Best of The Ben Maller Show

The NBA Finals ended over the weekend, and the San Antonio Spurs lost to the New York Knicks in five games. But the result itself is not the story Ben Maller wants to talk about. The story is how the Spurs lost—blowing double-digit leads in every game—and how their franchise player, Victor Wembanyama, handled the defeat. After the final buzzer, Wembanyama untucked his jersey, walked straight off the court without congratulating the Knicks, and headed to the locker room. Maller uses this moment as a launching point to argue that the NBA's marketing machine built up a myth around Wembanyama that the player himself shattered when the lights were brightest.

The Mythbusters Finals

Maller’s central argument is that the NBA spent the entire season telling everyone that Wembanyama was "built for the moment" and "different." Maller says he bought into it. But in the Finals, the story flipped. Wembanyama averaged 26 points, 11 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks for the series, which Maller dismisses as "box score humpers" data that misses the real story. The Spurs led by double digits in every single game of the series and lost four of five. Maller points out that Wembanyama made critical mistakes in at least three of the four losses, and when the game was on the line in the final minutes, he simply disappeared. "He was not taking a punch. He was not making a punch. He was out to brunch," Ma