With the New York Knicks defeating the San Antonio Spurs for the 2026 NBA Championship, much of the focus is now on the bad NBA Finals performance of Spur’s superstar Victor Wembanyama. It’s not as if he played terribly, but his team was favored in the series, had home court advantage, and ultimately squandered double digit leads in multiple games. When all of those things happen, that team’s best player will end up taking the brunt of the criticism.
Despite averaging 26 points per game, Wembanyama only shot 42% from the field. His misses came at inopportune times, as he missed two jumpers and committed a vital turnover in the final 30 seconds of a one-point loss in Game Two. Game Four saw his team blow an NBA Finals record 29-point second half lead while the Spurs’ big man missed 10 of his final 12 shots from the field and three of his final four free throws. The decisive Game Five saw San Antonio blow a 16-point lead with Wemby only scoring three points in the fourth quarter.
Other Superstars Have Had Bad NBA Finals Performances Similar To Wembanyama’s
The silver lining for Wemby and San Antonio is that several other superstars within the past 20 years have also experienced similar sub-par performances in The NBA Finals. In fact, some of these elite players may have been worse and less clutch than he was in this year’s championship.
In 2006, Dallas Mavericks’ forward Dirk Nowitzki led his team in an amazing run to the NBA Finals while going through the defending champion Spurs and Phoenix Suns. Like Wembanyama, his team was favored and had home-court advantage. Dallas raced out to a 2-0 lead over the Miami Heat, and were up by 13 points in Game Three. Miami’s Dwyane Wade caught fire and led a furious comeback to edge out his team’s first win. The Heat went on to win the next three finals games, as Nowitzki was held to two points in the fourth quarter of the Game Six clincher. He would end up averaging fewer than 23 points per game for the series while shooting 39% from the floor.
The 2008 postseason saw league MVP Kobe Bryant lead the Los Angeles Lakers on a spectacular path to the NBA Finals. Facing a Boston Celtics team in the championship series that featured Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen, Bryant was inefficient from the field. Despite leading all players in scoring during the series, the Black Mamba registered a shooting percentage of only 40%. The Lakers blew a then-Finals’ record 24-point lead in Game Four while Kobe only scored 17 points. In the decisive Game Six, their superstar was held to only 22 points as the Lakers experienced a 39-point shellacking.
The newly formed Miami superteam of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh found themselves in the 2011 NBA Finals after vanquishing the Boston Celtics and Chicago Bulls. The Heat had home court advantage and were the favorites over the Dallas Mavericks. LeBron had put together a stellar run through the playoffs as he looked to obtain his first championship. Dallas would go on to win the series in six games as James failed to lead in scoring for any of the contests. Game Four was especially disappointing, with just eight points on 3-11 from the field. LeBron ended up averaging only 17.8 points-per-game during that year’s finals, the third highest on his own team.
The 2016 Golden State Warriors won an NBA record 73 games while being led by unanimous league MVP Steph Curry. After a hard-fought victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors would face the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA title. Curry would end up leading all scoring in only one game, as Cleveland would mount an epic comeback from down 3-1 in the series to win their first championship. Game Seven saw the Warrior’s superstar go 6-19 from the field and 4-14 from beyond the arc for only 17 points.
Wemby Is In A Better Position Than Any Of These Other Superstars
In addition to Wembanyama’s performance in the Finals not being unusually disappointing for a great player, he’s also in better position than any of these other four superstars. The Spur’s center is just 22 years old, far younger than any of the others when they suffered their championship letdowns. In addition, all of these other elite players went on to win at least one NBA Championship after these instances of coming up short. San Antonio proved this year that they can get to the biggest stage. The superstar that got them there should be getting even better in the near future.
