{"id":1989046,"date":"2026-06-14T05:52:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-14T02:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1989046"},"modified":"2026-06-14T05:52:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-14T02:52:25","slug":"victor-wembanyama-leaves-court-without-shaking-knicks-hands-after-painful-nba-finals-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1989046","title":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama leaves court without shaking Knicks\u2019 hands after \u2018painful\u2019 NBA Finals loss"},"content":{"rendered":"
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SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Victor Wembanyama missed the final shot of the 2026 NBA Finals, untucked his jersey, and marched his thin, 7-foot-4 frame straight toward the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 locker room in defeat.<\/p>\n

No congratulatory handshakes for the New York Knicks, who took Game 5, 94-90,<\/a> and the finals, 4-1. No soaking in the scene, remembering the hurt as the Knicks celebrated. Just off toward the tunnel, to his locker, to the podium, and then to the offseason.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s painful. But I\u2019m not running away from that,\u201d said Wembanyama, who scored 19 points with 14 rebounds while shooting 7 of 19 from the field. \u201cI\u2019m using it to fuel me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wembanyama, 22, is a French superstar and NBA Defensive Player of the Year in just his third season. He averaged 26 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.6 blocks in the finals. The Spurs led by double digits in every game of this series, but blew those leads in four of them, and Wembanyama made some critical mistakes in three of the losses.<\/p>\n

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In Game 5, Wembanyama shot just 1 of 5 in the fourth quarter. The game was, for all intents and purposes, over when he missed that final 3-pointer \u2014 it would\u2019ve taken a miracle to win, and the miracles in this series were on the other side.<\/p>\n

But Wembanyama still didn\u2019t stop to shake hands with any Knicks players, the way LeBron James shook Stephen Curry\u2019s hand at the end of the 2015 finals, or the way most players do when they are on the losing end of any series. If the victors aren\u2019t busy congratulating each other, of course.<\/p>\n

Brunson actually shook Spurs coach Mitch Johnson\u2019s hand before he started celebrating with teammates, but it was not immediately clear if Wembanyama congratulated any Knicks players after the court had cleared. No reporters asked him directly why he didn\u2019t shake any of the Knicks\u2019 hands immediately after the game.<\/p>\n

Then again, New York wasn\u2019t kind to Wembanyama. Fans jeered him with derogatory taunts at Madison Square Garden, and someone threw an egg at him<\/a> at the team hotel after Game 4.<\/p>\n

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He also was chippy with the Knicks. In Game 3, he escaped a flagrant foul when he threw Brunson down from behind and grabbed Brunson\u2019s neck to do it. He also appeared to be in Brunson\u2019s landing zone on a missed 3 in Game 5<\/a>. Brunson landed on Wembanyama\u2019s ankle and went down, and Wemby could\u2019ve been called for a Flagrant for that, too.<\/p>\n

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Had Wembanyama been assessed a flagrant and the Spurs won Game 5, he would have faced the possibility of a suspension<\/a> for Game 6.<\/p>\n

So, yes, Wembanyama\u2019s first finals experience was tough and emotional. The ending was not a happy one.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I\u2019m pissed about is that there\u2019s probably a hundred games before we can be back in finals,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to say it in English, but I\u2019m going to have to hold that inside of me and slow down and wait and execute for a hundred games.\u201d<\/p>\n

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What You Should Read Next<\/div>\n
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\n How do Victor Wembanyama, Spurs learn from NBA Finals loss and take the next step?\n <\/div>\n
\n Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs dramatically exceeded expectations this season. All that’s left is winning it all.\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n

Wembanyama finished second in MVP voting and was named MVP of the Western Conference finals in which the Spurs took Games 6 and 7 from 2025 champion Oklahoma City. The Spurs only won one finals game, but were outscored by just 12 points across the series.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama appeared fatigued over the final two games. He was 3 of 14 in the fourth quarters of Games 4 and 5, and the Spurs blew combined leads of 25 points in those quarters.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe margin of error is very thin,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cOur domination stints are absolute. We absolutely dominated for most of the series. But our errors, our mistakes, are punished so hard that we can\u2019t have ups and downs like this. So much, you know.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ups are okay. The downs is the reason we lost.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAN ANTONIO \u2014 Victor Wembanyama missed the final shot of the 2026 NBA Finals, untucked his jersey, and marched his thin, 7-foot-4 frame straight toward the San Antonio Spurs\u2019 locker room in defeat. No congratulatory handshakes for the New York Knicks, who took Game 5, 94-90, and the finals, 4-1. No soaking in the scene, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[226,241],"class_list":["post-1989046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-crawlmanager","tag-nytimes-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1989046"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1989046\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1989046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1989046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1989046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}