Add The New York Post on Google Victor Wembanyama’s reaction to Game 5 was a “little too crazy” for Jose Alvarado.
The French phenom, as has been discussed widely, did not shake hands with Knicks players after his Spurs lost a decisive Game 5 of the NBA Finals.
And Alvarado was not a fan of Wembanyama’s behavior after the Knicks clinched their Finals win.
“I got mixed emotions. I’m a competitor too, but I also stare my enemies down. I look forward to them, and I shake their hand,” Alvarado said on 105.1 FM’s “The Breakfast Club.”
“It’s a game. You don’t like the moment. You lost probably the biggest game of your career, but you’re going to have more moments. I feel like the way he did it was a little too crazy for me.”
Alvarado continued: “I loved how he competed during the game. Obviously, people didn’t like how he was being aggressive, but we’re fighting for something. Between the lines, I feel like anything is cool. Outside the lines, shake hands and call it what it is.”
The newly crowned Defensive Player of the Year became something of a New York villain during the series, in which he pushed the envelope with his physical play and was lucky to avoid getting a flagrant foul for a shove on Jalen Brunson.
Knicks guard Jose Alvarado on “The Breakfast Club” The Breakfast Club/YouTube Notably, Josh Hart said after the series that another of Wembanyama’s post-game reactions – after beating the Thunder in the Western Conference finals – made him confident the Knicks would win the title.
Following that Game 7 win, Wembanyama tearfully embraced his Spurs teammates after clinching a spot in the Finals.
Hart took it as a sign they were looking past the Knicks.
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“Everyone’s talking to them about, ‘Yo, they’ve got to beat OKC. OKC’s going to repeat,’” Hart said Friday during a live “The Roommates Show” episode with Brunson at MSG. “They beat OKC. For a young team, I feel like that was the mountaintop for them.
“That’s when I looked at (Brunson) and I was like, ‘You see that reaction? Because like they think they’re going to win it. They think it’s over.’”
Of course, that wasn’t the case as the Knicks went on to beat the Spurs in five games, including an historic comeback from 29 points down in Game 4.