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University of Northern Iowa Athletics
Former Panthers Ahelegbe, Sweeney squaring off in NBA Finals
6/4/2026 2:50:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Ahelegbe’s Knicks and Sweeney’s Spurs facing off in best-of-seven NBA championship series.
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa --- The 2026 NBA Finals tipped off on Wednesday night between the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks in search of basketball immortality.
This year's Finals notably includes a pair of former Panthers on the benches in coaching roles as UNI guard Kwadzo Ahelegbe serves as an assistant coach for the Knicks, while former video coordinator Sean Sweeney looks to lead the Spurs to a championship as associate head coach.
Both Agelegbe and Sweeney will look to join former UNI sharpshooter Nick Nurse as the second former Panther to win an NBA title. Nurse, currently the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, led the Toronto Raptors to a championship in 2019.
Ahelegbe, who played for Northern Iowa from 2006 to 2011, was a three-time All-Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) guard and the 2011 MVC Defensive Player of the Year, notably helping the Panthers to back-to-back conference titles in 2009 and 2010 in both the regular season and tournament. A member of UNI's historic 2010 NCAA Sweet Sixteen team, he finished his career with 1,329 total points, currently ranking 14th all-time in program history.
Following a six-year professional playing career in Europe, Ahelegbe, an Oakdale, Minnesota native, began his coaching career in 2016 as video coordinator for his hometown Minnesota Timberwolves. He later joined the Windy City Bulls, the NBA G-League affiliate of the Chicago Bulls in 2021 as an assistant coach before joining the Knicks in 2023.
New York is making its ninth appearance in the NBA Finals and its first since 1999 when it lost to San Antonio in five games. The Knicks, with Eastern Conference playoff series wins over the Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia 76ers and Cleveland Cavaliers, have previously won two NBA titles in 1970 and 1973.
Sweeney, who played at both Green Bay (2001-02) and St. Thomas (2002-06), served on the Northern Iowa staff as video coordinator during the 2010-11 season, a year where the Panthers won 20 games and reached the quarterfinal round of the CollegeInsider.com (CIT) Tournament.
Following his time in Cedar Falls, Sweeney began an extensive coaching career throughout the NBA first as a video coordinator with the New Jersey/Brooklyn Nets (2011-13), followed by a season as an assistant coach (2013-14). He would go on to spend the next 11 years as an assistant for the Milwaukee Bucks (2014-18), Detroit Pistons (2018-21) and Dallas Mavericks (2021-25) before landing his current role as the Spurs' associate head coach.
Following the NBA Finals, Sweeney, a St. Paul, Minnesota native, is scheduled to become the 16th head coach of the Orlando Magic next season.
San Antonio is appearing in the NBA Finals for the seventh time in franchise history and first time since 2014. The Spurs, who defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Oklahoma City Thunder en route to the Western Conference championship, have previously won the NBA title five times (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014).
Both teams split their matchups against one another during the 2025-26 regular season, while the Knicks topped the Spurs in the championship game of this season's NBA Cup, the league's in-season tournament in Las Vegas by a score of 124-113.
The full NBA Finals schedule is listed below.
2026 NBA FINALS SCHEDULE (All games broadcast on ABC)
- Game 1 - New York 105, San Antonio 95
- Game 2 - New York at San Antonio (June 5 - 7:30 p.m. CT)
- Game 3 - San Antonio at New York (June 8 - 7:30 p.m. CT)
- Game 4 - San Antonio at New York (June 10 - 7:30 p.m. CT)
- Game 5*** - New York at San Antonio (June 13 - 7:30 p.m. CT)
- Game 6*** - San Antonio at New York (June 16- 7:30 p.m. CT)
- Game 7*** - New York at San Antonio (June 19- 7:30 p.m. CT)
*** if necessary
