SAN ANTONIO — When the clock to Game 7 of the Western Conference finals hit triple zeroes, Victor Wembanyama was overcome with emotions. He even shed tears of joy when he shared an embrace with his father, Felix.
On the eve of the NBA Finals, the Spurs’ superstar center indicated his team was still in the process of refocusing for the next — and final — round against the Knicks.
“The emotion was really something I haven’t felt in a while. I don’t even know since when,” the 7-foot-4 unicorn of a talent said Tuesday inside Frost Bank Center. “Coming back down from this is a challenge. It’s not done yet. We still need to really come back down to earth and realize we haven’t done the hardest yet.
“The job isn’t done at all. So we still got about, I don’t know — what time is it? — like 30-plus hours to re-center.”
It was a difficult series, the Spurs rallying from down 3-2 to send the defending champion and favored Thunder home. San Antonio is ahead of schedule. This was the Spurs’ first year in the playoffs since 2019.
They are led by Wembanyama, who is just in his third year in the league, and two-way stalwart Stephon Castle, in just his second season. Their older key contributors, like Julian Champagnie (24), Keldon Johnson (26) and Devin Vassell (25), aren’t exactly graybeards. De’Aaron Fox (28) is considered a veteran with this group.
“Playing the defending champs on the road in a Game 7 like that, it’s hard to flush that out of the back of your mind, especially when you’re the team that came out on top,” said Castle, a former one-and-done star out of Connecticut. “We have a balance where we understand we can’t get complacent or satisfied with that. We still have a job so …. come game time, we’ll be ready.”
A lot has been made of the Spurs’ inexperience. They are the youngest team to reach the finals since the 1976-77 Trail Blazers in average age as of the start of the postseason (25.15). So far, it hasn’t slowed them down.
“I don’t think that was ever a problem for us,” Castle said. “I think for us, that was all outside noise. In-house, we have nothing but confidence in each other.
“I mean, we’ve been making history — with every game, we see something new. We got four more [wins] to go. We got this far. We still haven’t really done anything yet.”
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