The San Antonio Spurs will meet the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals, with Game 1 tipping off Wednesday at 8:30 p.m. ET on ABC. Games 1 and 2 are scheduled for Frost Bank Center before the series moves to Madison Square Garden for Games 3 and 4.
Lilo Ku, better known as Air Corgi, has a tradition of predicting series winners by floating an inflatable basketball into bins labeled with the competing teams. This year Air Corgi selected the Spurs to win the series in seven games.
The Spurs acknowledged the prediction at their Finals pep rally. The team’s mascot, the Coyote, welcomed Air Corgi’s owner, Denny Ku, onto the stage while fans cheered and held up phones as the Coyote hoisted Air Corgi aloft.
San Antonio is appearing in its first NBA Finals since 2014, when the Spurs defeated the Miami Heat in five games. This Finals also marks the franchise’s first without coach Gregg Popovich.
The 2026 series is a rematch of the 1999 NBA Finals, when San Antonio beat New York in five games; that 1999 series was the last time the Knicks reached the Finals.
