De’Aaron Fox tried to explain why he played through injury in the Spurs’ run to the NBA Finals, and fans wasted no time turning the explanation back on him.
San Antonio’s 2025-26 season ended just short of a title after the Spurs beat the defending champion Thunder in seven games in the Western Conference Finals to reach the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014. But the finish against the Knicks was ugly, even before the series ended.
The Spurs led by double digits in all five games, still came up empty, and watched New York pull off a wild comeback in Game 4 after San Antonio had opened up the largest halftime lead ever by a visiting team in the Finals. In Game 5, the Spurs were up 16 before the Knicks surged back again, with Jalen Brunson scoring 45 points, burying the go-ahead floater with a little more than a minute left and sealing the 94-90 win that also delivered Finals MVP honors.
Fox ended up taking a big share of the blame, and not just because of one bad series. A high-ankle sprain in the Western Conference Finals knocked him out of rhythm, and when he came back he never resembled the All-Star level version of himself.
He scored in single digits in three of his first four games back, then posted just 12.8 points per game in the Finals while shooting 34.3% from the field and 25% from beyond the arc. Game 5 was especially rough: 3 of 15 shooting, scoreless in the fourth quarter.
The moment that lingered the most came in Game 4, when Fox drove for a contested layup instead of simply bleeding the clock with 12 seconds left and San Antonio up one. After the Game 5 loss, he said his shots “felt good” but weren’t dropping.
Recently, Fox sat down with NBA reporter Marc Spears and defended why he chose to keep playing.
"I was the second-leading scorer when I got hurt," Fox Said. "Why did I play?
I felt like I could help the team ... Seeing the OKC series, I thought there were things I could come out there and help with.
If you ask any player - and you could use Tyrese as the biggest [example] for that - you know there is a chance you could get hurt if you have a calf strain. And he was like, ‘Oh, this is Game 7 of the [2025 NBA] Finals.
And for me, there is nothing more I want to do than play in this game.'"
That defense did not land well with fans, especially given how the Finals played out and Fox’s role in the collapse. He is making $55.4 million a year, and plenty of people weren’t interested in excuses.
“Brother, you went up for a layup with 15 seconds left while your team was up one instead of holding the ball, being an idiot has nothing to do with playing while injured,” one user wrote.
“Love how he blames his calf for him being an absolute bonehead. This generation bruh smh,” another added.
“He got to stop talking like everyone in the world don’t have eyes the delusion really in him,” one other fan wrote.
“The team was better with you sitting than playing bro 😂😂,” another commented.
“Just say you played bad and move on do better why the whole monologue of excuses,” another replied.
“Can’t defend this play buddy,” one other user added, alongside the clip of Fox’s shaky layup try in Game 4.
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