Victor Wembanyama entered the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks with one of the cleanest public images in basketball, but Chris Broussard believes the series showed a more complicated side of his personality.
The San Antonio Spurs star still produced the kind of defensive impact and box-score numbers that make him the future of the league.
Yet the Finals also put him in front of a louder audience, harsher criticism, and a New York crowd that was ready to react to every complaint, stare and frustrated gesture.
That is where Broussard saw something different from the universal approval Wembanyama had carried into the postseason.
Chris Broussard says Victor Wembanyama looked less likable against the New York Knicks
Speaking on First Things First on X, Broussard said Wembanyama’s Finals showing changed how he viewed the Spurs star’s public appeal.
“He’s not as likable as everybody thought. Now, I still like him!… That was a little surprising to me because his approval rating seemed to be so high,” Broussard stated.
The point was not that Wembanyama suddenly became disliked across the league. Broussard was describing how quickly the tone around him shifted once he was in the Finals, losing to a Knicks team with a huge fan base and a physical defensive style.
Wembanyama had moments where his frustration with contact and officiating was visible. In a normal regular-season game, those reactions might fade quickly. In the Finals, with every possession clipped and debated, they became part of the conversation.
Victor Wembanyama’s NBA Finals frustration made San Antonio Spurs’ loss feel bigger
The Knicks beat the Spurs in five games, closing the series with a 94-90 Game 5 win in San Antonio.
Wembanyama finished that game with 19 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocks, but he shot 7-of-19 from the field and 1-of-6 from three. His defensive presence remained enormous, but the series ended with New York turning his first Finals trip into a difficult lesson.
That context matters for Broussard’s reaction. Wembanyama was not just a young star being introduced to a bigger stage, he was being measured as the league’s next face while dealing with a team and crowd that refused to treat him like a protected favorite.
The booing, physical play, and late-series pressure created a sharper public reading of him. His competitiveness, frustration and edge all became more visible.
For San Antonio, that is not necessarily a bad thing. Wembanyama may still be the NBA’s most exciting long-term player, but the Finals showed that being respected and being universally loved are not always the same thing.
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