![\"Julian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2182214934-scaled-e1780835824902.jpg\")
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Spurs guard Julian Champagnie is averaging 11.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in the playoffs.<\/p>\n
SAN ANTONIO \u2013 When the Philadelphia 76ers waived Julian Champagnie on Feb. 15, 2023, he didn\u2019t know what was next for his NBA career.<\/p>\n
He dreaded the worst-case scenario.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought it was over, I ain\u2019t going to lie to you.,\u201d Champagnie said. \u201cWe\u2019re always told how small the window is to get your foot in the league and stay there and make a career for yourself.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting waived with no warning, no nothing, no explanation or anything, it was tough for a 22-year-old kid who was just thinking I was going to chase my dreams and telling myself you could do this. Obviously, I had no clue where I was going to end up. My agent told me it could be anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anywhere turned out to be with the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n
The Spurs claimed Champagnie off of waivers the following day, and in the redemptive words of Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter in the classic song St. Stephen: \u201cOne man gathers what another man spills.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spurs saw Champagnie\u2019s potential.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put my head down and said, \u2018Make it work. Whatever they give you, make it work. Whatever they need you to do, make it work. And just find that spot on the team,\u2019 \u201d Champagnie said. \u201cI feel like the best thing about me, I try to just fit in where I can. And I think that\u2019s what I did when I got here. And it\u2019s been treating me good so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Champagnie, 24, developed into a starter and key contributor to San Antonio\u2019s ascent alongside Victor Wembanyama.<\/p>\n
In the playoffs, Champagnie is the Spurs\u2019 sixth-leading scorer at 11.4 points per game plus 5.9 rebounds per game while shooting 45% from the field and 40.2% on 3-pointers. In Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals, he had 10 points and was a plus-24 in his 25 minutes, and in Game 7, he scored 20 points, including 18 on 6-for-10 3-point shooting.<\/p>\n
He continued his hot 3-point shooting in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, scoring 16 points on 5-for-10 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love my teammates, love the coaching staff, love everybody at the organization,\u201d Champagnie said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great place to be. There\u2019s no better place that I could be, honestly, truly. So shoutout to the San Antonio Spurs on taking (a chance) on a kid from Brooklyn.\u201d<\/p>\n
The guy from Brooklyn returns to New York for Games 3 and 4 of the Finals, and the Spurs, down 2-0 in the series, will need Champagnie\u2019s shooting if they want to send the series back to San Antonio.<\/p>\n
Regardless of the Spurs\u2019 situation, Champagnie is thrilled to play the Knicks in Madison Square Garden in the Finals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s every kid\u2019s dream,\u201d he said. \u201cI remember my first time playing in the Garden. I was at St. John\u2019s. I was just in awe of how much greatness has gone through there and what that means for a kid from the city. Being able to go back there and compete for a championship, there\u2019s no better feeling. No better feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n
He played high school ball at Bishop Loughlin and spent three seasons at St. John\u2019s. He brings the hard-earned lessons of New York City playground basketball to the NBA.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to win or you can\u2019t go back on the court for a while,\u201d he said. \u201cThen obviously there\u2019s no foul calls out there. They\u2019re not giving you no weak fouls, especially when you\u2019re playing with the older guys. There\u2019s a lot of trash-talking, a lot of physical stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cFiguring out how you can play on those courts, definitely I feel like it translates into playing on the NBA court. Obviously, the talent is different. But you take little tidbits, the trash-talk, the physicality, perseverance and how to get through and actually win a game. You take those things with you throughout your whole career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Champagnie entered the 2022 NBA draft but was not selected. The Sixers signed him to a two-way contract, and he appeared in just two games for Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The Spurs pounced when the Sixers waived him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I got here, Coach Pop (Gregg Popovich) told me I had a niche, which is shooting the basketball,\u201d Champagnie said. \u201cThere were other areas of my game I had to work on \u2013 being more nasty, rebounding, playing defense, stuff like that. That\u2019s been the working point since.\u201d<\/p>\n
After San Antonio defeated the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 7 of the Western Conference finals, Spurs coach Mitch Johnson raved about Champagnie\u2019s contributions.<\/p>\n
\u201cJulian has been phenomenal,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cHe\u2019s had games where he\u2019s missed shots and he\u2019s had double-digit rebounds. His spacing causes gravity, whether he makes shots or not. And at times when we haven\u2019t scored, he\u2019s made huge shots. He\u2019s been an absolute unsung hero because some of those other guys have the basketball in their hands more and they\u2019re probably a part of maybe more highlights other than making threes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd Julian\u2019s been an integral part of our team defense, team rebounding and all that leads to us playing fast, which is our best version of our offense. And when he\u2019s the recipient of it, he usually makes it, but he\u2019s been absolutely phenomenal.\u201d<\/p>\n
From wondering whether he\u2019d play another NBA game to playing in the NBA Finals in his hometown, Champagnie found his place in league. He set a Spurs single-season record with 195 made 3s in 2025-26 and set a franchise single-game record with 11 3s against the Knicks on Dec. 31.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be who I am today without the Spurs organization,\u201d he said. \u201cI give a lot of credit \u2013 really all the credit to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
* * *<\/p>\n
Jeff Zillgitt has covered the NBA since 2008. You can email him at\u00a0jzillgitt@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Spurs guard Julian Champagnie is averaging 11.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game in the playoffs. SAN ANTONIO…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,349508,85],"class_list":["post-721056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals-julian-champagnie","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}