Key Takeaways
- Dylan Harper joked that Jay-Z “hexed” the Spurs by flashing the Roc diamond courtside, saying, “We started losing” after the gesture.
- San Antonio lost the NBA Finals to the Knicks in five games, including a historic Game 4 collapse that saw the Spurs blow a 29-point lead.
- Harper said the loss now fuels his workouts and made his goal for next season clear: “I ain’t coming off no bench.”
Dylan Harper believes the San Antonio Spurs ran into something stronger than the New York Knicks during the NBA Finals: a courtside hex. The 20-year-old guard said San Antonio’s fortunes changed after a certain hip-hop billionaire heckled him at Madison Square Garden in a gesture Harper jokingly described as the moment the series began slipping away.
The Spurs entered Game 3 trailing 2-0 but jumped ahead early, quieting a crowd Harper and Stephon Castle had expected to be far more hostile.
“It was underwhelming in that first game,” Castle told GQ, claiming Oklahoma City had been louder during the Western Conference Finals.
Then Jay-Z got involved. Harper said Hov yelled, “Come on!” before raising his hands in the label’s signature diamond.
“We started losing,” Harper recalled. “Sh*t went downhill from there.”
It certainly did. The Spurs, who had gone from a losing season to the Finals in a single year, fell to the Knicks in five games.
Harper revisited the play during the interview, pulling up a clip of his stunned reaction beneath the basket. “That’s the loudest I’ve ever heard an arena,” he said.
Castle had no interest in reliving it. “I don’t be watching that sh*t, bro,” he told Harper, turning away from the screen.
Harper kept watching. “I got to watch it, bro,” he responded. “It happened.”
The loss lingered for weeks, but Harper said returning to the gym finally helped him shake it. “It helps me work out harder,” he said.
He also rejected the idea that reaching the Finals once made another trip inevitable: “Now, we got to do it.”
That attitude echoes what Harper’s mother, veteran coach Maria Harper, said about his first year with the San Antonio Spurs. The No. 2 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft, he arrived after serving as the centerpiece at Don Bosco Prep and Rutgers, where he set the program’s freshman scoring record.
In San Antonio, he had to carve out a role beside Castle, Victor Wembanyama, and a crowded group of guards. “Nothing was given; everything was earned,” Maria told Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson.
She has since stopped giving Dylan tactical critiques, choosing to trust the Spurs’ coaches and the foundation she spent years building.
How large Harper’s role becomes next season remains unsettled. He joked about winning Sixth Man of the Year before dropping the diplomatic answer and making his real preference clear.
“I ain’t coming off no bench,” he said.
Castle backed him up: “You going to be in the starting lineup. Be ready to hoop.”
