The San Antonio Spurs started hot during Game 5 of the NBA Finals and took an early 16-point lead in the first half against the New York Knicks (31-15). Victor Wembanyama and Dylan Harper were leading the offensive charge for the Spurs tonight.
In the first half, the ESPN broadcast caught an interesting sequence involving Victor Wembanyama and the Knicks’ Jeremy Sochan, who seemed to be constantly chirping at his former teammate from the bench.
Wembanyama took exception to it on one instance during live play and smacked his former teammate lightly on his chest to acknowledge his words from the sidelines when the officials were not looking.
On the next timeout, Sochan tried to walk onto the court and talk to Wembanyama, but the French star gave him the ‘cold shoulder’ quite literally as he walked past him, smacking his shoulder on Sochan’s face, while coldly ignoring his words.
Wemby and his former teammate Jeremy Sochan on the Knicks bench 😯 pic.twitter.com/feLgiiMbn0
— ESPN (@espn) June 14, 2026
This intense sequence comes with a lot of context. Sochan was traded from the Spurs earlier this season and is the only player who will receive a championship ring, no matter which team wins the NBA Finals.
But he has not done anything significant in this series and only played three minutes during the Knicks’ historic Game 4 comeback without any contributions to the box score. So I don’t understand what warrants his trash-talk at this stage, even though the series is almost decided.
Earlier, before the NBA Finals began, Sochan boasted that his knowledge about the Spurs made him a lot more useful from the bench to help other players on his team.
“Whether I’m playing or not, it’s important to feed all the information I have,” Sochan said.
“Being that tall [Wembanyama] gets tired,” Sochan added. “Give him different looks and [not beat him up but] be very physical, and make him run. And he’s gonna get tired, he’s gonna have to take some plays off in my opinion.”
And now, Sochan is trying to get into Wembanyama’s head as the Knicks are one win away from winning their first NBA championship since 1973. He blamed the Spurs for not giving him any opportunities when he was with them, and now his team is on the verge of beating them at the biggest stage in the league.
While we do not know what exact information Sochan gave to the Knicks, whatever he did tell them seems to have worked so far. It will be interesting to see what Sochan has to say about his former team if New York clinches the championship tonight.
