That Infamous De’Aaron Fox Play Will Live on in NBA Finals History—But Spurs’ Mitch Johnson Doesn’t Care

The Spurs coach spoke Friday about Fox’s late-game decision that proved costly in San Antonio’s Game 4 loss to the Knicks.

Spurs coach Mitch Johnson opened up about criticism surrounding De’Aaron Fox after Fox decided to go for a layup instead of taking more time off the clock late in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. | Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images

The cities of San Antonio and New York collectively held their breath when Spurs guard De’Aaron Fox went up for a layup late in Game 4 of the NBA Finals. OG Anunoby blocked it—cleanly—and the Knicks got the ball back trailing by one with roughly 10 seconds left in the contest.

Everyone knows what happened next. Everyone also pointed the finger at Fox for attempting a layup when he could have taken seconds off the clock by dribbling it into a corner and drawing a foul.

Even NBA great Magic Johnson, well known for his extremely positive tweets about basketball, crushed Fox after the Spurs’ 107-106 loss.

“He should’ve pulled the ball back out,” Johnson said on First Take. “... De’Aaron is a point guard, you gotta know every situation. My job as a point guard was to know every situation.”

The Johnson that coaches the Spurs, however, couldn’t care less about the recent criticism and firmly backed his veteran guard a day after Game 4’s disappointing result.

"I don't get into social media. I think I've probably been fired 212 times, and we've traded Fox 72 times. ... The people that matter, we bond together, we stick together through the highs and lows,” Mitch Johnson told reporters on Friday.

“People have their opinions—I don't care. ... De'Aaron Fox will have the ball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow and I have nothing but the utmost confidence that he's gonna deliver like he's done countless times for us.”

Mitch Johnson:

"I don't get into social media. I think I've probably been fired 212 times, and we've traded Fox 72 times. People have their opinions. I don't care. De'Aaron Fox will have the ball in his hands at the end of the game tomorrow and I have nothing but the utmost… pic.twitter.com/BOneKeoItn

— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) June 12, 2026

What De’Aaron Fox said about his blocked layup after Spurs’ Game 4 loss to Knicks

Fox also took the podium Friday as part of the Spurs’ media availability, and he reiterated that he and the rest of the team were moving on from it.

"It's not like people have my phone number and can call me. I don't watch those shows. It doesn't matter,” Fox said, of the backlash he’s been getting online and on-air following Game 4. “It is what it is. You can't change it now. ... We're trying to move on from that. Obviously continuing to learn from the mistakes that we made, how we lost the lead or how we finished the game poorly, but we’re thinking about the next game.”

De’Aaron Fox on the criticism he got after game 4:

"It's not like people have my phone number and can call me. I don't watch those shows. It doesn't matter. It is what it is. You can't change it now. We're trying to move on from that" pic.twitter.com/hRMBMWliWj

— Oh No He Didn't (@ohnohedidnt24) June 12, 2026

Fox explained his reasoning for attempting the layup in a postgame locker room interview in which he said he wanted to put his team “up three.” He also thought he could “outrun” Anunoby on the play.

De’Aaron Fox’s college coach John Calipari also weighed in on criticism surrounding Spurs guard

Fox’s old college coach, John Calipari, wanted people to get off Fox’s back for his layup snafu, even if it did prove costly in the Spurs’ loss. Fox played under Calipari for one standout freshman season at Kentucky before getting drafted fifth overall by the Kings in 2017.

“Let me say this: stop on De’Aaron Fox,” Calipari said on The Dan Patrick Show. “He's playing with a high ankle sprain, probably shouldn't be playing. He would normally dunk that layup—if he would've dunked it, he's the hero. And now he’s the biggest [scapegoat].

In the wake of the Spurs’ all-time disastrous collapse in Game 4, both Fox and Johnson have come under much more scrutiny for their late-game decisions. Fox finished with 18 points and made a few clutch shots down the stretch, yet his choice to go for a tough layup rather than play conservative and run out the clock rightfully has fans scratching their heads.

As for Johnson, who’s in his first official season running the show in San Antonio, he naturally shoulders a sizable portion of the blame for the Spurs’ blown 29-point lead as the team’s head coach. Among his questionable second-half strategic decisions are two that stand out in the final seconds of the game: before the Anunoby tip-in, the Spurs doubled Jalen Brunson on his missed three-pointer, creating a 4-on-3 rebounding situation where Anunoby and Karl-Anthony Towns were the tallest players around the rim. Then, on the Spurs’ final offensive play to pull off a potential game-winner, Johnson had Dylan Harper inbounds the ball. Harper, one of the Spurs’ smallest guards, had to get his lob pass over the 7-foot KAT, who ended up getting a piece of the ball to help seal the game for the Knicks.

Fox will get his chance to redeem himself in Game 5 of the Finals set to take place Saturday night in San Antonio, a win-or-go-home matchup that should show what Johnson’s young and hungry Spurs squad is truly made of.

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