SAN ANTONIO — The day before a highly anticipated NBA Finals, both the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs met with the media. Here are a few highlights of what was said.
Spurs’ Dylan Harper on family members requesting tickets when the series moves close to his home in New York:
“As much as they say those tickets are going to be there, there ain’t going to be a lot of tickets going out.”
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Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama on hangover from Western Conference Finals Game 7:
“Coming back down from this is a challenge. It’s not done yet. We still need to really come back down to earth and realize we haven’t done the hardest yet. The job isn’t done at all. So we still got about, I don’t know, what time is it, like 30-plus hours to recenter.”
Spurs’ Stephon Castle on that Game 7 win:
“I mean, honestly, I think it was a feel-good win for us. Playing the defending champs on the road in a Game 7 like that, it’s hard to flush that out of the back of your mind, especially when you’re the team that came out on top. We have a balance where we understand we can’t get complacent or satisfied with that. We still have a job.”
Knicks’ Jalen Brunson on Wembanyama:
“Watching him as a player, it’s pretty unbelievable. Things he’s able to do on both sides of the ball include people have never really seen before, for a person of his size. It’s incredible to watch from a player’s perspective.”
Knicks’ Landry Shamet on Karl Anthony-Towns:
“I think he’s lived through a number of different seasons within the season this year, where we’ve asked him to do some different things… KAT has been kind of coming into that role. When we got into the Playoffs, he’s been a fantastic facilitator, playmaker at the top of the floor for us. Been really aggressive offensively, as well. Been asked to defend at a high level, and he’s done that.
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Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns on what it means to help the Knicks return to the Finals:
“It means a lot for my mother. When she emigrated from [the Dominican Republic] to New York, she saw Madison Square Garden for the first time and saw the energy the city has for Madison Square Garden and the Knicks. My mom, even to the day she passed, wasn’t big on the NBA rules, but one thing she did know was that only the best of the best perform and play at Madison Square Garden. To be able to have this moment in Knicks history where we’re back here, where New York has been hungry to be back in this Finals, it means a lot. It means a lot to me, my loved ones, to be part of the Knicks history that’s doing this.”
Spurs’ Devin Vassell on the Knicks beating them twice during the season:
“We feel like the Knicks have played us really well this year. We went into their house and they beat us. They beat us in the in-season tournament. They beat us last year on Christmas. We feel like we’ve got to get some get-back because they’ve been successful against us.”
Spurs Harper, on being compared to Manu Ginobili:
“I think that’s a fair comparison to say. I think it’s an accurate comparison. We’re both lefties, big guards. Yeah, I’ve had a lot of conversations with him, especially when I first got here. Me and him kind of talked a lot about the role of the team and what to do, things of that nature. I think he’s kind of, more than anyone for me, been that vet that’s been around the Spurs for a long time and kind of just giving me insight of what he’s been through.”
Josh Hart on first meeting fellow Villanova guys Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges (delivered with Hart’s trademark deadpan humor):
“I hated Jalen. I thought he was one of them annoying five-star recruits that come in entitled. Unfortunately, he was the opposite, and we sparked a friendship…
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“Mikal was the same way. I hated him, too. He came in, we obviously played a similar position, especially in college, and he was weaker, more frail than I was, so he would grab me and I hated it. Obviously, love those guys now.”