NBA FINALS: KNICKS VS. SPURS

June 7, 2026

Victor Wembanyama

San Antonio Spurs

Practice Day

Q. When you first played here, Coach Popovich told you about how special this building was supposed to be, maybe the best place to play basketball. Have you found that to be the case? How have you enjoyed the experience?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: Yeah, has been very enjoyable playing here. I don't remember Pop saying that, though. I definitely noticed it [smiling].

Q. Obviously the Finals have come with an additional level of media attention, focus, a lot more of a zoo around it. The expectation is tomorrow is going to be especially like that, especially with the President coming in. Does that make a more difficult task to zone in on what you have to do?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: Not really. I think it could be, but isolating myself is something I've practiced over the years. I think I'm good at it. So it's not a problem.

This is similar to something media-wise like the Olympics.

Q. There are a lot of fans nowadays, kids are seeing more of Victor Wembanyama, staying up until 6 in the morning to watch you playing in the Finals. Do you have any message to those fans from the Middle East?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: Yes, I'm very grateful for what they do. This is true passion. I definitely really, really appreciate the support.

Q. The offense the Knicks have has you defending all over the place, running around, when with other teams you're able to take a breather at the beginning of the possession, play near the rim. How has that challenge been for you? What have you learned over these first few games about how you have to defend this team?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: The challenge been mostly about will, the will to do it. I feel like I'll take a breather at the end of the season.

Q. What has it been like for you to play alongside De'Aaron Fox? What have you learned from him?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: It's been great. I think it's been saving us a lot of trouble, especially over the course of the season. Sometimes he makes things very easy for us. Yeah, he's an experienced guy that we've always been able to turn to when we need it, especially I think it's easy to forget that our guards are really young, how precious he's been for them.

Q. When you think back about the fourth quarter, you guys did a lot well. Down the stretch, what do you think you could have done differently? Where do you see the room for improvement there, particularly down the stretch?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: I mean, there were many things. It goes from simply not turning the ball over to being smarter about fouls, or even fouling earlier sometimes in the possession.

I mean, you could have went a thousand ways.

Q. I want to understand, not from a player standpoint, but as a human being, a 22-year-old human being, how do you deal with pressure for games like these two ahead?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: How do I deal with it? I think the key is acceptance a lot of times, taking a step back, realizing all the journey that's behind this and what's ahead of this. Just being okay with who I am, where I am, what I'm doing. I think this is everything that I wished for.

There's really no reason to overthink it. I mean, this is what I'm built for.

Q. What's the biggest lesson you've learned throughout those two Finals games?

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: The biggest lesson is that...

I don't know, but I'm going to say it like this. We need to capitalize, actually use all the efforts we did. It felt like we did a lot, we did a lot of things wrong, but we also were relentless and kept pushing, but kind of like wasted that effort.

Even though I know it's not wasted because our lessons are learned, I know we're not going to make the mistakes of the past again, but in a moment like this we need to make these things matter.