On Wednesday and Friday, I watched the Spurs play the New York Knicks in the 2026 NBA Finals. Before Niko was born in 2016, I was a huge fan of the NBA, and especially the San Antonio Spurs. I also worked for the franchise from 1999 to 2002 in Marketing and Guest Services. My tenure with Spurs just happened to not include any championships, although I did get some memorabilia from the 1999 championship that the Spurs won (one of those was an autographed picture of Avery Johnson hitting the game winner in Game 5 at Madison Square Garden).
In February of 2000, at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, the Spurs had a booth where we had the trophy on display and those mini foldable Spurs games calendars (remember those). The Spurs and the Rodeo folks were partnering together to gather support for a new arena. I manned the booth a few times, and when we were done for the day, my co-worker was going to leave the trophy in her car while she partied at the nighttime events! I told her nope, let me take it home, and I will bring back to the office the following day. She agreed, and I got a police escort to my car while I wheeled the trophy to my Saturn! This actually happened three times. First time, I took it home and left it in the box. Second, I took it out, and the last time, we had a party at my parent’s house with it. How awesome is that?
I don’t even remember the last game I watched. For the playoff games this year, so far, I check the score the following morning and hope for a Spurs win! When they won Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals, I was intent on watching the Finals. I knew the names of most of the Spurs, but nothing else. I know they won 60 plus games, and Wemby is one of the best players in the league.
As I was watching Games 1 and 2, I was not impressed with the Spurs. Maybe it’s because I am used to having David Robinson and Tim Duncan in Wemby’s place, and Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili in everybody else’s place! For me, the offense should go through Wemby the majority of the time, and depending on the defense, let him take it to the hoop or kick out to another player for an open shot. It just felt like Wemby wanted to shoot 3’s and the guards would penetrate to the hoop. Is it the fact that it’s good defense the Knicks are playing against us or is something else going on with Wemby.
By just watching two games and not knowing anything else about the Spurs and Knicks, I would have guessed, that the Knicks won 60 plus games and there star player, Jalen Brunson was 2nd in the MVP.
When Wemby is rolling and the rest of the team is rolling, the Spurs are very difficult to beat, and I really hope they can bounce back in New York and come back tied for Game 5.
