The moment the buzzer sounded in Game 5 of the 2026 NBA Finals, Jeremy Sochan had a choice to make. The New York Knicks wing had just won a championship on the floor where he once played — the AT&T Center in San Antonio. But as the Spurs shuffled off the court toward their locker room, Sochan jogged over, looking for a quick handshake or a word. He got nothing.
Video captured by cameras near the tunnel shows Sochan approaching his former teammates one by one. Victor Wembanyama kept walking. Devin Vassell didn’t break stride. Keldon Johnson looked past him. It was a cold exit — and one that didn’t go unnoticed by fans or analysts watching the postgame scene unfold.
The snub wasn’t entirely surprising. Before Game 5, Sochan had been caught on camera jawing at Wembanyama during warmups, trying to get under the skin of the Spurs’ generational star. According to reports from multiple outlets covering the series, the exchange was brief but pointed, with Sochan appearing to attempt some psychological warfare ahead of the elimination game. It didn’t work — the Spurs won the game, and Sochan’s attempts to reconnect after the loss fell flat.
To be fair, the timing was brutal. The Spurs had just been eliminated on their home floor in the Finals after a hard-fought series. Nobody in that locker room was in the mood for pleasantries, especially not from a former teammate who had just beaten them. Still, the visual of Sochan standing alone as his old guys walked past him was hard to ignore.
From Starter to Afterthought
Sochan’s path to this awkward moment traces back to a steady decline. Selected ninth overall in the 2022 NBA Draft out of Baylor, the 6-foot-8 forward was a reliable double-digit scorer for his first three seasons, averaging at least 11 points per game while shooting around 44 percent from the field. He played 25 minutes a night and looked like a core piece of the Spurs’ rebuild.
But this past season, his role shrank dramatically. Minutes dropped to just 10 per game. His name surfaced on the trade market as the deadline approached. When no deal materialized, the Spurs bought out his contract, and Sochan signed with the Knicks as a free agent. In New York, his role was even smaller — 2.5 points per game across eight playoff appearances, logging just over three minutes a night.
So when Sochan tried to reconnect with the team that drafted him, the cold shoulder made sense. It wasn’t just about the pregame trash talk. It was about a relationship that had already faded long before the Finals began.
The Knicks won the championship. Sochan got a ring. But back in the tunnel, none of that seemed to matter.
Leave a Comment