James said<\/a>. \u201cYou ain\u2019t doing s\u2013t in San Antonio. Nothing at all. Nothing. And I mean nothing.\u201d<\/p>\nWas that a backhanded compliment or a blatant roast of the Deuce Dime city?<\/p>\n
The Knicks\u2019 Jalen Brunson (11) and the Spurs\u2019 Victor Wembanyama (1) have been battling during the NBA Finals. Getty Images<\/p>\n
James argued that starting the Finals in Texas helped the Knicks avoid the distractions that would have come with opening at home in New York, where celebrities, ticket requests and nonstop media attention can quickly overwhelm a team.<\/p>\n
The four-time NBA champion painted the city as basketball\u2019s version of a productivity retreat. No red carpets. No Club Room at Soho Grand. No endless social calendar. Just basketball.<\/p>\n
San Antonio doesn\u2019t offer much besides great basketball, LeBron James said recently. SeanPavonePhoto \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n
Even when co-host Steve Nash attempted to rescue San Antonio\u2019s reputation by bringing up the famous River Walk, James wasn\u2019t interested.<\/p>\n
\u201cHell, no,\u201d James replied. \u201cYou get on a River Walk, f\u2014 around and fall in the water.\u201d<\/p>\n
His larger point was that San Antonio\u2019s lack of distractions creates ideal conditions for focusing on winning basketball.<\/p>\n
Fans raise a poster during an NBA Finals game between the Knicks and the Spurs. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
And history backs it up.<\/p>\n
The Spurs built one of the NBA\u2019s model franchises under Tim Duncan and Gregg Popovich, winning five championships while becoming famous for a culture that prioritized basketball over celebrity. <\/p>\n
Duncan is often characterized as one of the NBA\u2019s most boring superstars for his stoic demeanor and methodical play style. <\/p>\n
Tim Duncan helped lead the Spurs to five NBA titles, including two over LeBron James. Getty Images<\/p>\n
James knows this reality better than most. He lost two NBA Finals series in San Antonio and spent his early years in the league trying to overcome the Spurs\u2019 dynasty.<\/p>\n
And now the Spurs seem to be doing it all over again with Victor Wembanyama. <\/p>\n
But while San Antonio may be the city where \u201cnothing\u201d happens, the Spurs spent Monday night proving their team is capable of a gobsmacking comeback. <\/p>\n
Behind another dazzling performance from Wembanyama, San Antonio marched into the city that never sleeps and turned what looked like a one-sided NBA Finals into a real fight. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LeBron James may have delivered the most hilarious endorsement San Antonio has received in years \u2014 but it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":331537,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3267,23008,6393,3080,6396,82,84,83,1066,154],"class_list":["post-331536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-california","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-nba","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-san-antonio-spurs","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331536","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=331536"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331536\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/331537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=331536"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=331536"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=331536"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}