AILSA CHANG, HOST:
All right. The San Antonio Spurs are ahead of schedule. That is the consensus from those covering the NBA. And for good reason, the 7'4 French superstar of the Spurs, Victor Wembanyama, and the young supporting cast, have all done something that has not been done before in franchise history. That is, reach the NBA finals without head coach Gregg Popovich. Wembanyama - AKA Wemby - was asked all about the pressure.
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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you feel the weight of just those legends in the building, or those guys, you know, putting their arms around you and what this means to this franchise and all of them?
VICTOR WEMBANYAMA: I wouldn't say weight, no. I would say feel safe (laughter).
CHANG: Wemby's response reflects the culture of the San Antonio Spurs. But what is behind that culture? Well, Kirk Goldsberry has a clue. He is a basketball writer who previously worked for the Spurs. Welcome, welcome.
KIRK GOLDSBERRY: Hello. It's good to be here.
CHANG: Hello. Good to have you. OK, so what did you make of Wemby's comment there on feeling safe? Like, what do you think he meant by that word?
GOLDSBERRY: I think he feels like he's in a caring environment. And that doesn't surprise me. It's one of the pillars of the Spurs culture, is empathy and caring. And that came from Gregg Popovich himself. And I think coach Popovich, who has a very interesting background as a graduate of the Air Force Academy, studied leadership and has been very intentional throughout his incredible career about developing a culture around leadership and followership. And he's brought this caring and this pound-the-rock mentality to the San Antonio Spurs even after his retirement from coaching and sort of new role as El Jefe, so to speak...
CHANG: (Laughter).
GOLDSBERRY: ...Those are his words, not mine.
CHANG: Yeah.
GOLDSBERRY: In the Spurs front office.
CHANG: You use the phrase pound the rock in the same sentence as caring and empathy. (Laughter) Can you explain the combo there.
GOLDSBERRY: Yeah. So there was a story of a stonecutter that coach Popovich loves to tell everybody in the program. And the stonecutter works all day long, pounding the rock and pounding the rock and pounding the rock, until one time the rock gives, and it cleaves. And the stonecutter knows, the wisdom of the stonecutter knows, it wasn't the last blow that cut the rock. It was all of the work...
CHANG: Oh.
GOLDSBERRY: ...That he spent that day. So it's an ode to process.
CHANG: I love that metaphor. Well, I am curious - you know, to apply coach Popovich's sort of ideas of process, empathy, compassion - how you balance a superstar like Wembanyama with the whole team? Because, I mean, Wembanyama - Wemby - he's this once-in-a-generation player, right? How has the team managed to play sort of foundational Spurs basketball while also giving Wemby room to play his game?
GOLDSBERRY: I would give some flowers to Victor Wembanyama, who is ahead of schedule just as a human being. He's a 22-year-old man from Paris, France, who is one of the most sort of sophisticated young athletes I've ever seen. The Spurs literally won the lottery to draft this guy.
CHANG: Yeah.
GOLDSBERRY: But they also won the lottery in the sense that this person came ready to sort of be the perfect professional athlete. And it's just been a match made in heaven.
CHANG: OK. Well, put on your basketball writer hat on because the finals start tonight in Texas. Spurs versus the Knicks. What do you think each team needs for success?
GOLDSBERRY: Yeah. The Spurs need to do what they just did in the last round, which was shut down the MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. And in this series against the Knicks, they're confronted with another such player, Jalen Brunson, who is a fantastic guard but does most of his damage in the two-point area. So they need to win the battle against Jalen Brunson on defense. The Knicks need to do what they're really good at, which is spreading the floor and punishing defenses from beyond the arc. So they need to shoot it well.
CHANG: Kirk Goldsberry. He's a basketball writer and professor at the University of Texas. Thank you so much.
GOLDSBERRY: Thank you.
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