Best of The Ben Maller Show

June 11, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The San Antonio Spurs held a 29-point lead in the fourth quarter of Game 4 of the NBA Finals. They lost. Ben Maller spends the episode performing a forensic autopsy on what he calls a "biblical meltdown," arguing that the collapse was not a case of the Knicks stealing a win but of the Spurs actively giving it away through a self-destructive addiction to the three-point shot and a complete abandonment of fundamental basketball.

The Anatomy of a Choke

Maller is emphatic that this was not a comeback the Knicks earned. "They didn't come back," he says. "They just waited for the Spurs to choke on their own." He assigns the Knicks only 5% of the credit for the rally. The rest belongs to San Antonio's catastrophic decision-making. From the moment the Spurs went up 29 points with 9:40 left in the third quarter, they were outscored 55-25. The numbers are brutal: they shot 2-of-15 from three-point range (13.3%) and 6-of-35 from the floor overall (17.1%) during that stretch, while committing eight turnovers. Maller calls it a "collapse combo meal."

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What you'll learn

1 (03:10) **Spurs' Historic 29-Point Blown Lead in NBA Finals** - Ben Maller opens with the San Antonio Spurs' catastrophic collapse against the Knicks in Game 4, turning a 29-point lead into a 107-106 loss.
2 (08:00) **Mitch Johnson's Coaching Failure** - Ben blames the Spurs' coach for the collapse, calling him "Professor Doom" and suggesting he should be fired mid-series.
3 (11:21) **Wembanyama and Fox's Collapse** - Ben breaks down the individual failures of the Spurs' stars during the 29-point blown lead.
4 (13:34) **The "Speakeasy of Sports Suck"** - Ben jokes that the Spurs have earned a spot in a fictional bar with other historic choke artists like the 28-3 Falcons and the 2004 Yankees.
5 (13:51) **Knicks Get Only 5% Credit** - Ben argues the Knicks didn't "come back" so much as the Spurs choked, giving New York minimal credit for the win.
6 (15:46) **Series is Over: The "Refrigerator" Call** - Ben declares the NBA Finals effectively over, with the Knicks up 3-1 and the Spurs showing "surrender cobra" body language.
7 (21:57) **Patrick Mahomes' Record $504M Contract** - Ben discusses the Chiefs' reworked deal making Mahomes the first NFL player to exceed half a billion dollars, tying him through 2033.

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Show Notes

Big Ben talks about who gets the blame for the San Antonio Spurs blowing a 29-point lead for the biggest collapse in NBA Finals history, Patrick Mahomes getting over $500M in a reworked deal with the Chiefs, Maller to the Third Degree, #AskBen, and more!

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