00:00Adam, do you agree that learning how to be a champion also has to go through the learning curve?
00:08You look at the Knicks.
00:09The Knicks had, two years ago, they were a team that got to the second round.
00:14Last year, they got to the Eastern Conference Finals, and now they're the NBA Finals.
00:19And it's kind of, if you go back to the old school teams, like those Pistons and Bull teams,
00:23they had to beat the Celtics, the Pistons.
00:26Then the Pistons had to beat, you know, the Bulls had to beat the Pistons.
00:30And it kind of went through that, and you're seeing the difference in that play out.
00:34I mean, the Knicks have been down as many as 12 to 14 points in other games,
00:37and there they are with being resilient and coming back.
00:40Is that still Wemby and his young group learning how to win?
00:43So a couple things there.
00:45There is something to be said for continuity.
00:47And, yes, there's been the coaching change with Tom Thibodeau to Mike Brown,
00:52and obviously in terms of the way they play and not running starters into the ground
00:56and utilizing a bench and, you know, using Carl Anthony Towns in kind of a point-forward way.
01:01I mean, Mike Brown is not getting enough credit for what he has done
01:04with largely the same roster that Thibodeau had.
01:07But at the same time, Thibs did start it.
01:11You know, they're not here where they are without, obviously, everything that, as you noted,
01:15they went through under his regime and that gradual progression.
01:19But a lot of these guys have played together for a long time.
01:22There's a continuity component that I do think helps teams over the course of time
01:27grow, grind, develop confidence in one another.
01:30But to your main question, I'm so glad you brought it up
01:33because I have been talking about it, I feel like, endlessly for a couple weeks now.
01:39Even going back to San Antonio playing against Oklahoma City, the defending champs.
01:44You know, I wondered, in that series, okay, these are two pretty evenly matched teams,
01:51two incredibly talented teams.
01:52One guy is MVP.
01:53The other guy, right there in the conversation, there's a lot of youth, albeit inexperienced
01:59on one side, but a lot of youth on the other side as well.
02:02Does San Antonio, as Oklahoma City had to, does San Antonio have to learn from losing?
02:10You know, does it have to experience defeat in order to taste success?
02:14Because as you outlined, you go back through history, and there are many examples, but just
02:21some, you know, LeBron James was swept in his first NBA Finals.
02:27Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was swept in his first NBA Finals.
02:30Kevin Durant was swept in his first NBA Finals.
02:33A lot of, and there are more.
02:34A lot of these guys need to experience losing before they can climb the mountain and ascend
02:42to their highest levels.
02:43And when San Antonio was able to come back from down 3-2, including winning that game
02:49seven at OKC, I started to wonder, well, you know, a lot of teams don't skip steps.
02:55Maybe this one will.
02:56You know, maybe this team doesn't need to experience failure before ultimately getting
03:03the highest prize.
03:05But now you are seeing a team that, to me, is still, even down 3-1, marginally more talented,
03:12top to bottom on the roster than the Knicks, but galactically dumber.
03:17The Spurs are playing dumb basketball, game after game, giving away opportunity after opportunity.
03:25Look no further than, obviously, its best player, Victor Wembanyama, doing what he did at the
03:31end of game two, throwing the ball off the back of Stephon Castle with an opportunity
03:35to win that.
03:36You know, the missed free throws with final, you know, in the final two minutes of game
03:40four, among other mental errors in that game.
03:43There are so many instances, so many other alternate timelines we could be living in, Dan,
03:49where San Antonio is running away with this series, maybe has already won this series.
03:54But instead, the Spurs are just giving the Knicks every opportunity to take this thing.
Comments