For decades, David Aldridge has been synonymous with NBA coverage.
He has worked over 30 NBA Finals, chronicling several iconic moments for various media outlets, including Turner, ESPN, the Washington Post, and now The Athletic. In 2016, he received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and has also been honored with the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists.
We recently caught up with Aldridge to discuss the championship matchup between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs and other NBA-related topics.
Note: This interview has been edited and condensed for length and clarity.
Awful Announcing: What’s a key reason the Spurs could win?
David Aldridge: “The Spurs could win because of their defensive versatility. They’ve got multiple guys who are capable of defending different parts of the floor at a very high level. Part of the superpower of Oklahoma City is how incredibly efficient they are offensively when they’re rolling, and Stephon Castle did a great job of making Shai Gilgeous-Alexander take a lot of difficult shots. Dylan Harper, a little less so, but in the same regard. Obviously, Victor Wembanyama alters the chemistry of every team the Spurs play in terms of their shots.”
What’s a key reason the Knicks could win?
“With OG Anunoby, Mikal Bridges, and Josh Hart, they can just run waves of defenders at the other team’s wing players. I’m sure Anunoby will get a lot of run against Wemby in this series. Again, the goal isn’t to shut Wemby out. It’s just to make him as inefficient as possible.
“If the Knicks limit their live-ball turnovers, I think they have a pretty good chance at winning this thing. The other wild card is Mitchell Robinson, who’s been very good against San Antonio. He gives them size against Wemby, rim protection, and offensive rebounding, which is the most important. If he’s limited by his hand in the series, that could be a big X-factor.”
🚨 KNICKS. SPURS. GAME DAY. 🚨
Two storied franchises, out to write new chapters in their history. Superstars Jalen Brunson and Victor Wembanyama collide on the biggest stage in basketball. Each team 4 wins away from becoming NBA Champions.
🏆 NYK: seeks their first… pic.twitter.com/Fz6WOvlukX
— NBA (@NBA) June 3, 2026
How unusual is it for Victor Wembanyama to lead the Spurs to the Finals in his first playoff appearance?
“One of the oldest clichés is that you have to take your lumps in the playoffs and lose before you can win. That’s true until 20-year-old Magic Johnson says it’s not true…
“Larry Bird dominated from the first minute he was in the league, and I think he won the NBA championship in his second year, so some guys can do that. I think you have to cap it with a Finals win, obviously, to be viewed in the same breath as those other guys. Tiger Woods, right? Tiger Woods just said, ‘I’m built to annihilate Augusta National, and I’m going to do that.’ At whatever age he was, 20 or 21. Some guys just have that in them, and they’re precocious enough not to understand or care how hard it is. Maybe Wemby’s just that guy who’s ‘I’m the next generation of NBA superstar,’ equipped to meet the moment and not be overwhelmed by it.’”
What does it tell you that the NBA will have had eight different champions over the past eight years?
“I think the NBA has put procedures in place to produce more parity. They’ve made it very difficult for teams to hoard players like they used to, when you could bring in a veteran for very little money because they wanted to play for a championship or contending team. You could keep them over and over and over again, and they never hit free agency. You could keep a team together for five or six years that way. The league, with the penalties that come with the second apron, has made it very difficult to be that expensive for that long, so you have to get rid of the players who are a big part of your core and do a lot of the dirty work necessary to win championships.”
What’s a good example of the second apron’s impact on a championship team?
“A team like Boston could have easily won two or three more championships. It simply became too expensive to keep together. The owners could not pay the luxury tax to keep Kristaps Porziņģis, Al Horford, and Jrue Holiday. They had to get rid of them all and go back to having a team primarily built around Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown and find new guys that can step in and play at a championship level.”
Area man discusses next job project: pic.twitter.com/N0UdEcQ4lA
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) June 2, 2026
Do you have a favorite memory from the NBA Finals?
“There were several that were exciting. The Shrug Game was great because the three-pointer was kind of a new thing for Michael Jordan. Doing it at that level in that series was a lot of fun. To see the Celtics and Lakers play for a championship again in 2008 and 2010 was just awesome. It was remarkable to see Jordan come back in ’96 and lead the Bulls to another three-peat. The Pistons beating the Lakers in 2004 was the best coaching job I’ve ever seen. Larry Brown, I’ve never seen a team more ready to beat a supposed great team than the Pistons were. They dismantled them. Ray Allen’s three in 2013, which I have written and said is the greatest three-pointer in the history of this league, was unbelievable to be there and watch him do that in real time.”
Any guesses about where Giannis Antetokounmpo will play this fall?
“I’m not very good at hot take-ery, so I don’t know. I have no idea. I think there’s a diminishing chance he stays, but it’s not zero, depending on what happens with the Bucks in the draft and free agency. It’s not as easy a trade as people think it is because he makes a lot of money, and it’s very hard to line up a trade that gets you equitable players, prospects, and picks in return. Not to mention that trading picks has become a whole different thing since the league changed the lottery rules. Let’s just pull a team. Is the Charlotte Hornets’ first-round pick in 2029 now more or less valuable because of the change in the lottery rules?”
Whom would you select with the No. 1 overall draft pick?
“I think AJ Dybantsa and Darryn Peterson are kind of on the same line in terms of their potential. If Darryn Peterson’s comp is Anthony Edwards and Dybantsa’s comp is Brown or Tatum, those are pretty good comps. I think each of them has a different skill set that would be extremely valuable to NBA teams. If you’re asking me who I would pick, I’d probably take Dybantsa just because he’s five inches taller, and that’s really the only reason. Someone a long time ago said that when in doubt, take the taller guy.”
The Wizards won the lottery. What should they do with the first pick? Take A.J. Dybantsa, or Darryn Peterson? Or trade back a spot or two? The dude @JoshuaBRobbins and I polled execs and scouts in Chicago last week, in @TheAthletic (free to read): https://t.co/ke7sqCMVlR
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) May 17, 2026
How has access to players changed?
“Access is completely gone. That’s completely dissipated. You get them at the podium and in their lockers for three minutes, and that’s it. That’s unfortunate. It used to be different. When I came into the league, Magic Johnson talked at his locker for 20 minutes before Finals games. Same with Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan for a while. Then it changed, but in the first five or six years, you could talk to Michael before playoff games. He was fine. It’s just different now.”
As someone who used to work there, what are your thoughts on what has happened to the Washington Post?
“Anger doesn’t even begin to express how I feel about that because it’s an insult to people who live in the District of Columbia and read that paper. I grew up in D.C. I’ve lived in D.C. my whole life. I’ve read that paper since I was seven years old, and I didn’t even know what I was reading half the time, but it was The Washington Post, and you read it. It was a newspaper powerful enough to bring down the president of the United States. When you worked at that place, as I did for nine years, you felt that when you walked into the building.”