Wembanyama Skips Knicks Handshakes After 94-90 Game 5 Loss Ends Finals 4-1

Q: Is Wembanyama's post-game walk-off a sign of poor sportsmanship or the raw emotion of a future NBA legend?

It looks more like raw emotion than a defining character flaw, though it was still a poor sportsmanship moment. Wembanyama walking straight to the locker room after the Knicks clinched the title broke with a long-standing NBA custom, and that matters. In a championship setting, postgame handshakes are a visible sign of respect, especially after a hard series. By that standard, the optics were bad. But the context is important. Wembanyama is 22, in just his third season, and had carried San Antonio through a 62-win year, a Defensive Player of the Year campaign, and a Finals run while averaging 26 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.6 blocks in the series. He then watched the Spurs lose four games in which they held double-digit leads, including late collapses in Games 4 and 5 while he struggled in the fourth quarter. His own words — “It’s painful” and “I’m using it to fuel me” — suggest he was overwhelmed, not indifferent. The series was also unusually hostile. Knicks fans jeered him, an egg was thrown at the Spurs’ hotel, and the on-court tone was chippy, including multiple incidents involving Jalen Brunson. That does not excuse skipping handshakes, but it helps explain the emotional snap. So the fairest reading is this: Wembanyama handled the moment poorly, but it looked like the reaction of a fiercely competitive young star absorbing his first Finals heartbreak, not evidence that he lacks respect. What matters next is whether he learns from it.

Q: With egg-throwing and on-court altercations, has the Spurs-Knicks rivalry just become the most hostile in the NBA?

Not yet. The Spurs-Knicks matchup has clearly turned nasty, but the available evidence supports calling it a fast-escalating rivalry, not definitively the NBA’s most hostile. The hostility is real. Off the court, Knicks fans jeered Victor Wembanyama throughout the series, and an egg was thrown near him at the team hotel after Game 4. Around the games in New York, there were reports of street disorder, clashes with police and multiple arrests. On the court, the series was chippy: Wembanyama grabbed Jalen Brunson’s neck in Game 3, appeared to enter Brunson’s landing space in Game 5, and the Finals ended with Wembanyama skipping the customary handshake line after the Knicks clinched the title. That said, one heated Finals does not automatically make this the league’s most hostile rivalry. The broader context matters. Historic NBA feuds such as Knicks-Heat, Bulls-Pistons, Kings-Lakers and Spurs-Suns featured repeated playoff collisions, fights, suspensions and years of accumulated bad blood. By comparison, Spurs-Knicks is still new as a true rivalry, even if this series may have created one. What is fair to say is that the 2026 Finals likely transformed Spurs-Knicks into one of the league’s most combustible matchups going forward. If these teams meet again deep in the playoffs, especially with Wembanyama and Brunson at the center, it could quickly enter the top tier of NBA rivalries for hostility as well as stakes.

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Jun 14

Victor Wembanyama walked straight to the locker room after missing the final 3-pointer in San Antonio’s 94-90 Game 5 loss, bypassing the customary postgame handshakes as New York clinched the title 4-1.
The 22-year-old called the defeat “painful” and said he would use it as fuel after finishing with 19 points and 14 rebounds, but shooting 1-for-5 in the fourth quarter.
That late fade fit a broader collapse: the Spurs led by double digits in every game of the series, blew four of those leads, and were outscored by just 12 points overall.
The series had already turned tense around Wembanyama, with Knicks fans jeering him, an egg thrown at his hotel after Game 4, and multiple borderline foul incidents involving Jalen Brunson.
Even so, Wembanyama’s first Finals run underscored his rise—he averaged 26 points, 11.2 rebounds and 3.6 blocks in the series after finishing second in MVP voting.