A historic collapse fueled by late-game errors left Victor Wembanyama reeling as New York seized the title, forcing the young phenom to confront painful lessons in championship composure.
He's all of 22 years old, so one can't blame Victor Wembanyama for being a bit confounded by it all.
Wembanyama and his San Antonio Spurs let yet another potential win against the New York Knicks escape their grasp on Saturday night in San Antonio by blowing a massive lead - again - on the way to a 94-90 Game 5 loss.
The major storyline on a national level? Hooray for the Knicks, who now get to celebrate their first NBA Finals title in 53 years.
The major storyline from the micro Spurs level?
Maybe San Antonio ... choked.
“This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment,” said the 7-4 French phenom Wembanyama, who just completed his third NBA season.
Ah, a big lesson, eh? And what was learned?
“I can’t tell exactly what the lesson is, but we’re learning from that for sure,'' he said. "I’m learning more than any other time in my life before.”
Oh.
The inescapable statistical truth? San Antonio, time after time after time, collapsed in the clutch. Notably, the Knicks held the lead in this series just 28 percent of the time.
But in their four wins, obviously, they held the lead the only time it really matters - at game's end.
The expectations on now-perennial MVP finalist Wembanyama are so grand that when he puts up numbers like he did here - 19 points and 15 rebounds and five blocks - it registers as a disappointment.
And why? Well, there are other numbers.
The Spurs allow Wemby great freedom when it comes to shot selection, but here, he was just 1-of-6 from the arc. (Isn't there some old-fashioned logic to positioning an athletic 7-4 player nearer the basket?) He's a fine free-throw shooter, but he missed from the line with roughly two minutes remaining in the fourth when the Spurs were down 88-85 at that point. And with 22 seconds left, he failed to secure and a defensive rebound off a missed free throw, allowing Knicks center Mitchell Robinson to keep possession for the visitors.
Wemby said he is "pissed'' about the outcome because there are now "100 games'' to go before the Spurs can get back to these Finals.
Of course, the task is truly much more difficult than it might seem to a 22-year-old, who is dealing with the fact that, as he put it, "We absolutely dominated for most of the series. But our errors, our mistakes are punished so hard.''
That "punishment'' - along with the self-awareness it'll take to ask themselves about "choking'' - will now last all summer and into next year, though Wembanyama promised to be inspired by it all.
“I’m not running away from that,'' he said. "I’m using that to fuel me. ... I’m not satisfied with not winning. As I said, this is the biggest lesson of my life.''
