Mike Finger

Dinner with Gregg Popovich in 2021 taught Mitch Johnson important lesson Five years ago at a somber coaching staff dinner with Gregg Popovich, nobody at the table could have seen how quick the vibes would change with Victor Wembanyama.

Mitch Johnson told me a story today about a Gregg Popovich staff dinner during a particularly low time for the Spurs. It helps explain why the coach of the NBA’s hottest team is embracing the hype, and everything that comes with it.

Gift link:

www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

This is one of the videos the NYT has verified and links to in their reporting.

NYT: "Video verified by [NYT] showed ... rescuers digging through the rubble with building cranes and shovels, and piles of bloodied, dusty backpacks."

www.nytimes.com/2026/02/28/w...

Checked the quote tweets to make sure nobody beat me to this. (Also I scored like 12 points against Iraan in a previous century.)

Outside the cage.

Inside the cage.

Many of our younger (under 45) podcast listeners ask why we refer to the Spurs as the local cagers. The retro practice court here at Nike headquarters in Manhattan provides an illustration.

Spurs are in the media capital of the world and Trump started a war. Hard not to imagine the Pop monologue we’re missing.

How Keldon Johnson’s boom box has Spurs celebrating the present When Keldon Johnson is “OK with” something? That means he embraces it the only way he knows how, which is joyfully and loudly and with all of his soul.

Wrote about Keldon Johnson’s popped shoulder, and his ridiculous boom box, and about celebrating the present even when everybody is focused on the future.
www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

Victor Wembanyama, workshopping Comedy Cellar material. NY reporter asks how he blocks out noise of being a favorite in the West.

“How do I block out the noise? You’re the first person to tell me about it. Somebody take his mic.”

Yes I’m taking this tweet out of context but it’s hilarious what it says about a guy putting up a 12-7-5-2-2 line for a team cruising to its 11th win in a row.

Calling a basketball team that cannot score the Nets is so funny. It would be like calling the Giants (or Jets) the New York Endzones.

Sometimes we tend to exaggerate when it comes to the number of fans Wemby draws on the road. But I legit think the Spurs have a bigger chunk of this Brooklyn crowd than the Nets do.

Sounds like a neutral-site Elite Eight game.

Barclays Center

Got to the gym way too early because of the democratic socialist-cleared sidewalks and the democratic socialist-run express train that was way too on time.

Dystopian nightmare.

Every press conference after the aggregators and plagiarism robots take our jobs:

Victor Wembanyama, MVP? Why it’s not as unlikely as you think. There is a very real — and perhaps even strong — possibility that Victor Wembanyama is about to become the youngest MVP in the history of the NBA.

Also, against my better judgment and many of my stated values, I wrote about Wemby and MVP odds here. I don’t think people realize how little it would take (two missed Joker games, one SGA setback) for him to become the legit frontrunner.

bit.ly/46XjLk0

They’re jinx-proof!

tweet: “i wrote ‘i am alive’ on a piece of paper, and placed it into a photocopier. what i saw next has shocking implications.”

Congrats, Christina!

(They probably were not right.)

A team with a bunch of guys who’ve never won in the NBA before is not supposed to keep looking this good. It’s insane, frankly. And every time I warn people that it can’t possibly last, because of everything we know about history, they go out and look even better.

Spurs had 81 and 84 in back-to-back first halves a couple of weeks ago.

To today’s kids, this score is more inconceivable than Wilt’s 100.

Mitch Johnson delegates his between-quarters national TV interview to an assistant.

Gregg Popovich, presumably having located Peacock on his vintage RCA living room television set, asks aloud, “You can do that?”

Looks like this lovely snow day is sending people to Bluesky! Here's a basketball starter pack, follow one and follow all if you need good NBA/WNBA/ball accounts to follow

go.bsky.app/FGmgtea

Vic just did a double-clutch, 7-foot-5 Michael Jordan thing, then got his Horns up with both hands.

I nodded for two and a half minutes straight.

They very much wanted the Collins thing to happen and it never even came close to working.

This is interesting, and confirms the eye test. The Spurs are very, very good with either of their two centers playing alone, and there’s no need to force the pairing (or the nickname).

All of that could have been thrown into turmoil Thursday night if Spurs center Luke Kornet hadn't stopped his well-intentioned French teammate from committing the ultimate University of Texas faux pas. Wembanyama was about to look up at the crowd and flash a "Hook'em Horns" hand sign: With his index finger and pinky pointed toward the floor. "He thought (Horns) down was the way to do it," Kornet said. "I said, 'Oh, no, no. Definitely not. Don't do that.""

How Victor Wembanyama's diagnosis solved a mystery and left him grateful The reason he was so exhausted last February wasn’t because his conditioning was poor, or because he wasn’t tough enough to withstand the rigors of an 82-game season.

Some tidbits herein:

How Luke Kornet stopped Victor Wembanyama from committing a huge Horns-down blunder;

What Wemby finally confirmed about his blood clot;

Why those details are so reassuring.

www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...

With the rout on in the fourth quarter, Austin now getting to watch 3/4 of MmmBOP in action.

Why Spurs fans in San Antonio have no reason for Austin angst anymore The Spurs have belonged to San Antonio for more than 50 years, and they’re almost certainly going to belong to San Antonio for at least 50 more.

Wrote about murals, and tacos, and why Spurs fans in San Antonio have no reason to worry about Austin stealing their team anymore.

www.expressnews.com/sports/spurs...