I think the Knicks has a high likelihood of ending the series at Game 5 and securing their first championship in 50+ years. I think the Spurs caught a break when the NBA announced the decision to not suspend Wemby, however, if you watched enough sports you probably heard the phrase “ball don’t lie” and may have seen that happen in a sporting event either metaphorically, literally or both. Knicks having one of the greatest, arguably the greatest comeback in NBA playoff history is just amazing and probably demoralizing for the Spurs now. Lastly, inexperience may mean not knowing how to deal with huge amount of pressure in key moments. Like I said before, I think the Knicks has less than 50% probability to sweep the Spurs but has over 50% probability to win the series. To win a single game when two peer level teams are playing, the littlest differences matters. In my opinion, what separate a championship team who win a series and a runner-up are usually stamina, mental toughness at key moments and clutch events. In a series of many games, strengths and weaknesses are usually exposed and exploited. If you compare Knicks versus Spurs’ starting and overall roster, besides Wemby, you probably won’t find another real star on the Spurs. All five starters for the Knicks are all-star level players when the team they play on are championship level. I’m doubtful De’Aaron Fox will make the hall of fame. Some of Wemby’s on the court behavior can be generously described as questionable.
The Villanova guys definitely were coached right, no pun intended. Villanova has the first North American pope and likely have an “associated” NBA championship team in the richest city in the world. And Villanova and Notre Dame may play in front of the Pope later this year with some of the Villanova Knicks champions also attending? Then the Pope may take an American Tour and make stop in the Catholic heavy Northeast and on Villanova campus? Villanova will have three campuses all nearby each other before or by 2028 with likely more students and movement to R1 research school category? Villanova’s basketball team got into the big dance in year one of a coaching change and is on the verge of possibly getting a superstar college basketball player? Forget about buying any of the cards based on this series, I think being degreed with Villanova might be the better play here for the contrarian who doesn’t fit their current campus main demographic group but might be the diversify the school is looking for in a student. I think this school has a good chance of moving into the top 30 range on a certain US-based mainstream ranking list within seven to ten years. I estimate this school probably gotten a few billion US dollars in additional publicity since the 2016s due to its many successes in the last ten years.
Look I think Wemby will most likely be a hall of famer. However, given Wemby’s massive presence and he is playing in a small market team, though probably the best one in the category, I doubt the Spurs will be able to get another true superstar to play with him that will help him win a championship. Most likely, if he stays with the Spurs after his rookie contract is up and if he stays for the long-term, the Spurs will likely need to accumulate some top picks through trade or rebuild, which likely the same difference because trading away any a star or two is essentially a rebuild for the Spurs at this point. I highly doubt the Spurs will actually win a championship with its current roster. In this era of small ball and shooting big man who can stretch the floor, Wemby is pretty disadvantage given he is not an elite shooting big man and he is almost everything to the Spurs on both ends of the floor.
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Here is what I wrote about this topic and related topics previously.
“Physiologically speaking, people are much more motivated and their best will come out when accomplishments are rewarded with positive reinforcements. In this case, a Knicks championship now is almost universally good for the world except for San Antonio Spurs linked entities. This version of the Spurs led by Wemby also have not had much playoff experience nor much playoff success. This is actually the Spurs’ first playoffs appearance in about seven years and the young core have no championship experience. The player one on the team who does is Harrison Barnes who is mostly a reserve player. Because of all this, the Spurs likely are mostly not expected by its fan base to win and likely have no pressure from anyone to win the championship. For the Spurs now, getting to the playoffs was already a huge success and making it to the finals was already a big surprise along with lucky breaks. In some sense, the Spurs may metaphorically have the imposter syndrome. Probably no one will be mad at the Spurs if they were swepted in the NBA Finals including their own fans, players, coaching/front office staff and ownership. I highly doubt a small market team like the Spurs for whatever its past glories were will be able to field another historical team in the next ten years which will essentially eat away all of Wemby’s prime NBA playing years. With the rise of prime market teams like the Knicks, the small market teams will become less attractive for premier free agents. Drafting top draft picks hoping to turn them into superstars will take a lot of work, time and high level development talents, which for these reasons I believe it will be a low probability event that the Spurs will be a dynasty in the next ten years.
One knock on Wemby’s cards are his best rookie cards, likely the ones that included his autographs, were unlicensed NBA cards which could indirectly affect his cards value going forward. I also think Wemby’s cards are over priced for his predicted historical value as an NBA player. I think there are two realistic ways to play this as someone who is looking to acquire new cards based on this year’s NBA Finals as of now. I think most likely both KAT and the Knicks will ink contracts to at least the 2030 season very soon. If KAT wins a championship this year as a Knicks and he maintain at around the same level of play as he exhibited during this playoff run, he will likely be a 10-time all star, earn more All-NBA honors, get at least 25,000 points, be named to All-NBA Defensive Team or two, contending for an MVP and Defensive Player of the Year and get rid of the “being soft” label for good. KAT being a high draft pick and winning the rookie of the year is simply fulfilling his potentials. Fulfilling full potentials through self-actualization of a society-professed prophecy is usually easier to achieve when it is already accepted by many as somewhat of a truth thereby will likely experience less systematic headwind when attempting to achieve such potentials.”