Where there’s a victor, there’s a loser, and sometimes, certain athletes contribute to their team’s shortcomings. These athletes are favorably called bobbleheads.
This year's NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs has brought us down-to-the-wire action throughout every game, but with that comes the emergence of bobbleheads and two stand out above the rest, specifically for their errors in a pivotal Game 4 of this series.
San Antonio Spurs - Guard De’Aaron Fox
Featured on Bobbleheads for the second time now is Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox. Outside of his mediocre shooting performance in Game 4, there was one moment that solidified Fox as a bobblehead. With 24 seconds left, the Spurs found themselves up 106-105. After a missed shot attempt by Knicks guard Jalen Brunson, Fox was able to tip and rebound the ball on the Spurs side of the court with 12.6 seconds remaining. All Fox had to do was hold the ball as he would inevitably be fouled and sent to the line with the chance to make it a three point game, essentially putting his team in the best spot to win and potentially tie the series up 2-2. Instead, Fox decided to go up for a layup, which was immediately blocked at the rim by Knicks forward OG Anunoby.
The next play would see Anunoby score the game-winning shot that put the Knicks up 3-1 in the series, just one game away from an NBA championship. As one of the only veterans on this young Spurs roster at 28, Fox is looked to to make the smart plays and here he did not — any other NBA player is holding onto that basketball and not even thinking about attempting a shot. While we will never know what truly compelled Fox to take that layup, one thing is for sure: if the Spurs cannot come back down 3-1, Fox’s layup will go down as one of the dumbest plays in NBA Finals history, right next to J.R. Smith not knowing the score.
San Antonio Spurs - Head Coach Mitch Johnson
While Fox’s error at the end was terrible, the Spurs shouldn’t have even been in that situation to begin with. The Spurs led by as many as 29 points with under 10 minutes to go in the third quarter. The Spurs eventually imploded, and a big reason for that is the poor coaching from Mitch Johnson. Johnson made no effort to change the team's mindset when the Knicks started to make a run as he sat back and watched his team shoot boneheaded threes over and over again. While the long ball was falling in the first half for the Spurs, they saw almost no production for downtown in the second half and Johnson did nothing about it. Even worse, when the Knicks started cutting into the lead Johnson did not use his timeouts effectively to slow the game down, instead just watching it all happen. A more experienced coach would have had his team put this game away, but instead Johnson and the Spurs blew one of the biggest leads in NBA playoff history.
Rodney Prunty is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on X @rprunty05
