Brian Windhorst & The Hoop Collective - REACTION: Knicks are Champions! Full NBA Finals Game 5 Recap + Jalen Brunson’s HISTORIC performance

Episode Date: June 14, 2026

Brian Windhorst is joined by ESPN's Tim Bontemps, Tim MacMahon and Iman Shumpert to react to the Knicks winning the 2026 NBA Finals. They discuss Jalen Brunson winning the Finals MVP, his case as the greatest Knick of all time, what’s next for the Spurs and much more.  0:00 Knicks win first championship in 53 years 3:24 Performance form Jalen Brunson 11:19 What Wemby needs to work on in offseason 14:43 Major NBA Finals drama avoided in this 17:37 Shump's 7th avenue story from Game 4 20:18 New York's masterclass in team building 26:36 Big learning experience for the Spurs 30:32 Why this title is so special for New York Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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In the minutes after, game five of the NBA finals were the Knicks win their first NBA championship in 53 years. Timbont Tems, NBA champion, Emon Shumpert, Ban McMahon. Howdy partners? Shump, once a nick, always a Nick. Hey, man, long time coming. These boys went out here and did, but we could not. There's been plenty of players that have come through. We've all tried to take on that story for the city,

try and get them as further along as we can. I made the second round, but to see them hoist up that trophy was special. To see Stephen A. that emotional was well worth it, honestly for me. You know, Jalen Brunson with one of the all-time great closeout game performances, particularly on the road. I mean, you're talking about 45 points in a closeout game. Bob Pettett.

I was hoping you said that for the last. Sorry. Michael Jordan in Utah. Remember that one, Shump? 98. Yonana Sena Coupo. Yeah, I was 20, 50 years ago. He guided him.

But J. And Jalen Brunson. And that's the kind of company that Brunson has put himself in. You know, the debate about whether he's the best Nick of all time can start now. Certainly this was the best playoff run, I think, by Nick of all time. And by the way, all respect OG and Obi, but it was not a difficult decision for the MVP at all. Because Mr. Bontem's had a vote.

Yeah, and it was unanimous. Even Bontem's got it right. Well, let me just say that real quick. What? The vote happened after he had one of the all time great closeout games of all time. Yeah, and it was a great. He hadn't had one of the great closedout games of all time three days ago. And we said it.

We said, hey, OG would have the edge if we voted out for three wins. But then this was one of the all time great finalist performances, because the Knicks had nothing else going offensively. And once again, for the fifth time in this series, they had to dig out of a double-digit deficit. And Brunson just kept them in there, kept them in there, kept them in there, and then he was able to slam the door in the fourth quarter. Jalen Brunson is the smartest and toughest player in the entire NBA.

And that's why the Knicks are champions. And it's why he's the greatest free agent signing in the history of the sport. Because he's not LeBron James. He's not Shaquille O'Neal, but the signing of Jalen Brunson to the Knicks. Yeah. For a contract of four years and $104 million that at the time was deemed by plenty of people to be either a solid signing or an overpay. Right. For him to become the player.

Nobody thought it was an underpay. Nobody thought it was an underpay. And for him to become the player that put this franchise on his back. Come on. He scored 45 out of 94 points in this game. Carried this franchise that had had so many. down moments and so many years of futility and had this whole legion of fans that never thought they were going to win all the way through these playoffs beating victor women yama in the series

making clutch shot after clutch shot at the end and instilling this mental fortitude in this next team that has come back from down 25 different times in the last two playoffs came back from 29 points down in the second half of game it felt like they were coming back from 20 down they should have been 20 in this game in this game it was so fitting that jane lundson had to performance today because like these guys both said the Knicks had nothing Carl Towns was in foul trouble as Shump predicted from the second the game started mcale bridges didn't really do anything OG and nobody was in foul trouble he couldn't get going the only reason the nicks were even remotely in the game was because of jalen brunson and when the fourth quarter starts he goes for 15 points

he carries him down the stretch and he lists his franchise to a place that a lot of people thought they they never get to i think that's the one of the bigger reasons that he is the finals MVP favorite because he didn't have it going, but he still kept them in games, game after game. He kept them close. He let his team know, if you keep me within striking distance,

I may not be able to throw it in the ocean all game. When we need it, I'll be there. He did it against the defense that was without a doubt. And because he did it against that, I want to say, even though he's in that company,

that Jordan company, for all the small guard talk that we did, and we will, we always got to revisit once we say some bullshit. Small guards can win if they do it the right way. We will all take it back. Small guards, scoring guards. This is for Alan Iverson.

This was for, Damian Lillers should be happy to see this. Because now he understands, man, maybe if I do these things, if I sacrifice these things, I can win too. A lot of the small guards that came before Jalen Brunson, all were trying to figure out how to do it.

How do I make this happen? Go look at some Jalen Brunson tape. Go watch him go against different. defenses go watch him have to figure out hey I need to put myself in actions I need to single out this guy I need to pick on that guy they picked on the defensive player of the year he's really he's really the epitome they call him the captain he's the epitome of a captain because he's their floor leader yeah he's their emotional leader yeah he sets the tone for the team and he took less money so those dudes all could get paid yes nobody does that in this

League. 113 million. Yeah. Nobody else does that in this league. And look, like, I mean, Jaylen Brunson is going to go down as one of the all-time great winners, just period. And he, I went back and watched his introductory press conference when he signed with the Knicks.

And he got asked by Bill Pito from MSG because it is, as we're saying, the NICS didn't let any media come to it in a very typical NICs fashion. What, what is it about you that people have always missed? And he essentially said, my heart. And I just am able to do stuff that. I'm always overlooked. There's always a butt. Janlon Brunson's good, but.

Jaylen Brunson can do this, but. And tonight, I think he's going to go down as a Hall of Fame and an all-time great player. The bleep had stopped being talked a while back. I know, I know. But listen, man, again, this is a guy who was an ultimate winner at Villanova, still slid in the second round, not that big, not that fast, you know, not that great of a three ball at the time, like all the flaws.

And then even when the Maver's, he got better and better and better. But the last game, Rick Carlisle coached Shatham Brunson, Trey Burke got minutes in a game seven over him. After he was a massive part of the Mavericks getting the Western Conference finals, going for 41 and 31 in playoff wins when Luca was hurt against the jazz and having a great series against the Sons and all that, the Mavericks, Cuban can say what do you want? They did not bid to try to keep him.

And Cuba, well, we didn't know what the number was. Really? Because everybody else did. I reported it a week before it became official. They got hit with a second round pick for tampering. It would have taken a max offer to make the Brunson think, you know, even think twice about it. But they didn't try because they didn't think he was worth it. The Mavericks thought this was a massive overpay. All Jayon and Brunson has done his whole career has proved people wrong.

And his dad didn't think he was going to be this good. I know, but you don't have to say any of it anymore because when you win a championship, Shump, it means never saying you're sorry. And I like to add you always. We also get to talk your bleep too. Same concept. And this does. It's the back end.

That's both true. Bridges, nobody's going to talk about five first round picks for Bridges. No one's going to talk about anything with Carl Towns. Carl's standing 10 feet away doing an interview with Scott Van Pell right now. No one's going to say anything about Josh Hart. No one's going to say anything about Ogena Nobie. No one's ever going to say anything about Mike Brown. I happen to be standing by the railing over here when Macau Bridges left the floor and some Nix fans.

And there were a bunch of them in here, by the way. The building was probably 60% full after all the Spurs fans left. But anyway, some Knicks were chanting, F them picks. You know, I'm paraphrasing, F them picks. He had a big old smile, came over, gave him all high fives. I talked to his dad. His dad says he's going to get T-shirts printed for the family with that slogan. Way him to the parade.

Yeah, but the cool thing about seeing Jalen Brunson and just hearing that quote that you said, because he's not the strongest, because he's not the fastest, he's not the most athletic, all of these things are the reason that Jalen Brunson has completed his version of a journey with his game. He has made the proper adjustments. He adds to his game every year. We talked about how conscious of effort has been for him this whole year to get his teammates involved. After the last two years, he didn't. If you looked at the other side of the paper and you saw the,

The Spurs, that's what they lack. De Aaron Fox went for that bucket because he's athletic and still relying on his athleticism. Victor Wimbignama sometimes just will shoot a three because he can't decide what move he wants to go through. Because they're so young and gifted. There needs to be something. Like when I talk about a veteran, a veteran adds this and that because he can't move fast anymore. He plays chess because he can't just jump over you like his checkers anymore. And Brunson never could just move faster, jump over you.

So he's constantly been adding. And listen, Wimby is 22 years old. I don't think he's ever going to win any sportsmanship awards. Didn't shake hands coming off the floor. I wouldn't either. However, he's going to win multiple MVP's. And he's going to steadily add to his game. He's got to find some kind of go-to move.

He doesn't have any. Brunson's got a bunch of them. Wimby at this point doesn't have a go-to move. And look, the other thing about Brunson and about Kat, the reason that people didn't think the Knicks could win a championship with him as a duel Well, it wasn't anything offensively. It was the defense event. And a huge reason that they're champions now

is because the Spurs couldn't score on them down the stretch in any of these four Knicks wins. They couldn't score on them all night tonight. Look, there's a reason the young team never wins. We talked about it all playoffs, right? And the Spurs had an unbelievable run. Unbelievable series against the Thunder. Unbelievable performance to get to the finals.

Had every chance to win this series. All five of these games were toss-up games, right? easily could have gone the other way. But there's a reason we talk about a playoff experience. There's a reason we talk about the young team having to learn how to get to the end. Because there's a reason for that. We've been around for 80 years now with the NBA. And the young team always ultimately loses because you have to learn what it's like to get to the finish line.

And this is a Knicks team with a bunch of guys who have either played in the finals or played in the conference finals and have had to go through a lot of heartbreak and learn how to get there and learn how to be there. And that helped carry them through in the dying moments of these games. And like Shump said, the Spurs played like a young team that hadn't been through that yet. They tried to build in a lot more rest for Victor tonight. They took them out, I think six or so minutes in the first half. He'd played way fewer minutes in the three quarters. He still wasn't able to impact the game in the fourth. I want to read to you the first thing that Wimby said during his postgame press conference.

He gets right back to what Bond Hemp's was saying. I think that compared to anything before, this is the biggest lesson of my life, the biggest learning moment. I can't tell you exactly what the lesson is, but we're learning from that for sure. I'm learning more than any time in my life before. In other words, he's going to learn from this. He doesn't even know. Like LeBron, when LeBron lost his first finals. It's just like when LeBron lost to the Spurs.

It's just like when Shaq lost to the rocket. He said, I can't believe how much better I've got to get. Yeah. That's what he said. So I will say this. I feel, Shump. when amyama going to hold that gold it's going to happen it might happen in the Olympics it might happen on this court might happen next season yeah he's going to get there yes but he wasn't ready

no he wasn't ready and it's it could be just the spurs being patient and not wanting to force him into something but i know if they haven't already this is this is your year with tim duncan this is your it's time to sit down with tim duncan for the whole summer and understand understand how to get to something, how to have a plan that nobody can do anything about. Because now Wembe is finally going to get to see it. This playoffs would have taught him, hey, in the middle of these games, there's going to be that circus moment, the SpongeBob moment where everything's spinning and everything's blurry. And in all that chaos, I'm going to be the guy that gets right here and I shoot this shot. He's going to go back.

You're going to have to watch Dirk. You're going to have to watch some Kobe. Go watch some Tim Duncan. Like Jalen. Watson McKean. Like Jalen, Jalen gets that left hand. Yeah. Doesn't even get the corner turned, but he gets to his spot or he gets to that step back.

And he does his change of speeds. What Jalen Brunson does so well is he gets even with his shoulders. He then takes up your space so you can't get in front. And it's a bump. Yeah. And then he uses his eyes. So he play fakes to the corner and you got to respect it because he threw it all game. That's what he did at one of the biggest drives of the game.

He looked off the defender to the corner. It was a fan. He got a little fast fake too. He threw a little past. Got the right to the rim for a huge layup to tie the game. He's not tall. He's not fast, but he's strong. When he puts his shoulder on, he's going to move.

And that's his handle. That's what Shump is talked about. Shump is like, Victor's got to get there. He's got to get. Yeah, for sure. It's just what you got to go through. Also, when Victor and them watch this, as a defensive player to you,

a victim, Winbenyama. And Vic, when I see you, I will, we will talk more elaborately. as a defensive player to you, your defensive principles have got to be better. When you watch film this summer, I want you to accept your responsibility in this for just defensive positioning, because I saw at least six to eight times if your body is just in the right place at the right time doing the right thing, there's no way for some of the stuff happened to have happened.

I look at a lot of those things. The little details, the Knicks, the right foot is up, able to. to deny you're able to jab at the drive and then get back to your man in a closeout. You look at the spurs as the game wears on, their principles fold. Now they're even. They're no longer with their dig hand down on a crossover. They're reaching at the ball. They're jumping at stuff.

It's like that's the young part where those are the little things that you drill to say when we get exhausted, we don't make these mistakes. More hoop collective podcast after this. This episode is brought to you by Activia. You might already be eating yogurt, but not all yogurts are created equal. Activia contains over one billion probiotics per serving to survive and reach the gut alive. When it comes to gut health, Activia is the number one family doctor-recommended probiotic yogurt brand. Choose Activia, feel good from the inside out. Visitactivia.ca for more details.

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Visit Wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Okay, so for the last three years, every finals game for the last three years, Bon Temps has been the pool reporter. That means if you ever have to go talk to the referees, there's one media member designated, it's been him. He's never had to do it. Tonight?

I got a pretty high bar to do it. Tonight we hit the bar. Tonight there was going to be a pool reporter. They love having Bon Temps is the pool reporter because nobody kisses referee butts. like Bontems. Anyway, Bon Temps. You notice you just doesn't stop,

Sean. Spent a while crafting a question about the non-call and the Wembenyama going underneath Brunson. I tweeted about it. Which, by the way, Brunson did all that, having turned his ankle over. Right. Yeah. Very Isaiah Thomas of him.

By the way, the last, the last small guard, will we say the last small guard to lead a team to a championship? Yes. Yeah, I mean, you're talking about great small guards. Steph's not small. Steve Nash is in that category, right? Don't recall Steve Nash when a championship. He's not small to you.

I mean, he's maybe small to you. He's not small to you. He was talking earlier about what he won for the small guards. He mentioned Iverson. We're going on conversations calls. Forget about all that. The pool report. Yeah.

Yes. There was no poor report because of the next one. He was going to have to go ask referee Scott Foster about what happened on that point. I mean, let's just call like it is. That was a blatant flagrant foul. that did not go called. And the reason that was so relevant was it would have, yes, it would have been the fourth.

And so this next win. Just so people don't know. Because he would have got four flagrant foul points, he would have been suspended for game six. Wait a minute. We don't know if you would have. No, no. If it was a flagrant, that would have been his fourth.

Tim is saying if you'd been called for a flagrant foul, he would have had four points and he would have been suspended for games. And I'm also saying we all saw the replay. There's like, just like the Nas Reed elbow was a like there was a, Like there was no way the referees could look at that and not call it a flavoring to. Like this was a textbook. That's what they say. That's what they can say now.

So first off, let me say this because a lot of people were asking. Yes, absolutely it was reviewable by the league. The league could have been. After the fact. And would have reviewed in the next 24 hours and made a ruling. Just like they reviewed the Brunson.

Not in the game. Yeah, not in the game. But they say they can't review it in the game because they didn't call the foul. This was like the lamello ball, Bam at a bioplay from the playing game because they didn't call the foul in the moment. And they wasn't going to call it after the game. Okay. That's my point. And then it's a massive

controversy. If they don't. The Knicks fans would have been tearing things apart. Yes. And rightly so. And they already doing half the NBA would have been tearing things apart. And Mike Brown, like I would have expected Mike Brown to come into the press conference and like demand. Absolutely.

Absolutely. He'd be called for it. So I don't know what would have happened. It's lost to history now. It would have been a massive controversy. The league office doesn't have to worry about it. The Knicks are about to jump on a lane and go back to, you know, Shump's old stomping grounds on 7th Ave and have a good old time. Shump.

Is your jersey underneath that? My jersey is at the hotel because of all the drama that was going on in New York. I didn't know if it'd be safe to walk up in here with a New York next jersey. You might have been in the majority. We lost you to the streets the other night. Yeah, I'm here now, though. I'm back. I'm back.

I was just trying to get y'all a good story to put in the cutaways. What went down on the streets there? We wanted you to FaceTime in from there. You know what's while. being a part of that, I wanted to go, I wanted a feeling for the city. And I also wanted to see, like,

is it really dangerous? That's kind of my thought process. I was like, is that a good way to go through life? Is this really dangerous? Yeah. Okay. Listen, man, when you're shump,

it ain't dangerous. Is it dangerous? When you're one of us, you know, it might have been. So I went through, it's going to be all right. People was telling it. It was like, bro, you went through a jjury and everything.

I'm like, yeah, because I had to make sure that even when they knocked switch over, it was love. And it was. Like, even though they were falling, tripping, a couple of times I did stumble. But they was trying to help me up. Like, it really was all love. And to be in the city. And how did it go down? Oh, it went great.

I got out of the arena. I tried to get in my Uber. To get to the Uber, I would have had to go through the crowd. So they was like, okay, don't do that. Were you in the middle of the crowd calling an Uber? Like, what was that about? No, I had already called it. So I was trying to rush to the Uber because it was making it to the corner at that time.

Got to the corner in the middle of the street. Stopped. Got in. Couldn't do nothing with it. People saw me get in. They rushed the car. Cops helped me out. I walked through, tried to go the other way to get to where the traffic wasn't blocked.

All right. So how did you get out of there? There was a couple, you know, some great NYPD guys. that just helped me get through. I had to take a couple pictures to get through, but they helped me get through, and then I made it to the other side. I don't know what street,

but they had one of them, the pedal bikes. It was a petty cat. A pedicab with the thing, had the lights, had the jingles on it, had a little speaker going. So me and Baron Davis, here, low key in the back, I had a little police hoodie over my head

until I got in the back of the car. Then I got in the back of the pedicab. I put a little Knicks towel over my head, And we made it all the way back to the hotel. The petty cab was $300. The worst ride of my life. Hey, hey, expense on the ESPN's dime, baby. Oh, yeah, oh yeah, I'm definitely expensive.

Hey, listen, we've, uh, just because I saw him walk over here, do the Scott Van Pelt show with his grandson. We haven't talked about Mike Brown at all. And we should talk about him because... Great chess player. He did an unbelievable job during this playoff run, push a lot of buttons. Sometimes I thought the buttons were crazy,

and I didn't know what was going on at the time. but you know what? Almost all of them worked like a charm. Chose Alvarado and Jane LaBrunsen last game is a prime example. They hadn't played one second together. The whole playoffs runs of basically the whole fourth quarter of the biggest game of his life. Works out like magic. Knicks win the game.

And for a guy that, I mean, Brian, you know Mike Brown for over 20 years. Yeah. Guy's been around a lot of teams. It's obviously won a lot of championships as an assistant coach. He's been around a lot of winning. He's been to the finals before. But pretty cool moment for him to. Get to celebrate this thing.

I think he's won like three or four rings. I want to get the story behind who let the dogs out. Yeah, that was kind of corny. I don't think he minded. No, that's his. I mean, he's a granddad. All coaches do that, man. If you know, Mike, that is perfectly his personality.

All coaches have this like one minor thing they do that's corny, that they don't care that you think is corny. They've been doing it for years. Wait, Sean, who let the dogs out came out in the ninth? Hey, it's sad because my high school. coach also loved that song. When you were in high school. Yeah, I was part of the Oak Park Huskies. And my coach, Al Allen, used to do that.

Who let the dogs out? And we used to be like, bro, we like the DMX version of the dogs. Like, we do the DMX dogs to stop, drop. Like, we're trying to force that on him. He's like, nope, who let the dogs out? And they get going over that. So I understand it. But yeah, kudos to him.

Kudos to Leon Rose. putting a ball club together like this. Yeah, Leont's dad was here today. Pretty cool. His son is obviously James of agent. You guys putting together a ball club. Their highest draft pick that they made during this run was 25. I mean, it's one of the most remarkable championship teams of all times.

They didn't. You can't go running out there with money. You have the Jaylon Brunson signing. Come on. Every other guy in the starting lineup is traded for. Yes. Almost none of them including really any draft picks. And they won all those trades.

No Bridges trade. We didn't trade at all of them. They won all those trades. I mean, maybe one of the Bridges draft picks becomes a high lottery pick. Doesn't matter. They won it out. They won the title. It's over.

They won all those picks. Worth it. I just like it because now teams can't do the whole. Oh, man, we're going to go get this guy in free agency. We're going to go get this guy. No, you got to build you a team. You got to build you a team that can play multiple lineups. You got to build you a team that can sacrifice their role.

You got to build you a team where if this guy ain't happy, oh, well, we can figure out other ways to win. Well, and this is also what? You have to build an actual roster again. And it's like there is pressure on the rest of you GMs around the league to build your roster. Put some veterans on your team. Put some leadership, some ball handling, some shooting, some guys that may not do everything else, but they'll get the game-winning offensive rebound. I mean, this is also, yeah, that's unbelievable.

For sure. No, I mean, look, him playing over cat down the stretch was a huge swing point in the game. So he totally manhandles Victor. This is the offensive rebound that the game was already, they were holding it pretty tight, but this got it. he pushes Victor out of the way, gets the rebound, and then, most importantly, he gets rid of it so that they can't foul him. And when he gets rid of it, he falls on the ground and he's watching and he knows he's done his job to the perfect degree. And he sees whoever got felled the camera.

Whatever it was. That clinched the game. And he just celebrated by himself on the ground. I thought that was a great moment because he did his job. For sure. And to Shump's point, this is what, I mean, it's ironic because it's the next. or one of the biggest teams and the teams with the most money. But this is what you were talking about in terms of how to build a team

and to build with depth and to build in a variety of ways. This is what the league has been going for in this last CBA. Like ideally, right? They want teams to have the... By the way, they're not in the second apron. No, they haven't been in the second apron yet at all. They will be next year. Well, and they will be next year probably assuming they keep their guys.

But again, they went out and built this team in a variety of different ways. And it wasn't just what your picks at the top of the... the draft and they made creative trades and they made an incredible free agent signing and you know got some you know got lander shamed off the scrap heap as a minimum free agent uh drafted miles of bride in the second round drafted mitchell robinson a long time ago in the second round like building a team in that kind of manner in a lot of different ways that's what the league was hoping to achieve in this last cb a and this is even though it's the nix even though it's a team in the biggest market that that's the vision of what they've been going for and like you said it's a

tremendous job by leon rose and i'll tell you what it's more pressure on the player development coaches too. Because I don't know what everybody else doing, but you better be getting people better. By the way, shout out Peter Patton. Come on. You better be putting people in position where they understand at the end of games,

this is what we need you to do. This is what we need to lean on. We should be out to hang our hats on this. This is why we brought you here. People need to understand who they are and understand their role on the team. Player development coaches, step up. Look around.

Like the Nix won for a reason. Jim Dolan, like, made player development, one of the next number one focus. Because player the element means everything. It's all. Everybody in this league is good. I mean, talk about, I don't, now Jim, now Jim Dolan's going to press my winning never made you say you're sorry.

That's, he's going to say I'm sorry regardless. Well, that's true. It is going to press it, but the man doubled, triple, quadruple down on this team, then put his name on it. Hey, and by the way, he owns the team. And listen, he gets up there after the game and says, hey, I'm sorry, took this long, but I hope it doesn't take this long the next time. That was great. That was a great line.

That was good. Say your peace and get on. That's a great line. I like that. I got to give him credit for that. Yeah, I like that. Also pretty cool when Jan Lambrunson said, this is why I came to New York. He got asked about playing with his dad and winning.

Just so I'll know, I grabbed a little MSG stock wired to this. There you go. You know, everybody was looking for tickets. I was looking for stock. Right, right. You had a credit. I really thought it through this. We did rip Jim Dolan when he was looking for.

when he said he wasn't raising the ribbon after the NBA Cup because they were going to put the real deal up and show nothing. They did. He called the shot. He's never having to say you're sorry. There it is. There it is.

All right. I have nothing more to say about this. I got one more thing to say. Go on show. Hey Mitch. First of all, kudos to you for finally putting your pride to the side and saying Dylan Harper, you get to play more. But I'm going to tell you what.

When Deerrin Fox doesn't have it going, and I understand the thought. process to say that's my max guy I'm a live and die with him I would never send one of my guys especially if I knew that he was having a tough time like he's had a tough series sometimes you just don't have it when de Aaron Fox is playing like that I believe he was what three for 13 before that and to draw up two plays for him to get a shot was odd to me I understand getting a guy going I understand him getting it going in transition, getting it going in a continuity, a continuity offense, but to draw up play specifically for him in the red zone like that really made me uncomfortable

as just a fan of the game, a fan of Deeran. Like, I'm definitely going to have to make sure to reach out to Deeran. I just thought he put him in a tough spot. And as much as it. Just people to remember you. As much as. You were his veteran when he was young. Yeah, yeah.

I was with him in Sacramento. And just to see his growth so far. I would hate for everybody to have easy, easy ammunition to go in on him for the whole summer. You know what I'm saying? When he's one of those guys that has moved the needle. Look, he's like, I'm just going down the line. No, do you think. Enjoy it, baby.

Enjoy it. Now, enjoy it. Wow. NBA hating on the hoop collection. I will say to get you a mellow pump fake. I will say to Shump's point. I mean, Mitch Johnson was also in his first finals, right? That's what I was saying.

He needs to learn to. It's just across the board. It's a younger spurs team and it's all learning experience. I always go back to bleep I saw. But when Eric Spolstra coached his first finals, the Mavericks beat them. And then he thought that he cost the whole heat of championship by the way he coached. Basically like face planted, spent the whole summer. Then they went into the lockout, spent the whole summer in lockout like analyzing,

came back with a whole new game plan. He won the next two titles. I think Ms. Johnson will emerge from this going, boy, I made these mistakes. and I'm going to learn from it. The days are very bright. As much as Wemby was on there saying, we're going to learn from this, we're going to learn from this.

Mitch Johnson is in that talk of, we're going to learn from this. Because Mitch Johnson also, he got to live and die this time. He went with the Tom Tibido route. I can't get mad at him, boy. I love Tibbs,

but I know how Tibbs is going to burn his guys out. He's going to play five, six deep. And he don't care. He'll run you into the ground. If y'all are going to lose, y'all going to lose by your starters that you came in here with. And Mike Brown, decided to switch it up,

switch up lineup, switch up looks, different defenses. They kept throwing everything at them for Mitch to have gone the loyal route and stick with his guys. I think it's good for him because he's going to have plenty of tape to go through, plenty of film, plenty of trust to put in

Dylan Harper now. Now that he said, hey, I didn't give you a long leash. And if I do give you a long leash, I know how I go, just season from that closeout game, I just think that he's going to take a big step as well. As much the development of Wemby, Castle, and Dylan Harper matters. And Carter Bryant.

And Carter Bryant as well. And six man of the year. My bad. Keldon, my bad. Not to leave you out at all. But as much as their development is going to go up a notch, Mitch Johnson will be better coaching next year. And I still think the Spurs will win multiple championships.

And I believe Ms. Johnson is going to be the head coach on the team. If they get back. If they get back. Jay Mitchell and J. Dub, we're hurt. The Spurs have a lot of bright days ahead. So we'll see what happens. And Oklahoma City is not going anywhere. But look, the reason this championship is going to be so special to the Knicks

is not just because it ends his 53-year drought. It's not just because this 15-1 run to end the playoffs. But this is probably not a team that's going to be doing this for that long. These guys are smacking their prime. They're all into their 30s. Like, this is a group that had to take advantage of this opportunity. In all, no, no, no. I don't even want to talk about the future.

No, but I'm saying right now, that's why it's so. special. It's like the team that Tim and you covered 15 years ago, that 2011 Mavs team. It was a group where everything coalesced in such a perfect manner. Everything came together. And it's one of the most incredible runs we've ever seen in the playoffs. Nine consecutive road playoff victories, 15 and one to end the playoffs. Like this is one of the all-time great runs. Even if the NIST come back and win the title next year, it's not going to be what this just was. And I will say this. I know that NICS fans don't need to hear this. or the Knicks players, but celebrate it.

It's time to celebrate. You celebrate. I mean, this is just an all-timer. I think Shump's gonna go celebrate. I'm gonna go celebrate. Shump. We're so great to have you during this final. I appreciate you.

We had a great time. We had a great time at the live show. My Geysers, man. By the way, at the live show, one of the great moments of the whole NBA season when one of the people afterwards came up and said that he used Chat GPT for the first time in his life

to look up with USWB. stood for. And it popped right up. Bad you say, urine stained wet blanket. That's what we call it. Anyway, yeah,

he's done. All right, thank you to our producers. Tucker and Jackson are here. Shumps on that one, Shump's going. He's gone. All right.

This guy. That's what, I'm going to made it up. Yes, it is. I'm dead serious. I'm dead serious. That's what we call them. All right.

Shump, go into the night. No, you're in stain. You're insane. All right. You don't even want to know what that means,

y'all. Shout to the hoop collective for having me. These guys are great. We talk to the NBA. All right. Mr. Bontems, Mr. McMahon. It's been an honor. Thank you for sticking with us throughout this whole playoff front.

Hey, guess what? We got the offseason is about to start. Got the draft very soon. Got free agency after that. Got a lot more. We'll shift into offseason mode here. And that's it from San Antonio and the NBA finals. Adios amigos.