From Bus 1 Boy to Blog Boy: One of the most talented Spurs writers is Wemby’s backup
OKLAHOMA CITY — When the locker room opens after the sport, writers come flocking in in search of inspiration for the subsequent story. A single quote can spark an concept or carry one other full circle.
Typically, it is the reporters coming in to write about the gamers. But in the San Antonio Spurs locker room, there is a prolific author hiding of their midst lengthy earlier than the media arrives.
A little bit greater than a month in the past, TheAthletic Sat down with San Antonio Spurs middle Luke Kornet to find out about his previous life as a church blogger. It turned out to be good timing.
“Well, I haven’t participated in it in a few years now. I actually wrote stuff yesterday, believe it or not,” Kornet mentioned. “I was thinking about revamping it, so I might come out with a revamp soon.”
A number of weeks later, a consumer on Medium named Luke Kornet, whose bio reads “Professional Athlete Dabbling in Writing,” dropped the sequel his now 509 followers had lengthy awaited. He instantly addressed the “controversy” over his several-year absence from writing, conceding that he is a “weak-willed, noncommittal sham of a writer” and {that a} weblog centered on church structure was “a bit overzealous.”
But that weblog was extra than simply random musings of a joyful genius.
Kornet, 30, has lengthy been a creator trapped in an NBA participant’s physique, relationship again to his first NBA cease in New York, when he went on Mitchell Robinson’s Block Party present on the Knicks’ YouTube channel and taught his old teammate how to juggle. As a member of the Boston Celtics, Kornet did all the things from internet hosting to podcast to making satirical smear campaigns about Derrick White in partnership with the crew’s YouTube channel and native broadcaster, NBC Sports Boston.
But he was brewing one thing of his personal, constructing his church weblog as a ardour undertaking that spoke extra to who he was exterior of work.
He launched his weblog on Medium known as “Don’t Pass the Rock” on June 11, 2023, shortly after his Celtics’ try at getting back from a 3-0 deficit in the Eastern Conference finals to the Miami Heat was thwarted when Jayson Tatum rolled his ankle early in Game 7. Kornet warned his readers that this weblog wouldn’t be about basketball, however would analyze the numerous church buildings he has come throughout in his NBA travels. I’ve deliberate to consider the church buildings on 5 pillars: magnificence, universality, neighborhood, custom and sustenance.
The long-term imaginative and prescient was an NBA Catholic’s church information, serving to those that share their religion simply discover accessible church buildings whereas on the highway. From the VOUS Church in Miami, with its pastel partitions, to the huge St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Kornet has been cataloging the numerous homes of worship which have introduced him peace and inspiration on sport days.
Recognizing how lucky he is to journey the nation for a dwelling, he sought a extra genuine means to join to the cities he visited. The groups keep at five-star resorts, remoted from the actuality of the metropolis in lots of circumstances. Finding a neighborhood church that piques your curiosity is your means to discover one thing genuine.
“Frankly, going during the weekdays, and not just Sundays, you see a lot of people who are there because they know they need to be there and want to be there,” Kornet mentioned. “It’s a cool thing where everyone can be their own, but you’re also very united with these people who are just there on a Tuesday in Salt Lake (City).”
These church buildings helped him really feel like he was at house along with his religion and his neighborhood, even when he was away from his household. As I continued to weblog about the decor and development of them, I noticed the sense of neighborhood was what felt actual.
It did not take lengthy for the weblog to hit pause. Ask these round him, and so they’ll all inform you that Kornet does issues with intention, even when it borders on, or leaps previous, absurd.
Kornet’s hiatus was spurred by a necessity to discover inspiration, recognizing that he was much less of an architectural buff and extra of a storyteller. But what was his story?
“I (tried) to take some time to find out what that actually is,” Kornet mentioned. “Because when you’re something writing that’s not actually what you care about, it just dies out pretty quickly, forcing it where it’s not fun.”
If it isn’t enjoyable, it isn’t Kornet. Everything round him has a touch of irreverence. He thanked him with the locker room in Boston and has made him a fixture in San Antonio, his new house after he signed as a free agent final summer season.
“I think Luke Kornet is one of the most creative minds that I’ve been around in basketball and he creates a lot of joy in our locker room,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson mentioned. “And, um, yeah, I’ll leave it at that because I’ll keep the family business in the living room. But he is a joy to have.”
While the Spurs have been the excellent subsequent chapter for his profession, Kornet’s determination to depart Boston was not simple. Brad Stevens, the Celtics’ president of basketball operations, believed in Kornet sufficient to preserve him round as he slowly developed. Kornet finally developed into one of the greatest backup facilities in the league by the time Joe Mazzulla was head coach.
Over the previous few seasons, Kornet went to Mass with Mazzulla and Kornet’s improvement coach, Craig Luschenat, when the crew was on the highway. That was the place he realized the sort of individuals his coaches have been when the context of work was stripped away. It helped him perceive the intense Mazzulla at a deeper degree, whereas additionally seeing the consistency of its ideas.
“Joe is who he is, and I think that’s what allows him to be that way and not be so fluctuating,” Kornet mentioned. “He’s a lot more rooted in what you’re doing.”
Although Kornet is initially from the Dallas space, Boston helped him develop a thicker pores and skin and hone his priorities in life. He grew to admire the direct, blunt nature of communication in Boston, contrasting it to the heat and appeal of the Southern tradition the place he was raised. He realized to perceive that he is there to take care of the individuals he cares about and give attention to what’s inside his sphere.
“You’re frankly letting your word be what it actually is, and therefore not overpromising things just for the sake of perceived warmth to people, but it’s not actually really real or authentic,” he mentioned. “You can joke and actually know what you’re standing on. It’s a real contrast of things. That was something I realized in Boston. You care for the people you’re there to care about, and you also kind of know who’s not your responsibility and you don’t care about that because it’s, like, not your duty.
“I can’t be everybody’s everything.”
That realization helped him find a broader, yet more direct version of Don’t Pass The Rock. This time around, it wouldn’t be locked into the church review concept. Posts have ranged from a play-by-play of the team’s plane troubles to As he wrote in his second posthe’ll die on the hill that the best ability is vulnerability.
When the team was stuck on a plane grounded by a blizzard in Charlotte, inspiration struck. The combination of boredom and frustration had the words flowing out of him.
“With hearts aflame and spirits lifted, the distant runways of San Antonio International Airport seemed just beyond the hills,” Kornet wrote. “Sadly, the crossing of these hills was marked with the malfunction of a element and the subsequent incapacity to preserve cabin stress. And that is after I realized, airplanes are similar to us. You need to give you the chance to preserve the stress up for the full 48, however typically you’ll be able to’t maintain it. Next Plane Up Mentality.”
The “next plane up mentality” line made him just say to himself, “Awesome.” It’s the feeling a writer is always chasing, that one line that they can’t wait to share with the world. It was the same feeling he would get when reading late-night show host Stephen Colbert’s 2007 book “I Am America (And So Can You!),” which was one of his great inspirations for his wit and satire.
It’s the same feeling he displays when he throws down a dunk and screams to the heavens, or strikes a pose so comical it ends up on a T-shirt.
LA vogue has reached a brand new degree pic.twitter.com/TgJuCdVqkI
— Jared Weiss (@JaredWeissNBA) December 11, 2025
Kornet is a showman, somebody who leans into silliness to complement the seriousness. He did not make it from the fringes of the league to a valued piece of a number of contenders by goofing his means to the, properly, center of the pack.
He can see himself becoming a member of the media ranks someday. He will not know till he hangs it up whether or not he needs to go coach, write or give attention to one other ardour. But the one factor that can by no means finish is his journeys to church buildings round the world, jotting down notes on how the lighting fills the stained glass home windows and the parishioners welcome him with open arms.
“Something that faith enables,” Kornet mentioned, “is that you realize what you’re ultimately really doing stuff for.”
