SAN ANTONIO – Burnout or not, San Antonio Spurs acting coach Mitch Johnson has quirks.
If you ask him, he’ll tell you it’s his ears. “(They) stay out,” he said, a little shocked at the idea of becoming a Mickey Mouse-like animation for the early slate game on Christmas Day.
“I’m sure they’ll do something,”
On Wednesday night, the coach will find out. Maybe “they” — referring to the animators tasked with turning the Spurs’ road game against the New York Knicks into a Disney+ cartoon — will exaggerate his beard the same way “they” did Victor Wembanyama, Jalen Brunson or Chris Paul.
Maybe they’ll give him an extra-curly, natural-colored head of hair, setting him apart from the Grinch-like bright green hairdo Jeremy Sochan has been sporting for weeks.
READ MORE: The green-haired Sochan returns to form at the best possible time
Or maybe they won’t put half the effort into coaching as the players did. Maybe Johnson will be replaced by Donald Duck or Clarabelle; he won’t know until the game is over.
But his hope, if not to see his animated cartoon?
To win a game on Christmas Day.
“It’s definitely a fantastic opportunity and their excitement is justified,” Johnson said. “Our job will be to continue to make it one of 82 games and have the same approach.”
These young Spurs are not used to such pomp and circumstance. After landing Wembanyama with pick no. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft, all eyes have been on them, but the results haven’t followed. As a result, there was no rush to include San Antonio in a Christmas Day marquee.
Over the summer, that changed. Instead of picking numbers — a constant concern of anything and everything Wembanyama — the NBA decided to leave out the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks in favor of the Spurs, who haven’t made the playoffs since 2018-19- and are now set to receive their first holiday promotion since 2016.
If his intention was to light something eight hours north of San Antonio, it worked.
“Definitely disappointed,” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said of missing the Christmas Day tryout. “I’d like to play on Christmas Day and I think we’re a caliber team. The NBA makes its own decisions. You can’t underestimate them for that.
“The ball is in our court to show them why we deserve to play that day.”
READ MORE: Is the NBA texting Slate on Christmas Day?
As it goes one way, it goes the other. The Spurs didn’t ask for a trip to snow-free New York City on Christmas, but they got it. And they certainly don’t complain.
“It’s going to be fun, exciting,” Spurs shooting guard Devin Vassell said. “You wake up when you’re a little kid … you open your presents and after that, it’s pretty much basketball. To be here this year, it’s a blessing. We never take that for granted.”
The possibility in mind, Spurs will continue “business as usual”. Like when they were missing four rotating parts over a week period. Or when Gregg Popovich suffered a minor concussion to give Johnson indefinite control of the reins.
“We play like it’s Pop, too,” Sidy Cissoko said of playing under Johnson. “We don’t think of (Mitch) as another coach. We just play hard.”
However, such a mentality does not take away from the size of the stage they will be on or the greatness that comes with it.
“It’s crazy,” Sochan said. “As a kid, this is all you really dreamed of.”
With an opponent as dangerous as the Knicks — riding a four-game winning streak in their annual holiday contest — the Spurs will certainly have to pull their punches. Luckily for them, they’re completely healthy, and as the data shows, that tends to work in their favor.
Since returning to full strength, Spurs are a couple of late-game upsets away from being unbeaten in three tries. Wembanyama is averaging just under 30 points with four assists and four blocks to go along with 40 percent shooting from 3-point range in his last 15 games, and he’s fresh off breaking a slew of league records.
Around him, San Antonio’s supporting cast is starting to mesh and build the continuity it’s been looking for since the start of the season. Health may be the main catalyst for it, but it can’t help but take the added joy that comes from vacations.
READ MORE: San Antonio will kick off the NBA’s Christmas Day
Wembanyama might want some snow at Christmas, but if you were to ask him, maybe a win at Madison Square Garden would do. One that makes success feel as regular as his new team’s season mantra.
If so, “business as usual” it is.
“I’m sure it will be special,” said the 20-year-old. “Spending Christmas in New York will be like the movies.”