Draymond Green just wanted Victor Wembanyama to look the New York Knicks in the face. Just once.
“There’s a way to win,” Green said on his podcast, “and there’s a way to lose.”
The San Antonio Spurs lost. Perhaps Wembanyama lost harder.
After the Spurs were defeated in five games in the NBA Finals against the Knicks, cameras caught Jalen Brunson walking over to San Antonio head coach Mitch Johnson while Wembanyama was seen storming off in the opposite direction.
In came the reactions. Fast and furious.
End of Thrilling Spurs-Knicks Finals Generates Strong Reactions
GettySAN ANTONIO, TEXAS – JUNE 13: Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs reacts during the fourth quarter against the New York Knicks in Game Five of the 2026 NBA Finals at Frost Bank Center on June 13, 2026 in San Antonio, Texas.
Some are confused why this is even a conversation. Others, in the name of traditional sportsmanship, are irate. Even calling the fresh-faced 22-year-old an unlikable loser.
Green has his own view. The four-time champion for the Warriors believes Wembanyama might’ve given the Spurs a message he’ll long regret.
Wemby, all you had to do come face-to-face with the enemy once, Draymond enlightens.
“Look your killer in the face,” Green instructed. “You gotta look them in they face. By the way, if you leave the court you don’t look in my face and I just beat you, I actually know that I own you forever, because you couldn’t look me in the face.”
Wembanyama capping off a war of a five-game series by electing not to greet Knicks players may forever be synonymous with his first Finals appearance.
But in his assessment of the situation, Green’s motivation isn’t to express disapproval of Wembanyama as much as it is to highlight the Spurs’ lack of veteran leadership.
“I’ll blame it on lacking the leader to show them this is what you do,” Green said. “I’ll blame it on that. Lacking the leadership, the leader to show them, ‘No, no, no! There’s a way to win and there’s a way to lose.”
Assessing Victor Wembanyama’s Last Two Months
GettyVictor Wembanyama looks on.
It’s rather important to lay it out first.
He’s 22. He’s the best player (already) on a team that played in the NBA Finals. That’s territory that only the who’s who of the sport have charted. We use one name when mentioning them.
LeBron. Magic. Duncan.
And now Wemby.
He didn’t win like Magic and Duncan, but neither did LeBron. He was thoroughly defeated in his first Finals as a 22-year-old. So was LeBron.
Wembanyama has to make significant strides before he can sit at the table with those guys, but he is off to an awfully impressive start.
In the 2026 NBA Finals, Wembanyama was dominant defensively and in stretches offensively. He was learning. Sometimes he got too ahead of himself. (Cue the ill-fated moment where he gestured to Mitchell Robinson.)
He sometimes made poor mistakes. He often played bad fourth quarters. He looked like a villain to a lot of eyes. He was unable to have his Madison Square Garden moment he perhaps desperately wanted.
Wembanyama is hearing it for celebrating a Western Conference championship like winning Game 7 of the Finals. He’s hearing it for mushing Jalen Brunson, for flinging Jose Alvarado.
One thing is for sure: he picked up a heck of a lot of experiences along the way.
He’s not the best player in the world, though he may be one day. But he’s still baby-faced, unassuming, can go weeks without a shave.
And still the driving force of what appears to be a perennially title-contending team.
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