Nike was behind the appropriately cosmic sight marking the Spurs’ first NBA Finals trip of the Wembanyama Era.
SAN ANTONIO — If you joined postgame celebrations in downtown San Antonio and looked up Saturday night, you would have seen not a bird, not a plane, but the giant likeness of a green alien suspended in air by Tower of the Americas.
A giant green alien made up of drones, to be exact, that also shifted into the shape of the iconic Nike swoosh. Victor Wembanyama is a brand ambassador for the athletics company, hence the extraterrestrial echo of the newly minted Western Conference Finals MVP, whose nickname is The Alien.
“He has arrived,” the company declared on social media shortly after the Spurs beat the Thunder in Game 7, accompanied by a video of the Tower of the Americas emerging from the night sky like a UFO and shining a tractor beam before the drones light up to complete the show.
It was a fittingly cosmic sight to mark the Spurs’ first NBA Finals trip of the Wembanyama Era, secured through a dramatic seven-game sweep of the defending champions punctuated by consecutive wins while facing elimination.
And it only further enlivened the jubilation that erupted along Commerce Street as the Spurs faithful marked the team’s first trip to the Finals since 2014, the last time they won it all.
Oklahoma City’s Saturday defeat also marked the franchise’s first time losing a win-or-go-home Game 7 on their home court, thanks in part to another strong Wemby performance and hot-shooting showing from Julian Champagnie.
Seven Spurs in all reached double-digits in points as they withstood Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 35-point onslaught for the Thunder. San Antonio now advances to face the New York Knicks in a rematch of the 1999 Finals, with Game 1 set for Wednesday night at Frost Bank Center.