{"id":258106,"date":"2026-06-07T12:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T12:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/258106\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T12:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T12:18:10","slug":"julian-champagnies-winding-road-from-brooklyn-to-nba-finals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/258106\/","title":{"rendered":"Julian Champagnie’s winding road from Brooklyn to NBA Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victor Wembanyama<\/a> sat at the podium, shook his head and paused for a beat.<\/p>\n

His San Antonio Spurs<\/a> had just earned a hard-fought Game 7 victory over the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder, clinching a spot in the NBA Finals, and a reporter asked about teammate Julian Champagnie<\/a>\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama took a moment to find the right words.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulian\u2019s amazing,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cHe deserves everything he gets. He\u2019s the type of guy that makes you want to die for him on the court because he gives so much effort. And he\u2019s got such an amazing story.\u201d<\/p>\n

That story started in Brooklyn, where Champagnie and his twin brother, Justin \u2014 now of the Washington Wizards \u2014 grew up in Kensington and starred at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene.<\/p>\n

It continued at St. John\u2019s<\/a>, where Champagnie was a three-year starter and standout scorer from 2019-22.<\/p>\n

And now, after a series of twists and turns \u2014 a surprise roster cut followed by well-earned redemption \u2014 Champagnie\u2019s story has taken him to the NBA Finals, where he\u2019s facing his hometown team, the Knicks<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After the Knicks won the first two games in San Antonio, the series shifts to New York on Monday night for Game 3 at Madison Square Garden.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my first time actually playing in the Garden,\u201d Champagnie, 24, said ahead of the Finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was at St. John\u2019s, and I was just in awe of how much greatness has gone through there and what that means for a kid from the city. Being that now we get to play against them for a championship, that\u2019s personal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Over four seasons with the Spurs, the 6-7 Champagnie has carved out an important \u2014 if not unsung \u2014 role as a shooter and defender.<\/p>\n

Champagnie\u2019s ability to knock down open 3-pointers makes him a perfect complement to the 7-4 Wembanyama, who commands as much defensive attention as anyone in the league.<\/p>\n

And Champagnie\u2019s Brooklyn-bred swagger has proven to be a separator in these playoffs when the lights have gotten brighter and the games have become more tense.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a kid growing up in Brooklyn, I feel like it just gives him a certain edge and a certain toughness and a certain mindset to go into the game and be like, \u2018I don\u2019t come from much,\u2019\u201d Justin Champagnie told the Daily News.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look at it like we come from a concrete jungle, and we always have to put our backs to the wall to fight for what we want. \u2026 We\u2019re born in Brooklyn, born and raised, played in all of these park tournaments, played in the toughest areas. The biggest stages don\u2019t really phase us.\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t always this way.<\/p>\n

As his brother tells it, Julian was funny but the quieter of the Champagnie twins growing up, while Justin was a bit more outgoing.<\/p>\n

And as The News spoke to people who knew Champagnie best at different stages of his life \u2014 his brother, his high-school coach, his lead recruiter at St. John\u2019s \u2014 they all said he managed to level up his game whenever he became more confident.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s very cerebral,\u201d his father, Ranford Champagnie, told The News. \u201cHe thinks a lot. Sometimes he overthinks, but he thinks a lot. He tries to do the best for the big picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t take long for Bishop Loughlin basketball coach Ed Gonzalez to realize the Champagnie twins were special.<\/p>\n

Beyond their obvious talent, both had the work ethic to match. Even as a teenager, Julian\u2019s even-keeled persona and consistency stood out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always in the gym,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThey would be here at 7 o\u2019clock in the morning before school started, putting up shots, both of them. They would compete against one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis vision \u2014 he saw the game differently at an early age. That\u2019s what I saw. And he was an awesome teammate. It\u2019s not on the box scores, but he was an awesome teammate. He just wanted to make everybody around him better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NEWJulian Champagnie starred at St. John’s from 2019-22. (Photo by Tim Nwachukwu\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The Champagnies were well-regarded amongst the area\u2019s high-level competition \u2014 a talent pool that included now-Knicks guard Jose Alvarado, who faced the twins while playing for Queens\u2019 Christ the King.<\/p>\n

But while Julian was a three-star recruit in the Class of 2019, his brother was considered the better college prospect.<\/p>\n

Justin committed to Pittsburgh, while Julian, not receiving the same level of power-conference interest, considered playing post-grad at the Brewster Academy prep school in New Hampshire.<\/p>\n

That was until St. John\u2019s hired Mike Anderson as head coach and Van Macon as an assistant.<\/p>\n

Macon, who is from Queens, had continued to recruit out of New York while he was at his previous stop at Saint Louis University. He was eminently familiar with the Champagnie twins.<\/p>\n

When Macon started at St. John\u2019s, his first recruiting call was to Ranford Champagnie, who played soccer for the Johnnies in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n

The Red Storm\u2019s message to Julian was simple.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was more, \u2018Listen, we\u2019re gonna let you play through your mistakes. We\u2019re gonna stick by you. As you grow, the program\u2019s gonna grow, and we\u2019re all gonna grow together,\u2019\u201d Macon told The News.<\/p>\n

\u201cMike Anderson also believed in that, and he stuck to that. Julian\u2019s whole freshman year, he stuck [with him] through ups and downs. He still stayed in his corner, and I think that\u2019s what gave Julian the confidence to say, \u2018Hey, I think I\u2019m going to be pretty good at this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Champagnie averaged 16.0 points per game in 88 appearances, including 81 starts, in his three seasons at St. John\u2019s.<\/p>\n

He averaged at least 19.2 points per game in each of his final two seasons and was named to the All-Big East first team both times.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was halfway through his freshman year when he stopped dwelling on every little mistake he made and just kind of played,\u201d Macon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs his confidence grew, he just kept doing more and more and kept getting better and better. Honestly, for some kids, once you feel like you\u2019ve arrived, you kind of take your foot off the pedal. The better Julian got, the harder he kept working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Champagnie went undrafted in 2022, then signed a two-way contract with the Philadelphia 76ers that summer.<\/p>\n

Over 18 games with the Sixers\u2019 G League affiliate, Champagnie played well, averaging 14.3 points per game and shooting 35.2% on 3-pointers. He made his NBA debut that season, appearing in two games with the Sixers that November.<\/p>\n

But in a move that blindsided him, the Sixers waived Champagnie on Feb. 14, 2023, to clear a roster spot for Mac McClung.<\/p>\n

McClung, already a G League journeyman at that point, was set to represent the 76ers in the NBA Slam Dunk Contest later that week. McClung would win that year\u2019s dunk contest \u2014 and the next two \u2014 but has never caught on as an NBA player.<\/p>\n

The decision left Champagnie doubting his NBA future.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was home, and I actually helped him move some of his stuff from Philly. Obviously, he was devastated,\u201d said Justin Champagnie, who had been waived by the Toronto Raptors less than two months earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe thought it was the end. He thought it was over. He thought that he played amazing in the G League, and that they wouldn\u2019t do that to him. Obviously, you don\u2019t have to tell him, like, it\u2019s a business. The faster you realize it, the faster you can bounce back.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Champagnie did.<\/p>\n

Shortly after his release, Champagnie signed a two-way contract with the Spurs, a rebuilding team with playing time up for grabs.<\/p>\n

Champagnie made 15 appearances for the Spurs, starting three, over the final five weeks of that season, and he impressed enough to sign a four-year, $12 million contract the following summer.<\/p>\n

He continued to blossom in the ensuing years, developing into a reliable role player as the Spurs hit the lottery with draft picks of Stephon Castle, Wembanyama and Dylan Harper.<\/p>\n

Champagnie made 178 3-pointers in 2024-25, then set a single-season franchise record by making 195 this season.<\/p>\n

That included a career-best 36-point eruption against the Knicks on Dec. 31 in which Champagnie shot 11-of-17 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

Champagnie appeared in all 82 games this past regular season, starting 68, and averaged 11.1 points per game and shot 38.1% from deep.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s proven to be a perfect fit for the Western Conference champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a tight-knit family, and our support for each other is just as tight,\u201d Ranford Champagnie said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he\u2019s in that kind of atmosphere, where the Spurs provide that kind of support system for him \u2014 guys are always positive, always rooting him on \u2014 it\u2019s a family atmosphere at the Spurs. That\u2019s what he came from and he kind of built on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SANJulian Champagnie made five 3-pointers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Knicks. (Photo by Gregory Shamus\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Champagnie has been even better in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s made multiple 3-pointers in 17 of the Spurs\u2019 20 playoff games.<\/p>\n

In Game 7 against the Thunder, Champagnie shot 6-of-10 from 3-point range and scored 20 points, just two shy of Wembanyama\u2019s team high.<\/p>\n

And in Game 1 against the Knicks, Champagnie shot 5-of-10 on 3-pointers, tying him for the second-most made 3-pointers in an NBA Finals debut.<\/p>\n

That game included a sequence in which Alvarado made a 3-pointer over Champagnie, and then Champagnie answered with a corner 3-pointer over Alvarado.<\/p>\n

As the old high-school rivals made their ways back up the court, Champagnie flashed a smile as he delivered some trash talk to a nodding Alvarado.<\/p>\n

It was a very visual reminder of just how far Champagnie has come.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful thing,\u201d his mother, Christina Champagnie, told The News. \u201cI\u2019m enjoying every moment of it. It\u2019s the best feeling in the world to see this happen for him.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Victor Wembanyama sat at the podium, shook his head and paused for a beat. His San Antonio Spurs…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,34500,10663,21,37011,9,24,63,61699,10221],"class_list":["post-258106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-julian-champagnie","tag-knicks","tag-nba","tag-nba-finals","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-spurs","tag-victor-wembanyama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}