Vinny Del Negro played for a number of teams during his NBA career, but he’s best remembered for his San Antonio Spurs tenure.
The former 6-foot-4 guard spent six seasons (1992-1998) playing for the Spurs, starting 331 of his 433 appearances and helping lead them to five playoff appearances along the way. Del Negro was a part of the Spurs for a number of landmark moments including when David Robinson won MVP, when Tim Duncan was drafted to the franchise and when Gregg Popovich took over as head coach.
Fast forward to today and the Spurs had their best season in over a decade when they advanced to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014. Led by young sensation Victor Wembanyama, the Spurs made a run to the Finals in his first postseason appearance. However, they were exposed in late game situations for their lack of experience when they lost in five games to the New York Knicks despite leading 74% of the series.
Del Negro — who is a former NBA head coach also — believes the Spurs will be just fine moving forward now that they have a postseason run under their belts.
“San Antonio is not going anywhere,” said Del Negro in a one-on-one interview with Heavy Sports. “Denver, obviously, Oklahoma City, they’ll get healthy, they have great cap flexibility with the draft picks they have, and so obviously the Knicks were spectacular this year. They earned every bit of that, and they won the championship, which I’m very happy for them, I think it’s great for the game, it was great for New York.”
Del Negro made sure to give props to the Knicks for their first Finals win since 1973.
“I’m a big Jalen Brunson fan, I thought OG played amazing, the whole team they played as a team, and they got it done, so anything is possible,” said Del Negro of the Knicks. “There’s other teams in the East that are working their way up, there’s other teams in the West, so it’s never easy. Health is always a big factor, organizational standards is a big factor. And now that Miami has a guy like that (Giannis Antetokounmpo) to build around, I’m sure they’re very excited, and they should be.”
Spurs Bringing Back Their Entire Core From Last Season
The Spurs will bring back essentially their entire core, re-signing the likes of Harrison Barnes and Julian Champagnie, both of whom played major roles in leading San Antonio to the Finals.
The former longtime NBA veteran believes the Spurs coming up short in the NBA Finals will benefit them moving forward. It’s worth noting that it was San Antonio’s first playoff run since the 2018-19 season and it was in Mitch Johnson’s first full season as a head coach. Johnson is just 39 years old and took over for Popovich after the 2024-25 season started.
“Oh absolutely it’ll work for them, that’s what it’s about, experience,” said Del Negro. “Putting those experiences in your back pocket, figuring out how you can individually get better and make the group better. They’re young, I mean (Dylan) Harper’s a rookie, (Stephon) Castle’s a second-year player, Wembanyama is young, first time at that level. They’re so young, so good for them. De’Aaron Fox has to get healthy and get back his speed and explosiveness, which he will with that ankle sprain, but they’re in a great position for a long time.”
Del Negro singled out how the organization’s standard is “high” and that they’ll continue to be in the mix for Western Conference supremacy with the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“The Spurs do it the right way, their standard is high, the championships they’ve won creates all that, so I wouldn’t really worry about the Spurs, they’re going to do things right,” said Del Negro. “Oklahoma City is going to be in the mix. They do things fantastic with their draft and development. There’s a lot of really hard working, smart people that are trying to build their organizations. It’s easy to talk about, it’s hard to do. You have to have some superstar players to do it, and the organizations that I mentioned have them. Things usually go very well when you have those type of players.”
Vinny Del Negro Playing in the American Century Championship
Del Negro will once again be participating in the American Century Championship, the largest celebrity golf tournament. The event will take place from July 10 through July 12 and will be broadcast on NBC and Peacock. Major names such as Steph Curry, Tony Romo and Josh Allen will be a part of the event, with the 59-year-old Del Negro being a longtime participant of the event in Lake Tahoe.
“It’s such a special event, the American Century Championship is the Super Bowl for avid competitive athletes, entertainers,” said Del Negro. “They do an amazing job, NBC Sports, all the volunteers, the American Century is first class, so everything there is the best, and the atmosphere there at Lake Tahoe, and everything involved, all the entertainment they put on, and everything, the competition is fierce.
“It’s fun,” Del Negro continued. “Fans are just amazing. When I started in this many, many years ago, where this was at that time, and where it’s at now, is just pretty remarkable. All the credit goes to all the hardworking people that have put this together for years. Looking for another great week, and it’s always obviously very competitive, and for competitive people, it’s very stressful, because you want to play well, and you never play as well as you think you can — but it’s golf. The memories that I’ve had over the years have been incredible, and the friends I’ve made over the years with this tournament is very special to me.”
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