Victor Wembanyama went viral after he was seen crying on live television after the Spurs beat the Thunder in Game 7 at Oklahoma’s Paycom Center to progress to the NBA Finals. But that did not sit well with the Celtics legend, Kevin Garnett, who mentored Wembanyama personally last summer.
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The NBA legend recorded an episode of ‘KG Certified’ with Paul Pierce, where he predicted that the Knicks would win the Finals in six games simply because Victor Wembanyama needs to feel some pain for him to realize the actual value of an NBA championship.
“Give me the Knicks in six, Give me the Knicks in six, they wrap everything up in six, and they’ll be wrapped up before 18,” said Garnett when Pierce asked him to predict the winner of the upcoming NBA Finals.
“Guess what? The alien got to go through some heartache to be able to tell the fairy tale Hallmark card story. You understand? He got to go through some bulls–t. He’s crying in the motherf—–g Western Conference finals? That was too emotional for me,” said Garnett as he looked clearly unhappy with Wembanyama for crying.
“Yeah, man. He’s got four more games to try to get. You’ve got to go through the finals now. Nah, you still got to be even keeled right here. And that trophy that ain’t [your goal]. ‘That’s cool. Yeah, we beat them. Cool. But I got a whole other [thing in] sight, and it’s up here.'”
“It’s going to take my energy to run up this hill. I can’t be your… nah, that’s how bad they wanted to beat OKC. You know what I’m saying? But man, this right here. Nah,” a displeased Garnett added.
“And then to me, this is the Knicks’ only window I see. They’ve got to get it right now. All I’m talking about you ain’t got no Boston on here. You got no OKC. You’ve got to go now. You’ve got to go now.”
Garnett trained with Wembanyama last summer before he exploded into the player he is today. So Wembanyama may not be happy about hearing this from a legend whom he treated like a mentor.
Wembanyama explained why he cried after the Spurs performed like a well-oiled machine as a team to steal Game 7 from the Thunder on the road.
“That’s a tough question. I think it’s first and foremost a fear of judgment,” Wembanyama said in French, as per Maxime Aubin, a French reporter who spoke to Wembanyama after Game 7.
“Like, this feeling that you have to act a certain way, social codes, I guess. Personally, I refuse to carry the burden of having to hide my emotions,” Wembanyama reportedly said as he slammed those who criticized him for crying.
He ended Game 7 with 22 points, 7 rebounds, two assists, one steal, and one block while going 7-15 from the floor (46.7 FG%) and 3-5 from beyond the arc (60.0 3P%).
The French star eventually bagged the Western Conference Finals MVP award after averaging 27.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, 3.1 assists, and 2.7 blocks per game in the series while going 48.1% from the field and 40.0% from beyond the arc.
Hearing such criticism from a mentor-like figure can do one of two things for Wembanyama. It can either throw him off or help him lock in even more to dismantle the Knicks in the Finals.
It will be interesting to see if Wembanyama directly responds to Garnett, whose comments have gone viral on social media. But Wembanyama will likely hope to silence his critics with his domination on the court alone.
