ESPN’s Mike Greenberg on the Spurs’ Biggest Failings in NBA Finals vs Knicks

In New York, Mike Greenberg reported, there's a very strong anti-Wemby feeling, and Victor Wembanyama became the arch-villain of the Finals.

The conversation around town centered on how the Spurs handled losing. Wembanyama walking off the floor without shaking hands, plus some comments that came across as arrogant in the moment, drew the scrutiny. Greenberg's take split the difference. The no-handshake part he said he would never defend. But the rest? He likes his NBA stars a little testy, a little edgy. Not everyone needs to love each other all the time, and a little more nastiness, in his view, isn't a terrible thing for the sport.

He also thinks Wembanyama is going to be ridiculously good, which is exactly why he considers this a great championship for the Knicks to have grabbed. He drew the parallel to the 1990s, when there was a window with Michael Jordan off playing baseball and the Knicks came within one game of a title, only for the Rockets to capitalize and win two. This might be a similar lull, because the combination of Dylan Harper, Stephon Castle, and Wembanyama is going to be brutally tough to beat in the coming years.

Greenberg's read on the Spurs' failings went beyond their young star's maturity. He thought Mike Brown outcoached Mitch Johnson in a variety of ways across the series. And he pointed to the disappointment of De'Aaron Fox, a player Greenberg loved when San Antonio acquired him. He doesn't know how bad the ankle was, but Fox proved to be a real detriment. He was the guy the Spurs should have leaned on for late buckets, and he simply couldn't do it.

Still, most of the talk kept circling back to Wembanyama, his moment-missing comments, the walk-off, and then, inevitably, back to how ridiculously good San Antonio is eventually going to be.