Josh Hart Reveals How Victor Wembanyama and His Spurs Motivated Knicks Throughout NBA Finals

Josh Hart explained how the Spurs' emotional Western Conference title celebration may have affected their NBA Finals mindset.

Josh Hart Reveals How Victor Wembanyama and His Spurs Motivated Knicks Throughout NBA Finals

Josh Hart (Image credits - Firstsportz)

Josh Hart believes that the San Antonio Spurs were emotionally drained after beating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. It was a hard-fought series that went to seven games.

Heading into the NBA Finals, the Spurs were seen as favorites over the New York Knicks despite their hot form. The Knicks were coming off an 11-match winning streak after clean-sweeping the Philadelphia 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers in the previous two rounds.

Speaking on The Roommates Show, Hart took shots at the Spurs for never giving the Knicks the credit they deserved throughout the Finals.

I’m sure, they felt like they didn’t play their best at times, you know, 100%, like the same as us. But I feel like, for us, we always give that respect. We always respect the game and the opponent because sometimes us not playing our best, sometimes it’s because they came out with a level of intensity and they imposed their will on the game and they didn’t allow us to play our best. And I feel like we did that, and they never gave it the credit. And it was like, okay, that’s just added fuel to the fire.

Josh Hart on The Roommates Show

Josh Hart has had some big moments during these playoffs. His performances may not reflect on that stats sheet, but his energy and influence cannot be quantified.

The Spurs were not respectful of the Knicks despite trailing in the entire series. In fact, Victor Wembanyama even went on to say that they dominated after losing in Game 5. The Knicks used the lack of credit from the Spurs to fuel themselves.

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Josh Hart on how Victor Wembanyama and Spurs’ celebration led to the Knicks title

The Spurs have undoubtedly been one of the biggest surprises this season. While they do have Victor Wembanyama, many doubted if the Spurs’ lack of playoff experience would be their downfall in the playoffs. However, they impressed everyone and used their inexperience to play fearlessly.

After beating the Thunder in Game 7 of the WCF, Wembanyama and the Spurs got emotional during their celebrations. While it was a mammoth effort, they still had the Finals to play.

Victor Wembanyama with the West Finals trophy
Victor Wembanyama with the West Finals trophy (Image via Polymarket Sports/X)

Watching the celebrations, Hart revealed that the difference between the Knicks’ and the Spurs’ celebrations after winning their respective Conference titles made him believe his team can win it all.

Everyone’s talking about they gotta beat OKC. Like OKC is gonna repeat, OKC is gonna repeat dadada…And then, they did beat OKC, and that was like, for them, for a young team, I think that was a mountain top for them. Then, as I looked at JB, I was like ‘You see their reaction because they think they’re gonna win it, like they think it’s over.

Josh Hart on The Roommates Show

The win in the WCF got the Spurs emotionally drained. Meanwhile, the Knicks did celebrate but knew they had to win four more games to achieve their goal.

Kevin Garnett didn’t like Wemby’s tears after WCF triumph

Victor Wembanyama and most of his teammates were playing in their first-ever playoffs. They were impressive during their Finals run. Wembanyama was in tears after clinching the WCF title and MVP award.

However, former NBA champion Kevin Garnett was not happy with the emotions and tears shown by Wembanyama.

He’s got to go through some bulls—t. He’s crying in the motherf—king Western Conference finals. That was too emotional for me. Man, he got four more games to try to get. You’ve got to go through the Finals now. Nah, you’ve still gotta be even-keeled right here. And that [Western Conference] trophy, that ain’t what we’re [focused on], but I got a whole other sight, and it’s up here.

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The NBA Finals loss will be a learning curve for Victor Wembanyama. The Spurs will be looking to bounce back and learn from their mistakes next season.

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