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Seven of Victor Wembanyama's teammates, including recently signed free agent forward Tobias Harris, have joined the 22-year-old superstar for workouts this week in France. The Spurs on Tuesday posted a photo on their official X account of Wembanyama alongside Harris and six players who helped the Spurs win the 2025 Western Conference championship: Harrison Barnes, Carter Bryant, Stephon Castle, De'Aaron Fox, Dylan Harper and Jordan McLaughlin.
"They want to grow," Spurs CEO R.C. Buford said last week when he revealed on the YouTube show TRASH TALK that "eight or ten" players were expected to join Wembanyama in France for workouts. Buford said Wembanyama organizing the practices underscores his leadership skills. "Just seeing Victor calling his team and saying, 'Hey, come over here and spend a week with me' (shows his leadership)," Buford said.
Shams Charania: Free agent forward Harrison Barnes intends to sign a one-year, $8 million deal to stay with the San Antonio Spurs, sources tell ESPN. The Spurs valued Barnes' leadership and production as he enters a third season in San Antonio, finalizing a new deal with agent Jeff Schwartz of Excel Sports Management on Monday night.
Brooklyn keeps coming up as a likely suitor, too, for the Lakers' Rui Hachimura, league sources say. The Nets and Spurs are two teams we've heard have interest in adding Hachimura's services, while the Spurs are also faced with resolving Harrison Barnes' future as the veteran forward heads to unrestricted free agency.
Carmelo Anthony: I think De'Aaron Fox as a young veteran, somebody who's been around this game for a while should understand that the pace of the game, understand the momentum of the game, which is why he's there, right? He's there to control the game, make big shots. He's a closer, too. This is what he does. These shots are shots that De'Aaron Fox usually take and make. So, when you have the trust factor is so high in San Antonio that Mitch trusts is De'Aaron Fox to go out there and win him basketball games and be successful in certain moments. Now, it comes a point now where you have to say "What's my end game adjustment right now?" And you have to put Dylan Harper in there a lot faster in that run. Take that away. I’m a Harrison Barnes guy.
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Kendrick Perkins: "I voted for Mitch Johnson for coach of the year. I thought he did an outstanding job in the regular season, even throughout the course of the playoffs. The number one thing was his substitution pattern was horrible throughout the Finals. I go back to Game 3, why was Dylan Harper on the bench in and out of the lineup so much in that fourth quarter when they had that collapse? I mean in Game 4, he was 21 points, eight for 12 from the field, plus 12 on the stat sheet, and I just didn't understand. They had no answer for that young man, he should have been in the game. One could say Victor Wembanyama played too many extended minutes at times, that comes on coaching. Big Shot, you just highlighted earlier in the show about Harrison Barnes and not really getting quality minutes there. I thought on the defensive side of the basketball, he could have done a better job. Once you see Jalen Brunson, Jalen Brunson had too many spurts where he was just busting their ass. At some point when you see that this motherf*cker got it going, somebody got to beat him. I'm trapping him until he gives up the ball and he's not getting it back. If they do make a play and make a shot, you got to show me that you can do it again."
"I think you have to look at it for the season it's been," veteran forward Harrison Barnes told Yahoo Sports. "The pain of losing in the Finals, and ultimately you have to accept that. There's no guarantee that this group will ever have the opportunity to achieve that. Some players in this room may be able to get back to the Finals, some players in this room may be able to win a championship. I think accepting what this moment has been, where we come to as a team, and hopefully as guys continue on in their careers — whether it's five, 10, 15 years — they'll use this as a reference point."
“I don’t think I’ve seen a player at his age handle the platform and pressure that he’s been able to, with the grace that he’s been able to,” said veteran Spurs forward Harrison Barnes, who won a ring with Curry in Golden State in 2015 and played alongside Dirk Nowitzki in Dallas. “He feels very natural in those moments,” Barnes said. “I think, coming into (Monday) night, in 14 years, that was one of the craziest atmospheres I’ve seen for a playoff game. Especially a finals game. I feel like he was extremely comfortable in that moment, just to embrace that and be who he was.”
Carter Bryant: “Vic loves to do extracurricular activities. He shoots me a call or shoots me a text, usually me, him and HB. ... We’ve done painting, we’ve done game days like playing board games. We went to the world’s quietest room. We’ve done a bunch of dope stuff.”
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Spurs elder statesman Harrison Barnes has a message for his younger teammates: Don’t take being in the NBA Finals for granted. “You have no idea” what's going to happen next season, the 14th-year forward said. “Every single year you have to begin at the start of the journey, the start of the mountain and climb, and health is a major part of it," he added. "So, I don't think it's necessarily a mentality where we say, ‘This is their only shot’ or ‘Just because we're young, we have a lot of different opportunities.’ This may be the last time both teams are in the Finals for a while. We have no idea.”
Spurs elder statesman Harrison Barnes has a message for his younger teammates: Don’t take being in the NBA Finals for granted. “You have no idea,” Barnes said after shootaround ahead of Game 2 against the New York Knicks on Friday night. “Every single year you have to begin at the start of the journey, the start of the mountain and climb, and health is a major part of it," the forward added. "So, I don't think it's necessarily a mentality where we say, ‘This is their only shot,’ (or) ‘Just because we're young, we have a lot of different opportunities.’ This may be the last time both teams are in the Finals for a while. We have no idea.”
But along came the upstart Spurs to beat the defending champs in seven games in the Western Conference finals. “There’s no guarantee you are going to get better,” Barnes said. “Look at the last five teams that have been in the Finals. How many of them everyone said, Oh, OKC is going to here for the next three years. Phoenix is going to be there for the next the three years. Milwaukee, Denver, every single time, you have no idea.”
SiriusXM NBA Radio: “He has no problem responding" Harrison Barnes on why he expects a bounce back performance from Wemby in Game 2. Hear more Finals coverage with @TermineRadio & @Jumpshot8 on @SIRIUSXM
