Victor Wembanyama hasn’t shaken the Spurs’ loss to the Knicks in the NBA Finals. Some nights, it has followed him to bed.
“I’ve had a few [nights where it’s] hard to find sleep sometimes or hard emotions,” Wembanyama said Monday at media day, via Michael C. Wright of ESPN. “But there’s just a point where you accept that you have to go through it, and you have to feel all of it.”
The Spurs lost the series in five games. Wembanyama said they have spent the shorter offseason working together, including sessions at De’Aaron Fox’s home court near Houston and a trip he hosted for teammates in France.
“We’re in a great spot,” Wembanyama said. “We’re very hopeful, very ambitious and ready.”
That time together meant more after the way last season ended.
“Obviously, we have to go through some emotions, and you do some of that alone, but it’s better to do it as a team,” Wembanyama said. “I took a lot of positive things from everything we did this summer, just being together honestly. It was amazing.”
Stephon Castle said the France trip gave the players a chance to talk without coaches around. Harrison Barnes called the Finals loss “shared heartbreak,” though he cautioned against assuming San Antonio can pick up where it left off.
“I don’t think it’s one of those things where you simply carry momentum from one season to the next,” Barnes said. “You have to come back and start the journey from Day 1 again.”
Wembanyama and the Spurs know where they want that journey to end. They also know what it felt like to fall short.
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