Wemby vs KAT

[KG4Ever]

Congrats to the Spurs and Wemby! They are building something special! KAT and Wemby are two of my faves and glad that one of them will be a champion. This should be fun!

[60WinTim]

Congrats to the Spurs and Wemby! They are building something special! KAT and Wemby are two of my faves and glad that one of them will be a champion. This should be fun!

Yeah, I feel really great for the Spurs, especially against the Thunder! (I live just north of San Antonio in the winter, so the Spurs are my "2nd" team...)

[Coolbreeze44]

My worst nightmare, one of Popovich or Spike Lee is going to be happy.

[SameOldNudityDrew]

I'm happy for both of these guys, their teams, and their fans.

These fans
You can hate New York City all you want, and you can roll your eyes at the courtside celebrities, but the average Knicks fan is a fucking maniac and I salute them all. As for the Spurs fans, they've had so much success over the years it's a little harder to feel good for them, but their young superstar abandonded them seven years ago and this is basically their first time back in the playoffs since, so I'm happy for them.

These teams
I've always liked individual toughness of a lot of Knicks players (Hart in particular), but this year, they really reinvented themselves from the isolation-heavy offense under Thibs into a more fun, movement-oriented team that really fights for each other defensively as well. You might think of the city as glitzy and selfish, but the team plays gritty and selflessly. And I honestly love the way the Spurs play. They took every game seriously this year and outperformed expectations significantly. They play hard without much ego, and they are just really poised and mature for such a young team.

These guys
I criticized KAT for years because of his immature whining and poor defense, but he legitimately started to grow up on both counts by the end of his time here in Minnesota, and he was mature about accepting Ant as the face of the team. Wembanyama kind of blows me away. He's playing this season with an intensity like it's the last season he'll ever get to play, or like somebody who had a near-death experience and realizes how precious life is. I'm serious. He singlehandedly turned the All-Star game into a real fucking game. His effort and mentality have set the tone for this team all year. Although it caught me a little offguard, I honestly loved how emotional he got when they won last night, especially when he said something like "these guys have no idea how much I love them." Holy shit! Coming from an MVP-level talent, can you imagine how that sort of thing would affect his teammates?! They would run through a brick wall for him now! That's leadership. We've talked all year about how immaturity and bad chemistry can hold a team back, because we've seen it with the Wolves. Wembanyama is basically leading his team in the opposite direction, setting an example with his mental and emotional approach to the game and his teammates. It's just incredibly impressive, especially from a guy so young.

[Q-is-here]

I'm happy for both of these guys, their teams, and their fans.

These fans
You can hate New York City all you want, and you can roll your eyes at the courtside celebrities, but the average Knicks fan is a fucking maniac and I salute them all. As for the Spurs fans, they've had so much success over the years it's a little harder to feel good for them, but their young superstar abandonded them seven years ago and this is basically their first time back in the playoffs since, so I'm happy for them.

These teams
I've always liked individual toughness of a lot of Knicks players (Hart in particular), but this year, they really reinvented themselves from the isolation-heavy offense under Thibs into a more fun, movement-oriented team that really fights for each other defensively as well. You might think of the city as glitzy and selfish, but the team plays gritty and selflessly. And I honestly love the way the Spurs play. They took every game seriously this year and outperformed expectations significantly. They play hard without much ego, and they are just really poised and mature for such a young team.

These guys
I criticized KAT for years because of his immature whining and poor defense, but he legitimately started to grow up on both counts by the end of his time here in Minnesota, and he was mature about accepting Ant as the face of the team. Wembanyama kind of blows me away. He's playing this season with an intensity like it's the last season he'll ever get to play, or like somebody who had a near-death experience and realizes how precious life is. I'm serious. He singlehandedly turned the All-Star game into a real fucking game. His effort and mentality have set the tone for this team all year. Although it caught me a little offguard, I honestly loved how emotional he got when they won last night, especially when he said something like "these guys have no idea how much I love them." Holy shit! Coming from an MVP-level talent, can you imagine how that sort of thing would affect his teammates?! They would run through a brick wall for him now! That's leadership. We've talked all year about how immaturity and bad chemistry can hold a team back, because we've seen it with the Wolves. Wembanyama is basically leading his team in the opposite direction, setting an example with his mental and emotional approach to the game and his teammates. It's just incredibly impressive, especially from a guy so young.

Yup, I'm really looking forward to the matchup Drew. It would be easy to say the Spurs will win in 5 or 6 because, after all, they just won the Western Conference, a far tougher test of basketball than the East. But....the Wolves were injured and so were the Thunder, whereas the Knicks didn't just win the East, they absolutely dominated!

As for Wemby, yeah, he checks pretty much every box you would ever want in a franchise player.