowing the Knicks to complete the biggest comeback in NBA Finals history.
