Victor Wembanyama’s night did not end when the final buzzer sounded at Madison Square Garden. The San Antonio Spurs superstar arrived at his hotel a few blocks south of the arena flanked by security, only to be met by jeering fans and at least one thrown egg captured on video and circulated widely online.
The footage showed a projectile cracking against a street sign near the hotel entrance as Wembanyama made his way inside. Seconds after the egg landed, Wembanyama turned and confronted someone standing near the entrance before continuing through the door. It was not clear from the video who had thrown the egg, and the New York Police Department said it had nothing on file regarding the incident. The Spurs did not immediately confirm whether Wembanyama had been struck.
A city that stopped functioning normally
The scenes outside the hotel were part of a broader eruption across New York City following the Knicks’ stunning Game 4 victory, in which they erased a 29-point deficit to complete the largest comeback in NBA Finals history. The win pushed the Spurs to the brink of elimination, trailing 3-1 in the series, and sent the city into the kind of collective frenzy that comes with a franchise closing in on a long-awaited championship.
Fans flooded the streets, set off fireworks, and scaled lampposts in celebrations that at times turned confrontational. The New York Police Department took 56 people into custody for offenses ranging from assault to disorderly conduct. In a statement, the department described large crowds engaging in what it characterized as reckless and dangerous behavior both during and after the game, representing a continuation of the disorder that had affected the surrounding area while the contest was still being played.
The weight of the moment for Wembanyama
The targeting of Wembanyama outside his hotel, whether a spontaneous act of fan hostility or something more calculated, came at the lowest point in what has been an otherwise remarkable postseason for the 22-year-old. He had missed two critical free throws in the final minutes of Game 4, a failure that came back into focus once Anunoby’s tip-in sealed the win and the collapse became complete.
Wembanyama has been the defining figure of this Spurs run, carrying a young team deep into the Finals on the strength of performances that have drawn comparisons to the greatest players in the game’s history. The visual of him walking through a hostile crowd after one of the most painful losses of his career captured the particular cruelty that comes with being the face of a team on the wrong side of history.
What the series looks like now
The Spurs face elimination in Game 5 on Saturday at Frost Bank Center in San Antonio. They have survived an elimination game once already this postseason, winning a seventh game against Oklahoma City in the Western Conference Finals, and that experience gives them some foundation to work from.
But coming back from 3-1 in the NBA Finals is among the rarest outcomes in basketball history. The Knicks will carry the momentum of the greatest comeback in Finals history into a game they need to win just once more. For Wembanyama and the Spurs, the most important thing they can do is make sure the story that follows them out of New York is not the ending.
