The Herd with Colin Cowherd
THE HERD - Hour 1 - The Knicks did the impossible last night
11 Jun 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What incredible comeback did the Knicks achieve in the NBA Finals?
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Chapter 2: How did the Spurs perform in the first half of the game?
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Day one, World Cup, hours away, and what in the world did we watch last night? I witnessed the hand of God, and it was not Diego Maradona in 1986. Wow. Wow. Listen, too often in my business, our business, people blame coaches. I don't like it. A lot of factors. This one, though, that loss last night, that's on Mitch Johnson, Spurs head coach.
San Antonio was brilliant, throwing up threes in the first half. It felt like they hit all of them. They raced out to a massive 27-point lead in the garden. And then you have to coach differently and get into the bonus and take higher percentage shots. Feed Wemby down low. Get him closer to the basket. No. Instead, 13 threes in the third quarter. Good God.
They were in the bonus with eight minutes left in the fourth, and they took one shot from that point on San Antonio in the paint. You've got Wemby. By the way, Wemby played almost the entire second half. He was completely gassed. You have a double figures lead, one day's rest, on the road, find him three and a half minutes into the third quarter. I mean, the guy was gassed.
He gives you such an effort on the defensive end. De'Aaron Fox, that appears to be a problem. Why is De'Aaron Fox have more touches than any other player on your team? Why is Dylan Harper attempting no shots in the last 10 minutes? Play Fox less and Dylan Harper more. What is happening? Get Dylan Harper on the ball. It's called coaching. I don't want to pick on De'Aaron Fox.
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Chapter 3: What coaching decisions impacted the Spurs' performance?
But I mean, so much of last night would drive you crazy. Like, Wemby is such a defensive maven. You got to find him two or three minutes of rest. He played almost the entire second half. It'd be one thing if it was a tight game. You led by double figures. You led by 27 at half. So age and experience matters a lot. And we discussed, you discussed the Spurs youth being a problem.
Not only was it a problem, but we have to remember Mitch Johnson's also a rookie. Oh, he coached a little last year, but this is his team. He's a rookie head coach. First time in the finals. And this has been ugly. I get blowing leads. It's the three ball era. I get blowing leads. But we got to contextualize how you're blowing them. You can't get Wemby a three to four minute stretch off.
You can't get Dylan Harper a shot. You're in the bonus with eight minutes left, eight minutes left. You take one shot in the paint and you got the best seven foot four player in the history of the sport. That's not just, and listen, I'm not taking anything away from the Knicks, but this finals, and I don't think San Antonio can come back.
This finals is going to be about as much about the Spurs blowing leads as As the Knicks win in games. And that's just... I mean, the Spurs have blown five playoff leads. Double-digit leads in the playoffs. That's tied for the most ever. Again, they're young. I get it. The coach was young. I mean, they've led in the final two minutes in every game against the Knicks. And they got one win.
And it was a close win. So they were just... And again, we too often blame... We do this with football coaches every week. We blame the refs or we blame the coach. It's mostly on the players. But with a young team... With a super historically young team, they need guidance. Bonus, eight minutes left.
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Chapter 4: Why is De'Aaron Fox's performance under scrutiny?
Wemby, get to the brick. Wemby, get to the block. I'm calling a timeout. I got to get Dylan Harper a couple looks. De'Aaron Fox can't have the most touches. He's having a rough night. I mean, 30 points in the second half. And I got, I mean, I got talent. I've got the best collection of young talent in basketball on one team. Spurs have the most young talent in the world.
You can't give me 30 points in the second half. Just not good enough. It's not taking anything away from the Knicks. But you have a 27-point lead at half. You've got to coach differently. You can't be jacking up 12 threes. Here was Wemby after the loss.
holding each other accountable, communicating, not pointing fingers.
And after that, we either got it or we don't.
But, you know, we've proven that we can surpass these difficulties. And even though we haven't been there before, I'm convinced we're built this way and we're going to use the better of this and it's going to tighten us up.
All right, let's talk next. So I have said and gotten some pushback when people ask me the best Knicks player. And I have been saying this since the start of the playoffs. It's not Bronson. He's the best finisher. OG is their best player. I've talked to scouts and GMs about OG. I think he's the most underrated player in the league, has been perhaps in Toronto as well.
They kind of stole him from Toronto. He is classy, big. They just don't build humans that look like that. He'll D you up. He'll D your three up. He'll D your five up. He can score. He is just so unique, so good on both ends. Last night, he was magical. 33 points, 7-3, 67%. If you did not see it live, and they start these games way too late for all of us, but I just want to give you the setup.
27 down at half. First, he's got the big three to cut it to four. Then he's got the big block. And then there is this. Ananobi far sideline inbound from midcourt. Schammett, Bridges, Brunson, Towns. All it takes is a two to make history in New York City. 5.7 left. No timeouts remaining. Ananobi has handed the ball. Finds Brunson at midcourt. Launches a straight on three. Missed it short.
Tipped by Ananobi. He put it in. Ananobi put it in. The Knicks take the lead with 1.2 to go. sports gives you these moments that if you scripted them it would feel too contrived down 27 young spurs crumbling josh hart misses a dunk and one guy og from a three to a block to the hand of og a remarkable kid what a moment i mean it's like cue the chariots of fire music.
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Chapter 5: What role did Wemby play in the game and how did fatigue affect him?
And what I love about this Knicks team is just like the Nuggets that won a title or the Celtics or the older Warriors or OKC last year. It's not an all-time team. It's an all-time run. They've trailed with two minutes left in every game. But it is a collection of players. None wants to take the credit.
From previously flaky cat to massively undervalued Josh Hart and OG to the scrappy and great Jalen Brunson. Even after that tip, the biggest basketball shot in New York in 30 years. Listen how humble this kid is.
You just hit the game-winning shot in an NBA Finals game in front of your home crowd. How does that feel?
It feels cool. I mean, everyone's pretty excited. I'm excited, too. I'm excited, too. We're all excited. We're enjoying it right now, but we're just focused on the next game now.
He has the highest true shooting percentage of any player, any player in the Finals since 2012. Fourteen years. And that's his reaction. And that tip in was not easy. OK, that should be a poster in every town, home and apartment in New York City for the next decade. Just an unbelievable moment. And it's you know what?
One of the reasons this thing works, it's not just because this Knicks team is not a draft and develop team. It's a trade and acquire team. And one of the reasons it really works is that their best player, if you went to every GM in the league and said you get one Knick, I'm telling you, OG is the one the GMs talk about. In a league of three and D guys, big, strong, physical, humble players.
The reason this thing works in New York, I know y'all think it's Jalen Brunson, and he's terrific. It's OG. He's going to win the MVP. 6'8", 7'3", wingspan, can defend virtually everybody outside of the point, rebound, tip, hit threes, blocks. And there are just certain times with young athletes, you root for them.
And I remember when he got traded and reading a couple of stories when he got traded from the Raptors, and the Raptors were well run. And people are like, did they steal him? Yeah, last night. Validating, they kind of stole him.
So, you know, what's interesting about that, J-Mac, even when the Knicks were down 27 at half, it wasn't one of those where I was like, okay, I'm going to give this five minutes. I just kept thinking, okay, they've been down double figures in these games because of the youth. I mean, everybody, including the head coach, is young for San Antonio.
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Chapter 6: How did the Knicks manage to turn the game around?
So you get real spikes with San Antonio. They're brilliant. I mean, the first quarter, In the first half, if they threw the ball up from three, it was going in. They just played a remarkable first half. But as a coach, you have to realize, even if you had Katie, Steph, and Clay in their prime, you don't have four quarters of brilliant three-point shooting. You know, we got to lead, guys.
We're going to still be aggressive. But let's get into the bonus. Let's take higher percentage shots. We'll trade threes for twos. We're going to win this game. I thought they almost out-thought the room and thought, well, we're going to be aggressive. Just keep shooting threes. It's like, guys, that's as well as you're going to ever shoot. On the road against a good team three-pointers.
You had a magical, magical half of basketball. You're not going to duplicate it in New York. It was unbelievable that he, Mitch Johnson, kept Wemby in the game.
He played 44 minutes. Colin, they were leading by 20 for, felt like a third of the game. Wemby played 23 of 24 minutes in the second half. And we talked about his tiredness, right? Only one day in between games. Three of 14 shooting in the second half.
Yeah. He didn't have it. And listen, we don't like to use the word choked. Those two free throws, you could see it in his face. He was nervous. They only missed three free throws as a team, 17 or 20. Wemby missed all three, Colin. Yeah, well, again, there are times I can remember watching when Shaq was a Laker and Shaq was so big. And I remember covering like a Blazer Laker series.
There are these moments where like end of a quarter, minute and a half left in a quarter. You sit Shaq down with a minute and a half left in the third. So he gets the minute and a half. He gets the half break.
You keep him out for about a minute and a half to two minutes of the fourth quarter, and you give him a real eight-minute break on his body, and then you're like, Shaq, I need you for nine and a half minutes of greatness. that kind of thing.
When you get a Duncan, when you get a dominant big, you have to find these end of the quarter moments, two and a half left in a quarter, get Wendy to the bench, give him like eight minutes, commercials, end of the half, give him eight minutes of just hydrate. You can't play him that many minutes with that big of a lead. That's just, that's on the staff. All right.
And we're going to talk a little bit more about Wemby. People are freaking out. It's the World Cup. What are realistic expectations with the World Cup? We'll address that next. It's The Herd. Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays at noon Eastern, 9 a.m. Pacific on Fox Sports Radio, FS1, and the iHeartRadio app.
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Chapter 7: What does this victory mean for the Knicks' legacy?
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Here's something that should not be as complicated as it is. Getting a racist statue removed. And here's something that should be a whole lot easier than it is. Getting a new one put up in its place.
As long as there's a politics of race in America, there's going to be a politics of remembering the Civil War. To get to school, I had to go down Robert E. Lee Boulevard. To get to the grocery store, I had to go down Jefferson Davis Parkway.
If you're an historian and you leave out half of what the history is, you're not doing your job.
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They are just fueling a fire that is really catching.
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Chapter 8: What are the implications for the upcoming games in the series?
And last night, his coach and the staff in San Antonio did a major disservice to Wemby. No breaks. Second half with massive leads. You got to find four minutes. Even if it's just four minutes of real time. But, you know, Picasso's best work was not his first doodle. There are gaps here with Wemby. You know it. I know it. There are some limitations.
In the final nine and a half minutes of the fourth, he didn't have a rebound or an assist. He was minus 21. You know, it's the best way to put it. He's still beta testing the prototype, not quite ready for the market. I do think two days rest at home. I don't know what the line is. I would absolutely take San Antonio. I think they've got one last great effort.
But I think what we saw last night is what I've watched my entire life as an NBA fan, which is this league. There's a reason this was the youngest team since the 1977 Blazers, who also fell down to nothing. There's a reason older players flourish in the postseason. They can manipulate the refs. They can manipulate end-of-game scenarios.
There's a reason older coaches, the late Chuck Daly, Popovich, Kerr, and Spolstra, guys that have been around, Pat Riley, can manipulate moments. San Antonio can't. They can just be really, really good. They just don't have that gear yet. Here's another piece of sound from Wemby after the loss.
What's going through your mind right now?
What's going through my mind right now, I think it's going to go one of two ways. One of two ways. And a bad one and a good one.
And I know the bad one would be giving up. The good one would be getting stronger through this, getting more together. And I know this is what we're going to do.
By the way, he gets very comfortable in crucial moments settling for threes. He hit a jumper, a two-point jumper, with 3.30 left, spurs by seven. And the announcers marveled that he actually took a shot inside the arc. You shouldn't marvel at that. You should question why somebody 7'4", in a close game, lead collapsing, is shooting threes. And again, he's young.
You know, in the absence of great coaching or parenting or management, young people, we have this in college football, they make big mistakes. Coaching's never more important for a team like San Antonio or those 77 Blazers with Jack Ramsey. Like, this is when you really need great coaching. Jay Mack with the news.
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