The $3 Million Player Who Changed The Spurs Season

SAN ANTONIO — It wasn’t your typical player transaction. 

On Feb. 14, 2023, the Sixers waived Julian Champagnie, a 22-year-old rookie on a two-way contract. It wasn’t because of poor play, a roster crunch, or a blockbuster trade, it was to create a roster spot for Mac McClung, who needed to be on an NBA contract to compete in the league’s Slam Dunk contest. 

“Back then, being 22 … I thought it was over,” Champagnie told Sports Illustrated earlier this week. “I ain’t going to lie to you.”

McClung went on to win the first of three Dunk Contest titles, but Champagnie will go down as the true winner in the transaction. 

Two days after the Sixers waived him, he signed with the Spurs. At the time, they were in the middle of a 22-win season under Gregg Popovich and still three months away from winning the lottery that landed them Victor Wembanyama. 

“I don’t know what it was when I got signed here,” Champagnie told reporters on Tuesday. “I was so consumed with just getting waived. When I got here, Coach Pop told me I had a niche, which is shooting the basketball.” 

Champagnie had 20 points in the Spurs Game 7 win over the Thunder to win the Western Conference and has averaged 9.5 points per game on 38% shooting from 3 in his four years with the Spurs. 

A month after drafting Wembanyama, the Spurs re-signed Champagnie to a four-year deal worth $12 million and pays $3 million annually. This season he averaged a career-high 11.1 points per game on 43% shooting. He’s become one of the best-value contracts in the league, and the Spurs have a team option on his deal next season. The Spurs could opt into it, or decline it and re-sign him for more money. 

Former Sixers general manager Daryl Morey told reporters earlier this year he “sold high” when he traded second-year player Jared McCain to the defending champion Thunder. The opposite could be said of Champagnie. 

In Champagnie’s tenure, the Spurs went on to draft Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper while trading for De’Aaron Fox to put the team’s championship core together. He also saw Popovich cede the coaching reins to Mitch Johnson after suffering a stroke in Nov. 2024. 

Champagnie primarily came off the bench his first three seasons with the Spurs, but in late December, Johnson made a season-changing decision by swapping Champagnie in for veteran starter Harrison Barnes, who played a supporting role early in his career on the Warriors dynasty teams. 

The result gave the Spurs more shooting to put around Wembanyama, and the Spurs finished the season 39–11. In the Western Conference finals, Champagnie averaged 17.3 points in the last three games of the series with the Spurs facing elimination, hitting 48% of his 3s. Johnson called Champagnie the team’s “unsung hero.” 

Heading into the Finals against the Knicks, the Brooklyn native Champagnie is no stranger to Madison Square Garden, which should be a boost for the inexperienced Spurs. He played college basketball at St. John’s, a program that calls the Garden home, and also played there in high school while at Bishop Loughlin. 

“Being able to go back to the Garden and compete for a championship, it’s the best feeling ever,” he said Wednesday.