Victor Wembanyama Shares Revealing Admission After Losing NBA Finals

The San Antonio Spurs faced a 3-2 series deficit against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals before winning the series in seven games.

Now, after losing the NBA Finals to the New York Knicks in just five games, Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is ready to admit the emotional high of that Game 7 victory played a role in his performance against New York.

"Personally, I think I could have been better in recovering from the high of the conference finals," Wembanyama said during the finals, as his team dropped the first two games at home and never fully recovered, despite holding double-digit leads in each of the five games of the series.

More NBA: Spurs Coach Mitch Johnson Gets Honest After Inexplicable Game 4 Loss

More NBA: Spurs Star Dylan Harper Places Blame After Knicks Game 4 Win

While admitting a potential fault, Wembanyama won’t be dwelling on the situation.

“But here we are. We can’t change the past now,” he said already with his mind on next season after letting his first NBA Finals slip away.

“The margin of error is very, very thin,” he said. “We absolutely dominated for most of the series. But our errors, our mistakes, are punished so hard. … [Losing] is painful, but I’m not running away from that. I’m using that to fuel me. I’m not satisfied with not winning.”

The Spurs have a De’Aaron Fox situation to sort out, but the young core of Wembanyama, Dylan Harper and Stephon Castle – among others – will likely see themselves back in the NBA Finals before too long.

More NBA: Victor Wembanyama Sends Defiant Message After Embarrassing Game 4 Loss

2026 NEWSWEEK DIGITAL LLC.

This story was originally published June 15, 2026 at 8:38 AM.