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“Hard to fall asleep”: Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama unveils lasting effects of NBA Finals to Knicks originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Coming so close to the Larry O’Brien Trophy but losing has major effects on a team. The San Antonio Spurs had all offseason to process the grief of losing to the New York Knicks. On NBA Media Day, they let their emotions out and revealed how they dealt with such a tough experience. Victor Wembanyama may have had one of the worst things happen to him, which could prompt an even bigger burden to prove himself for the 2026-27 season.
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Victor Wembanyama reveals he and Spurs lost sleep after NBA Finals defeat to Knicks
The Spurs have all that it takes to get back up on their feet to once again become NBA title contenders. Coach Mitch Johnson has the luxury of a young core that features Victor Wembanyama, Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, and Stephon Castle. Adding in a veteran like Tobias Harris means that they will likely be more stable for the 2026-27 NBA season. A lot of their championship hopes have to start somewhere. For the Spurs, it all revolved around getting over the grief of losing to the Knicks in five games.
Wembanyama seems to be the most affected among all of the Spurs players. Some go to the practice facilities and forget the loss ever happened. This is not the case for the Spurs superstar. In fact, he felt one adverse effect that may have increased the size of the chip on his shoulder. He saw the grief manifest through disruptions in his circadian rhythm, via Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
“It’s been hard to fall asleep sometimes. Hard emotions. But there is a point where you accept that you have to go through it. You have to feel it all. We don’t want to hide from anything,” Wembanyama declared on Spurs Media Day.
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The root of the Spurs’ grief
Everything was going the Spurs’ way during the 2025-26 NBA season. They jumped up to 62 wins and got the second seed in the Western Conference. Their hardest matchup was the 64-win Oklahoma City Thunder led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. By the Western Conference Finals, any worry about Coach Johnson’s schemes and choices was thrown out the window. It was because they beat the best team in the NBA in a seven-game series. Then, all hell broke loose.
The Knicks battered them in Game 1 with a 10-point margin (105-95). A lot of hope was in the air for Game 2, but the Spurs still fell short by two points to get the win (105-104). For a moment, Wembanyama and Co. thought the tide was shifting because they won Game 3 (115-11). However, all of those specks of hope withered away in a painful manner. The immaculate tip-in by OG Anunoby had them lose Game 5 (107-106) to go down 3-1. The hole the Spurs were in had grown too deep by then. It all culminated in a 94-90 Game 5 loss as the Spurs saw another team hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy.
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The Spurs vow not to let that happen to them again, to themselves and to their fans. If all goes well, it seems like Wembanyama will secure a second NBA DPOY, his first NBA MVP, and NBA Finals MVP. All of that would put him alongside David Robinson and Tim Duncan in the upper echelon of Spurs bigs to have won the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Losing sleep is one thing, but Wembanyama knows better. He will start and end the season in ways that will turn the tide towards the Spurs. For someone who sleeps very early, he surely will not want his circadian rhythm interrupted again.
