Victor Wembanyama Labeled 'Soft, Scared' After NBA Finals Performance

San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is quickly learning just how difficult life can be as the potential face of the NBA.

Wembanyama was certainly productive on the biggest stage, averaging 26.0 points and 11.2 rebounds per game during the NBA Finals. That being said, the French phenom had a costly turnover in Game 2 and two missed free throws in the fourth quarter of Game 4. Those mistakes certainly hurt the Spurs.

ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins wasn't thrilled with Wembanyama's performance in the Finals, that's for sure. During an interview with Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton on "Yahoo Sports Daily," he ripped Wembanyama for playing "soft" and "scared" against the New York Knicks.

"Wemby was soft," Perkins said, via Awful Announcing. "Let's keep it real. He was soft, and he was scared. Especially in the big moments. He did a whole lot of barking in the interviews, but he did no biting whatsoever. And if I'm in that locker room, and they bring me in, the first thing I'm going to do is actually tell him to embrace being a big man first with guard skills. ... Like, we're talking about the Defensive Player of the Year. You're 7-5. You could be the most dominant player in the league by just embracing being a big man."

Turning failure into a lesson.

After the Knicks officially clinched their first title since 1973, Wembanyama talked about turning the Spurs' shortcomings into a valuable lesson.

"One of many things I learned is the margin of error was very, very thin," Wembanyama said. "Our domination stints - we absolutely dominated for most of this series. But our errors, our mistakes are punished so hard that we can't have ups and downs like this so much. The ups are OK. The downs is the reason we lost."

Luckily for the Spurs, the core of their team is still incredibly young. It wouldn't surprise us at all if Wembanyama leads them back to the Finals within the next few years.

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