Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Carmelo Anthony, Tracy McGrady, Jamal Crawford
THE MODERATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining today’s call between Games 1 and 2 of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs right after the Spurs went up 1-0 in an exciting double overtime finish late last night.
Joining us for this NBC Sports media conference call includes NBC Sports game analyst Jamal Crawford and studio analysts Carmelo Anthony and Tracy McGrady.
We’ll begin with opening remarks. Let’s first start with Jamal Crawford.
JAMAL CRAWFORD: Hello, everyone. This is Jamal Crawford, NBC analyst. Honored to be on the call for the Western Conference Finals. I feel like we’re watching the present and the future with both teams, two of the best teams out there, and not only teams from being part of the NBA association, but teams in that college sense of team, where together everyone achieves more.
These two teams have risen to the top of the mountaintop. I think we’re in for an epic series. I don’t think last night could have gone any better. It was hard to go to sleep just thinking about some of the things we saw. We saw some historic things from Victor Wembanyama for sure, and just the high-level play and how each possession meant something. I think we’re in for a heavyweight fight, these next games.
With that, I’ll pass it to T-Mac, Tracy McGrady.
TRACY McGRADY: This is Tracy McGrady here. Honored to be on this call. I can’t believe what I witnessed and I had the opportunity to be on this series, just to be in the presence of Wemby and see the greatness unfolding.
I remember back in the 1999-2000 NBA Finals, watching Shaquille O’Neal live in person on that scene, and I just couldn’t believe that domination. Fast forward to today, to have a guy with that kind of impact on the defensive end, in my lifetime I’ve never seen.
This is the highest level of basketball we’re going to see. I’m glad I’m able to be a part of it and cover it.
CARMELO ANTHONY: Thank you so much. To piggy-back off of the guys, this type of moment for me is a different type of moment. Having that experience as a player and now being on this side of the game, still on the court but from a different perspective, being able to see the game live as an analyst, as a fan too, and as a student of this game.
It’s definitely a moment that I will never take for granted.
Q: Thank you very much for doing this. It’s awesome to see you guys transition from playing to now analysts. I’m curious, you guys were obviously very, very talented offensive players, so how would you guys, as offensive weapons that you were, attack a guy like Victor Wembanyama, both individually and as a team. What would you guys do to make yourselves successful and your team successful?
TRACY McGRADY: I’ll go first. I think for me -- see, I want to get him moving. I think when you’re that tired, that tall, and he really doesn’t have the strength when you’re pushing on him constantly. So I want to wear his legs down and keep him on the move.
We could say all this stuff on this phone call, man, that man covers so much ground that all these coaches have tried everything (laughter). We can sit here and tell you how we would attack him, but I think the most effective way is to have him guarding a shooter in the corner because typically you want to attack him on the strong side if he’s in the corner because, if you have a shooter and he wants to help off, now you can kick it to the corner and get those wide open shots.
So that’s really the only consistent thing I’ve seen someone attack him is really having him involved in the play to where he helped that you can constantly get someone downtown and he has to help from that corner and then get that corner shot.
But they’re so quick on the perimeter that they can close out to those perimeter guys and run them off the 3-point line. They tried everything, and sometimes it works, but a lot of times it doesn’t.
CARMELO ANTHONY: From my perspective, I would like to see Wemby actually be put in the pick-and-rolls a lot of times too because he’s switching off on these guards, and he’s defending these guards. I want to see him get over this pick-and-roll, get through the screen, utilize him in those areas a lot more, break him out closer to -- I don’t want to say half-court, but kind of that hash mark right there.
Bring him out there, make him move his feet. Now it’s a speed game getting downhill to the rim.
Last night Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) got a good one on the left side coming off the pick-and-roll and Wemby was too high up on the screen.
So there’s different ways you’ve got to try to attack him. I also think attacking him is taking away some of the things that he’s very good at.
You know he’s a great rebounder, and you’ve got to send multiple guys to box him out. You’ve got to pay close attention to him sprinting the court. He can’t be allowed to sprint the court, duck in on the smaller guard with the one-on-one situations.
There’s just so many things, especially in Game 1, that OKC allowed him to do, which was just dominate the whole game. If you could alleviate a couple things -- and I know it’s not easy to do, but if you could alleviate some of the offensive rebounds, some of those easy shots, then I think you could try to shut him down at that point.
JAMAL CRAWFORD: To score against him, for me, I would keep him in pick-and-roll because that’s where he’s taking away the paint because the mid-range is available, and I would try to get space all the time.
So that point where he comes up, if I’m in the initial drive and I’m in the paint, get him to collapse so I can spread it out to a shooter, just maybe they can get a clean look. So it may not be me scoring, but hopefully the team scores.
I’m sure they’ve tried all this. (Thunder) Coach Mark Daigneault is the best in the business. They’ve thought of everything. And just think about the shots that he doesn’t block that he affects, sometimes physically but then other times mentally.
You can think you beat somebody and you may have beat him, but you’re still looking over your shoulder like there’s a big shadow around. You just know he can affect the shot.
For me, I would try to move him side to side as much as possible, have him do close-outs as much as possible. I think Alex Caruso, with him making his shots, got him in a couple of those situations where he was able to attack the basket freely, but there is no clear-cut answer.
And then on the other side, Wemby figures it out. I don’t know if you heard the Tyrese Maxey story. When he went in the gym, was working out with Maxey, he said, ‘No, I don’t want to work out. I just want to play defense the whole time.’ I don’t know anyone who goes to work out and just wants to play defense the whole time. So that’s a different type of person.
Q: First for both Melo and T-Mac, with this being your first full year of NBC in the studio and the chemistry you all gelled with, what’s been your funniest moment of many funny moments that you all had together? For you first, Melo, and you, T Mac. And then for you, J. Crawford, Mike Tirico has a tendency of talking with the fans in funny moments. What’s your favorite moment with Mike when he’s had those conversations?
CARMELO ANTHONY: I’ll just start it off. Yeah, I think it started off with just the vision, the vision that NBC had in bringing back just guys who really enjoy the game and played the game at a high level and really respect the game.
Also, the respect we have for each other as men, as peers. We allowed each other to have their space, to have their time, but also we’ve been in situations where we’ve got to build teams, and this is a team that we actually started to build. It feels like a team where we’re moving around and traveling.
When we’re in studio, all of that feels very team-like.
TRACY McGRADY: Man, I can’t tell you how amazing it feels to form chemistry with your peers. And then having watched Maria (Taylor) from afar and enjoying the work in her craft that work she’s put in year after year and seeing how hard she works.
We’re family, man. I know we haven’t completed our first year, but we all respect one another’s craft. When we come into the studio to vibe, we completely have just really formed a camaraderie that we can see lasting ten years. This is something that’s special that we’ve built and continuously going to build on this.
When you’re covering the Western Conference Finals and witnessing what we watched last night with a guy that I competed with at the highest level in Melo and Vince (Carter) as well, you can’t do anything but appreciate that. This is the highest honor, man.
JAMAL CRAWFORD: Again, from me, I’m thinking of stories right now, and what makes Mike so great, I have a bunch of stories, is that he can always -- we may have a lunch, and he may see a waiter or waitress, ask them their name, ask them why they like their team, and then bring that to the nation, to the world in the cast.
I’m like, man, he remembered that? He’s like Jay-Z writing with no pen. He brings something out of thin air and makes it so everybody can relate.
When we were in New York, and he basically brought Tracy Morgan into being a four-man booth. That’s probably my favorite because Tracy Morgan is always going to make him and everybody else around him laugh.
But that’s him, he always has a way to bring the current event to the forefront. He has a special way of doing that.
Q: My question is for Jamal Crawford. You worked with Victor Wembanyama two years ago, I think. What do you see in his game that you may have taught him during in the workouts? How do you see developments in terms of offense during the last two years? Thank you very much.
JAMAL CRAWFORD: Thank you. I was honored to get the call to work with Vic. What I have seen first off working with him is how quick he can download things. Things that took me years to learn. I could tell him, and he could have it done in five minutes. Like I got it, and he’d go out and do it. It was almost like fake, to be honest with you.
The things I’m seeing him kind of apply right now is, when he gets a bigger player on him, he gets into a rhythm dribble and how he hops into it and how he covers ground, we worked on that.
Then just the footwork. The footwork transfers everywhere. You got Melo and T-Mac on the phone, and they had two of the best footwork guys ever. People see their scoring, but the footwork they use to get to their score, different angles and different spots, I see Victor use that as well, because those were two guys we were studying, to be honest with you.
Different guys in the league, we studied Hakeem (Olajuwon), different guys, how they got to certain areas and different points on the court.
To be honest with you, it was for these times, kind of knowing where he was going and knowing the areas he needed to get to dominate at the highest level when the competition was the toughest.
Not to give away too, too much, but those were some of the foundations and basics we did the week I was with him.
Q: Not just seeing all season long, but then really punctuated last night, the Spurs and the Thunder seem so far away from some of the other contenders in the west. I’m curious, based on what you guys have seen, specifically teams like the Timberwolves, the Nuggets, the Lakers, what things do they need to do, what sort of strategy should they attempt to go into in the off-season to try to close the gap with the Spurs and the Thunder, especially after what we saw last night?
TRACY McGRADY: I think a team like Denver was on their way to really creating, they have incredibly amazing depth, and that depth is they can rely on these guys to be able to carry them for a night, whether that’s for OKC, whether it’s Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Ajay Mitchell, and in San Antonio you have the Dylan Harper, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson.
Well, Denver had worked on building their roster for that because they brought in Cam Johnson, they brought in Tim Hardaway Jr., they brought in Bruce Brown. They were building for the playoffs. They just weren’t healthy.
They had the two groups, the two top guys in Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson. Those guys are vital to their success.
That’s why with them, I thought they were built for OKC or San Antonio, but they weren’t healthy. And the same with Minnesota. Minnesota, I felt like they didn’t have their health, with Ant-Man being amazing with what he was able to accomplish the last two years, it was just hell for them. I think they can compete with anyone when he has a healthy roster.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I just don’t like rebutting what T-Mac says (laughter). I just think we’re watching the two best teams in the West. Who’s the best team in the West, we’re going to find that out soon. When you talk about other teams in the West and what they have to go through, you look at the formula of what the Spurs and OKC have done, they’ve built through the draft. They’ve drafted a lot of these guys. They went out there, and they scouted, and they looked at the development process, and they actually developed a lot of these guys too.
So it’s been a buildup of just development and a lot of these -- and those two organizations. So with that comes more depth, more players that you can develop, more guys that you can bring them through the program, teach them what you want, give them a role, and now you feel like you’re a part of something bigger.
There are other organizations that are out there that really need to figure out what they want to do in the Draft, figure out their core pieces, but also figure out how they’re going to fill that bench out. As we’re seeing right now in the playoffs, in the Western Conference Finals, the bench is everything. If you don’t have no bench, you don’t have no depth, and you’re not going to be able to go out there and compete with the Spurs and OKC.
Q: As the first year of the NBA on NBC, the return of the NBA on NBC draws to a close, what do you think worked in year one for this group, and where do you think coverage can grow and expand on the road ahead?
JAMAL CRAWFORD: I was just going to say for me I thought being a kid growing up, listening to the NBA on NBC, the storytelling aspect of it brings you closer to the game.
I think it brings the fan in to want to watch the game. It makes it feel more like an event versus it being just another game.
I think NBC does the absolute best with that, and they always have. Having these legends in every arena, from the studio to Reggie Miller, Grant Hill, these guys calling games as well has brought the past, present, and future to this new generation, to the new fans, to the fan that’s watched them.
I just thought it was unbelievable for me. Will continue to bring the “On the Bench,”, maybe bring that a little more present, where you can get that feel following a team with a certain person telling that side of the story. It brings you closer to the huddle, closer to the locker room.
So for me personally, I’ll end it with saying I thought that was great, and I think we should see more of that.
CARMELO ANTHONY: For me it was more so of being able to allow the game, right, to speak for itself and not to overshadow the actual game, the basketball aspect of this because, at the end of the day, that is what this is about.
The fact that I think we’ve gotten away from just allowing the game to be the game and players to be players. We go along with that journey and speak what’s in front of us, we got away from that. I think what NBC was able to do was just put the team together, put the crews together, the end game, put the studio, put everybody together and allow everybody to just go out there and do what they do, which is play the game of basketball and to uplift the game again because for so long I don’t think the game was being uplifted.
Q: If I could follow up real quick, on the other side of the bracket, the New York Knicks are taking on the Cleveland Cavaliers starting tonight. All three of you have had your experiences with the Knicks, so having seen your share of Knicks basketball this season, how have they been able to turn the corner, and how would Knicks fans in particular be able to cherish a championship better than others perhaps?
CARMELO ANTHONY: You talk about the epitome of how a season’s supposed to go, this is what and how a season’s supposed to go. You’re supposed to go through the ups and downs and try to figure things out and work and fail and keep moving and get back up and fight.
So you have to go through that, that roller coaster of just emotions and development throughout the course of the season, and I think going through that allowed the Knicks to actually find their identity right now as a basketball team and as individual players.
JAMAL CRAWFORD: For me, I think they diversified how they play, to be honest with you. I think they’re a little less stagnant. I think they’ve gotten Jalen Brunson off the ball. So to me that reminds me how (Allen) Iverson was used when they went to the finals with Philly. He’s running around a lot more. He’s getting behind the defense, so to speak, and then he’s getting quick pick-and-rolls.
His responsibility isn’t just to be in front of the defense where all the eyes can see him. I think with him doing that, and then when the playoff comes, he really starts dominating 15 feet in the air.
With his footwork and his balance, he almost becomes like a post player in that way. That opens up things for his team. They’re playing with a better pace, it seems, and guys are hitting 3-pointers and the KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns) has been unleashed a little bit more. Not in the regular season, but in the playoffs in certain matchups.
So I think the Knicks have a chance. I know New York’s excited. They almost tackled J.R. Smith just off the playoff win. I know what that would be like if they got to the Finals.
TRACY McGRADY: I think all season long, you know, when you have one player that just really has on the offensive end, liberation to do anything, have the green light, and you have other guys on that roster that have the ability to have impact on the offensive end, it causes some friction, it causes problems. You don’t get the best effort from those guys.
I think what really changes, you added that liberation to other guys, meaning KAT. And when you unlock that part of your offense and got him involved, now you see you get Mikal Bridges out of his shooting slump, and everybody starts playing well and playing with a great deal of confidence, and now that’s carrying over to the bench, and now the bench is coming in and giving you a new found energy. And on the defensive end as well.
I think once they made that change, they went into looking like a completely different team. I’m looking to see how they attack the Cavs with their two big men, and you have James Harden who doesn’t have to be a scorer in this series because he has a guy like Donovan Mitchell who can really score the ball, and he can really concentrate on taking care of the ball and being a facilitator.
Knicks fans should be definitely stoked about what is in front of them because I do believe they can win this series and get to the Finals.
Q: This question is for Carmelo. I was just curious if you could talk to me a little bit about your time when you played for OKC and just your perspective on how Sam Presti has built this team, not only through the draft, but through free agent signings. I was curious to get your perspective on things, especially since you had a front row seat to the organization when you played there.
CARMELO ANTHONY: I came to OKC at a very pivotal time in terms of the transitioning and looking ahead to what the forming of strategy of Sam Presti. As a player, I got to see it and experience it as a player, but also I got a chance to experience it and see it from a businessman point and being around Sam Presti and talking to Sam Presti and understanding what he’s trying to do and his goals and his strategies.
It’s not a one-year plan, like this is -- we’re talking about almost 15 years, 20 years of OKC being what they are right now. So when you talk about Sam Presti and his vision, it’s hard to have a vision and to go through with that vision and accept losses and accept failures and accept the multiple MVPs that’s in and out of your organization over the years.
You have to have something to stand on, and Sam Presti built a foundation that no matter what happens over here, it’s going to be successful. He has a successful formula, and he has a winning formula.
THE MODERATOR: Thanks everyone for joining today’s call. That will conclude today’s NBC Sports media press conference call.
Tomorrow at 8:30 p.m. ET and 7:30 p.m. CT on NBC and Peacock is Game 2 of the Western Conference Finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs. Coverage begins with NBA Showtime at 7:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. CT ahead of tip-off, along with halftime and studio coverage featuring Carmelo and Tracy. Jamal will be alongside play-by-play with Mike Tirico and Reggie Miller and sidelines reporters Zora Stephenson and Ashley ShahAhmadi.
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