Five lessons Victor Wembanyama can learn from Spurs' NBA Finals failure

You never have to wonder what Victor Wembanyama is thinking or feeling. He's the rare athlete who puts his emotions on full display. Or failing that, you can just ask him.

After the Knicks dispatched the Spurs in five games to win their first NBA Finals in more than half a century, Wembanyama was understandably bummed. He left the court without shaking hands with the victors (more on that later), and he was unsurprisingly displeased in his post-series press conference. He called the loss "painful." But to borrow from what a wise man once said, wisdom can be extracted from pain. There are lessons to be learned -- even if, like Wembanyama, we aren't always sure what those might be in the immediate aftermath of disappointment.

"This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment," Wembanyama said after that fateful Game 5 that sent him and the Spurs off to what figures to be a long, difficult summer. "I can't tell exactly what the lesson is, but we're learning from that, for sure. I'm learning more than any other time in my life before."

Spurs center Victor Wembanyama after losing in the NBA Finals: “This is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment. I can’t tell exactly what the lesson is, but we’re learning from that, for sure. I’m learning more than any other time in my life before.” pic.twitter.com/AD4ZlQuMFn

The 22-year-old can be forgiven for not instantly outlining the lessons he gleaned from failing to win the NBA Finals. He'll have all offseason to noodle on that. Fortunately for him, we've already given it some consideration. Here are five takeaways for Wembanyama after an epic run that ended just shy of a parade in San Antonio.

By any measure, the Spurs are well ahead of schedule and figure to remain among a handful of serious contenders for years to come. The last time a team that young and inexperienced went from not making the playoffs to winning it all was Bill Walton's Blazers back in 1977. There's a reason that hasn't happened in nearly 50 years. The postseason is an altogether different beast, and it takes time to figure out how to vanquish it.

This marks the eighth straight year that the NBA has a new champion. Each of those eight had to work up to it. Before winning it all, the Knicks lost in the Eastern Conference Finals last season (their first time making it that far in 25 years), and got bounced in the second round in each of the two seasons prior. The season before the Thunder won the title, they lost in the Western Conference semifinals. And in advance of winning their league-best 18th championship in 2024, the Celtics were dismissed from the postseason in nine straight years, including four conference finals defeats and one NBA Finals loss courtesy of the rebooted Warriors.

Point is, there's a process to hoisting the Larry O'Brien Trophy, and that usually includes getting your teeth kicked in a few times before you get to smile wide and have the last laugh. By postseason attrition standards, the Spurs have already done better than most. They cut through the loaded Western Conference, and they unseated the then-defending champion Thunder by rallying from down 3-2 to win the series on Oklahoma City's floor. As valuable playoff experience goes, that's significant. The Spurs will remember how difficult that was to accomplish -- and how, as impressive as that feat was, it still wasn't enough to hang another banner in the Frost Bank Center rafters. But when they start all over again next season, at least they'll have a pretty good road map to guide them.

"What I'm pissed about," Wembanyama said, "is there's probably 100 games before we can be back in the Finals. ... I'm going to have to hold that inside of me and slow down and wait and execute for 100 games."

The Spurs were up 14 in Game 1 against the Knicks. They lost by 10. They were up 12 in Game 2. They lost by one. They were up 29 in Game 4 -- and 27 at the half -- and lost by one when OG Anunoby tipped in one of the great buckets in Knicks and NBA Finals history.

OG ANUNOBY WITH THE PUTBACK.KNICKS COMPLETE THE 29-PT COMEBACK FOR THE WIN.LARGEST COMEBACK IN NBA FINALS HISTORY 🤯 pic.twitter.com/ZtWVWY6JsR

And then in Game 5, the Spurs were up 16 but lost by four because, at that point, of course they did. That's how the whole series went for them. The Knicks were cool under pressure and rose to the occasion. The Spurs were not and buckled under the considerable weight of the proceedings.

For his part, Wembanyama wasn't great late in most of those games. In the fourth quarters of the Finals, he averaged 7.8 points on seven field goal attempts for 34.3% shooting from the floor and 25% shooting from 3. He also missed five of his 18 free throws. You'll remember that two of those misses came late in Game 4, which, along with an avalanche of other mistakes committed that night, ended up dooming the Spurs.

Contrast that with how Finals MVP Jalen Brunson played in the fourth quarter. In the final frames, Brunson averaged 11.2 points on 7.4 field goal attempts for 51.4% shooting from the floor and 42.9% shooting from 3. And unlike Wembanyama, he made most of his free throws, hitting 15 of 17.

Late in games, Brunson looked confident and wanted the ball in his hands. Wemby didn't. He frequently looked unsure of himself. Which brings us to the next lesson.

This will come as no surprise, but Wembanyama dominated around the rim in the postseason. He shot 68.7% in the restricted area on 150 attempts. Also not surprising: the further he moved away from the basket, the less efficient he became. Wemby made just 26.2% of his mid-range shots overall. On attempts between 10-19 feet, he was only slightly better, making 33.3%. And from 3-point range he shot 34.2%, which was basically in line with his regular-season average from distance (but still below the overall league average).

Against the Knicks in the Finals, things got tougher for Wembanyama. New York did a good job defending Wemby with a combination of Karl-Anthony Towns, Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby and whoever else was handy in a given situation to push him as far away from the basket as possible. Wembanyama made just nine of his 33 3-point attempts against the Knicks, which works out to an unsightly 27.3%. In the mid-range, he was only slightly better, hitting at a 30.8% clip. Which was why the Knicks were probably thrilled that he settled for a mid-range attempt at the end of Game 2 instead of getting something closer to the basket.

WEMBY HAD A CHANCE TO WIN IT WITH THIS SHOT 🤯😳 pic.twitter.com/doTSdRbX6h

Wembanyama is still figuring out his offensive game. He has a ton of tools. But in the postseason, it's not about working through all the clubs in your bag, it's about making tough shots in critical moments when your team needs it most. Wemby's 3-point shot is unguardable, but it betrayed him at times. When he's at the rim, though, he's unstoppable. Sometimes, like when leads are slipping away and so is your chance at a championship, it's better to lean on what you do best.

At 22 years old, Wembanyama is the youngest player in NBA history to make first-team All-NBA and reach the Finals. His future is bright, and so is the prospect for the Spurs to be among the league's leading championship contenders in perpetuity thanks to the emergence of Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper. If there were any questions about either, they were answered during the postseason.

Castle is an All-Defense-level talent who stepped up his game during the postseason, where he averaged 18.2 points, 5 rebounds and 6.1 assists. The 21-year-old also shot 35% from 3 and a healthy 81.6% from the line (on 5.9 attempts per game), both of which were up from his regular-season averages.

Meanwhile, Harper was arguably their most consistent player during the postseason and particularly during the Finals. He shot 51.5% from the floor and 82.7% from the line during the playoffs. At only 20 years old, the moment never looked too big for him against the Knicks -- compared to De'Aaron Fox, who made several critical mistakes during the series, including two big blunders that cost them a chance to win Game 4 and the series.

Wemby and the Spurs know that they have a fantastic three-man young core that can grow together. Castle and Harper are already better and more valuable than Fox. Both of them need to be in the starting lineup next season. The question is how to finagle that with Fox's new deal kicking in. The Spurs owe him $221 million over the next four years. Maybe San Antonio can play all three guards at the same time -- or maybe the Spurs get creative and ship Fox to a new destination. Whichever path they choose, Castle and Harper are the two teammates Wemby can rely on most.

Since winning the title, certain whiny Knicks fans have been all over social media complaining about Wembanyama's sportsmanship for not shaking hands after the Finals. They've moaned about him not congratulating New York. They've claimed he'll never be the face of the league. (A giant LOL on that last one.) They've even called him dirty.

All of this has been building since Wemby got away with a forearm to Brunson's head without being called for what was an obvious flagrant foul in Game 3. After that game, he was asked about being New York's newest villain, and he gave a pretty good answer about how at least he's not Trae Young.

But given the sheer volume of online grumbling about him, Wembanyama might have already overtaken Young on the Gotham gripes leaderboard. It's a little strange that some Knicks fans wouldn't just go enjoy their first championship in 53 years rather than obsessing over how a 22-year-old who just got beat in five games did or didn't act to their satisfaction.

But there's also opportunity in that for Wembanyama. Because while this Knicks team is likable and deserves to be lauded for a remarkable run, there are lots of other fans of lots of other teams -- say in Boston, Philly, Miami, Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and plenty more outposts -- who didn't exactly rejoice when New York (and, specifically, New Yorkers) won it all. And if some New Yorkers are big mad at the big lad, well, that gives Wemby a certain proxy appeal as a result. How's the old adage go? The enemy of my enemy is a 7-4 alien you could root for if he's playing against a team you don't dig? Sounds about right.