Ex-Spurs swingman Sidy Cissoko sees championship parades in San Antonio soon.
SAN ANTONIO — Former San Antonio Spurs player Sidy Cissoko returned to the city where his NBA career began when the Trail Blazers visited the Frost Bank Center on Saturday night.
“It was great. Like before, I had butterflies in my stomach when I landed here with Blake (Wesley). So it’s all right,” he said about coming back to San Antonio.
This marked his second time playing against his former team (he sat out the April 2025 meeting), and returning to San Antonio sparked fond memories of his time with the team.
“I think just being around Pop (Gregg Popovich) and Victor (Wembanyama),” he said about his favorite memories with the Spurs. “All the great guys over there. So I miss them, for sure.”
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Cissoko was drafted in the second round of the 2023 NBA Draft and was immediately assigned to the G League’s Austin Spurs before making his NBA debut versus the Clippers in November 2023.
He displayed immense athleticism, defensive versatility, and playmaking as a versatile wing with the Spurs, averaging 2.3 points per game and 1.1 rebounds in 29 games. However, he’d spend the bulk of his time in San Antonio with Austin before being traded to the Kings in 2023 as part of the De’Aaron Fox deal.
Following his trade to the Kings, Cissoko would find himself traded again, this time to the Wizards, only to be immediately waived. He would then find himself joining the Blazers on a two-way deal.
Despite never flourishing with the Spurs, he holds no hard feelings and understands that being traded is just part of the NBA and the decisions teams have to make, and it has not stopped his will to keep pushing his career forward.
“You know, that’s the beauty of the NBA. You have to accept the decisions they (NBA front offices) make and stuff like that, and keep just playing, keep playing hard and compete.”
This season, he’s posting career-highs with 5.9 points per game, including 2.3 rebounds and 1.5 assists with the Blazers through 31 games played with 12 starts.
Against San Antonio, he scored seven points and grabbed six rebounds in Portland’s 115-110 win at the Frost Bank Center.
And playing against the young Spurs team, Cissoko sees a title-contending squad in the making.
“That’s probably a championship team in a couple of years,” he said. “It’s a process. It might take five years or maybe four, you never know. With Mitch (Johnson), the coaching staff, I think they have a bright future.”