Luke Kornet’s Unexpected Rise: From Fringe Prospect to Iconic Fan Favorite in San Antonio
When Luke Kornet swatted Franz Wagner’s layup at the buzzer on December 3, he didn’t just seal a win-he delivered a moment. Arms raised, eyes to the sky, Kornet struck a pose straight out of Vince Carter’s legendary 2000 dunk contest playbook. It was pure theater, and it hit all the right notes.
The image caught fire. Teammates turned it into a t-shirt, and suddenly, Kornet wasn’t just a reliable big man-he was a cult hero.
From beat writers to Blake Griffin, everyone wanted a piece of the moment. The Spurs even made it official, putting the shirt on sale in the team store.
Kornet, ever the comedian, leaned into it.
“It’s a lot of weight, being an icon,” he said with a grin. “This is how Helen of Troy felt, I think.”
That kind of humor is classic Kornet. Around the league, he’s known as one of the funniest guys in any locker room-a sentiment echoed by teammates like Griffin and Jayson Tatum.
But behind the jokes is a player who’s been through the NBA grinder. His path hasn’t been easy.
It’s taken serious reinvention, both on the court and off, to become the beloved veteran presence he is today.
From Stretch Five to Reinvention
Kornet came out of Vanderbilt with a unique résumé: a shot-blocker who could stretch the floor. He set an NCAA record for three-pointers made by a seven-footer and dreamed of becoming the NBA’s premier shooting big man.
“One of my goals at the start of my career was to be the best shooting five in the NBA,” Kornet once said.
Undrafted, he caught on with the Knicks on a two-way deal and made the most of his minutes. He hit 38% from deep and looked like he might carve out a niche as a modern stretch five.
The Bulls saw the potential and offered him a guaranteed two-year contract. Head coach Jim Boylen even likened him to Robert Horry-a comparison that raised eyebrows in Chicago but wasn’t entirely off-base in terms of style.
Still, the results didn’t follow. Kornet’s shooting tanked-just 28.7% from three-and he averaged 6.0 points per game in his first season.
The vision of a floor-spacing big man was slipping away.
“Obviously Robert Horry is a great player, but that is what my style was sort of like,” Kornet said. “That was the time when I was really hitting the bottom so that was a very difficult part of it. I was feeling like I was failing.”
Injuries, Identity, and a Turning Point
The struggles weren’t just about fit. A broken nose suffered during his Knicks stint went undiagnosed for a while, affecting his breathing and rhythm.
Ankle injuries followed, and his mechanics fell apart. The once-smooth shooting stroke became inconsistent, and with it, his confidence.
“My movements and body changed where my shooting and touch are different,” Kornet explained. “I couldn’t be consistent and have the same motion pattern.”
By the time the Bulls traded him to Boston as part of a deal for Daniel Theis, Kornet was a journeyman in every sense-bouncing between teams, fighting for minutes, and clinging to an NBA dream that was slipping away. He landed in Maine with the Celtics’ G-League affiliate, unsure if there was a path back.
“When I went to Chicago and then to Maine, this was kind of like a last chance kind of thing,” he said. “Let’s see if we can make this happen.”
That’s when everything changed.
Letting Go and Finding Joy
In Maine, Kornet made a conscious decision to stop chasing the version of himself he thought he had to be. He let go of the pressure, the expectations, and the identity of being a shooting big. He started playing with joy again.
“I came with this different approach from before,” Kornet said. “It was starting at Maine where more of that came out in terms of having more fun.
I played with more freedom and peace and joy. A lot of it came from letting go of caring about myself and my career.”
With that mindset shift came a new role. Instead of spacing the floor, Kornet focused on the fundamentals-screening, rolling, finishing at the rim, and doing the dirty work. He leaned into being a team-first guy, the one who makes things easier for everyone else.
“I still wish I could shoot the same way I could,” he admitted. “But it’s about helping the team win and doing that. It just happened that way.”
A Defensive Anchor in the Right System
The Celtics’ coaching staff saw something else: a natural rim protector miscast in Chicago’s aggressive defensive scheme. They moved him back into a drop coverage system, where he could stay closer to the basket and use his length and timing to contest shots.
It worked. Since the switch, Kornet has ranked consistently among the league’s top shot-blockers per 36 minutes.
The numbers don’t jump off the page, but the impact does. Kornet boxes out so teammates can grab rebounds.
He sets elite-level screens that free up guards. And he brings energy from the bench-those zany celebrations aren’t just for laughs; they lift the entire team.
The Spurs noticed. After watching his impact on Boston’s championship run, they offered Kornet a $41 million deal this past summer.
Some fans were puzzled-after all, his scoring average peaked at just 6.0 points per game. But San Antonio saw the value in the details.
Winning Over San Antonio
It didn’t take long for Kornet to win over Spurs fans. In previous seasons, the team struggled when Victor Wembanyama sat.
This year, with Kornet stepping in, the Spurs have gone 9-5 in games Wemby has missed. Kornet doesn’t need to score much-he finishes plays around the rim, keeps the offense moving, and anchors the defense.
“When I wanted the success and credit for it, it really went bad,” Kornet reflected. “I took a lot of it on the negative side and it was really painful. When I went through that, it led me to finding a more detached [approach], taking myself out of it as much as I could.”
Now, Kornet is comfortable in his own skin. He jokes about wearing No. 7 because he hopes to be “a third of the player Tim Duncan was.” The Brook Lopez dream didn’t pan out-but the Luke Kornet reality turned out to be something special.
He’s not just a backup center. He’s a connector, a culture-setter, a guy who makes teams better in ways that don’t always show up in the box score. And in San Antonio, he’s become something more: an icon, in his own quirky, unexpected way.