CEDAR PARK, Texas — Julian Champagnie sat courtside, his hair the most discernible feature from behind, and took in a scene he’d grown heavily familiar with in a few short years.
This particular November evening, H-E-B Center was as cold inside as the outside temperature — maybe colder, as it’s often described — and Champagnie sat, still and watching. He was a bona fide NBA starter for the San Antonio Spurs logging upwards of 30 minutes a game, and a few seats away sat players with a desire to do the same.
Champagnie used to be one of them. Maybe that’s why he was there, watching first-year coach Scott King captain the Austin Spurs to a win over the Texas Legends. He saw himself in them.
“He’s lived this,” King said. “He started in the G League, embraced a role and now stars in that role. He’s doing all the little things that impact winning. It’s great for him to come support us.”
As he watched, some of his current teammates found their groove. Sidy Cissoko, before the trade that sent him to Sacramento and later Portland, was on assignment and all three of Riley Minix, Harrison Ingram and David Duke Jr. hadn’t been called up to San Antonio, so they, too, took the court.
Then there was Champagnie — present on his own accord. He no longer needed the G League, but he wanted to be present. That didn’t go unnoticed.
“He’s a great dude,” Duke said. “A great teammate. Everyone loves to be around him. He shows all of us the highest respect.”
“It shows the care the Spurs have for Austin,” King added. “They value the development. There’s a big care factor as an organization. Guys see that.”
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If you told the forward where he was a few years prior, he might have believed you. Whether as a player or spectator, being around the G League wasn’t the most appalling thing for him to accept, especially with his twin brother, Justin, having done the same thing.
Go back early enough, though, and even a mention of the league would have been shocking to the 19-year-old kid at St. John’s in Queens, N.Y. who just wanted to go to college for free. Basketball was simply his medium.
“It’s 450 guys out of literally billions of people in the world,” Champagnie said. “I wasn’t really thinking about the NBA.”
Soon enough, he had to. It quickly became his day-to-day and now sits among the few things he oft concerns himself with. To Champagnie, basketball, his brother and his fiancé, Cassidy Velez, meant the most.
If you told him that back then, he might’ve been the only one surprised.
Champagnie was the first recruit of the Mike Anderson era at St. John’s University. For Van Macon, it was a welcome signing. It meant he’d won.
Macon first saw Champagnie in 10th grade, and from that point on, the recruiting began. When Anderson was hired to be the head coach at St. John’s, Macon — who knew Champagnie’s parents, Ranford and Christina, as well as his high school coach — had the family come up to the university.
“Julian was thinking about going to prep school,” said Macon, an assistant coach for the Red Storm during Champagnie’s college years. “So, we tried to convince him it would better for him to start his career with us. That he’d get plenty of time right away.”
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The pitch landed. Champagnie, a Brooklyn native, chose to stay close to home in New York and got his start under Macon and Anderson just two years after he officially deemed basketball his passion. It wasn’t a no-brainer, however.
“I had no clue what I was going to do,” Champagnie admitted. “I’d played basketball for forever, but I didn’t ever think anything of it until it was just about time to go to college.”
St. John’s ultimately proved to be the right decision for the teenage Champagnie. Not only was he with a program that promised to “invest in him,” but he was within driving distance of his twin brother, Justin, who’d already committed to play for the Pittsburgh Panthers.
The kicker? Julian also saved his parents some money.
“My dream was always just to get to college,” he said. “Free education.”
What first began as a low-budget way to get an education and play basketball quickly turned into a larger quest. Julian didn’t know it yet, but Macon and another St. John’s assistant, T.J. Cleveland, had already pinned him as an NBA prospect midway through his freshman year.
It only took a few months.
“Initially, his confidence wasn’t there,” Cleveland said. “He didn’t think he was ready. But he believed in the system that Coach Anderson had in place, and the more he played, the more he worked, the more Coach put the ball in his hands, I think his confidence just grew.”
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Julian began his freshman year scoring double digits only a handful of times. It took until his fifth game before he finally hit a 3, and even then, he wasn’t shooting at a high clip. He had the intangibles, but his shots weren’t falling, so he resorted to his favorite method of realignment: his internal voice.
“It’s just a self-talk thing,” he said. “I hype myself up.”
After that, he didn’t stop.
“He kept shooting,” Cleveland said. “A few misses didn’t bother him.”
By the final stretch, 20-point nights weren’t a surprise. His season high came against Butler, when he hit four 3-pointers en route to 23 points in the third-to-last game of the year.
Showings like that only confirmed his potential for Macon and Co.
“He really began to come into his own,” Macon said. “He started doing things that you don’t anticipate freshman doing. Once he started to gain confidence in himself, he just kept getting better and better and better.”
After one season, Julian wasn’t the only one to find shades of success. He was already being prepped behind-the-scenes for a potential professional career, but six hours west, Justin had found his own role with the Panthers.
He was averaging more points at a bigger school, sitting at around 12.3 per contest, but the twins, although competitive, seldom compared themselves.
Not since they finally split after high school, anyway.
Christina Champagnie cried for weeks after her twin boys left for college.
From the time Justin and Julian first began playing sports — soccer first, then basketball — the pair had been together. For a while, the only thing that physically differentiated them was their hair. Now, they were set to be hours away from each other playing basketball for different universities.
“I cried like I lost a family member,” Christina said. “I couldn’t even talk to people, but they sat me down and explained that this was something they felt was right for them at the time. They wanted to create their own paths.”
Justin committed to Pittsburgh before Julian made any decision at all. A few years later, he’d enter the draft before his brother. One way or another, he always seemed to be one step further. Even in age.
“I’m seven minutes older than Julian,” Justin said.
“Did you give him s*** for that growing up?” I asked.
“Always,” he replied.
Birth order aside, both twins possessed different skill sets. As Macon explained, Justin was more athletic and slightly more aggressive, while Julian shot the ball better with a more “even-keeled” personality. Fast forward to their early careers in the NBA, and those differences hold.
Unfortunately for Julian, being out-muscled didn’t translate well to backyard ball. And the duo played on every hoop they could find growing up.
“I would bust his ass,” Justin said. “That’s pretty much how it went. He might say something different, but I don’t know if you want to believe that.”
Julian certainly didn’t.
“I don’t know about all that,” he said slyly.
When college rolled around, the informal face-offs between Julian and Justin stopped. One was six hours from home and the other was still trying to figure out if there existed a world after college basketball. That answer, courtesy of Macon, Anderson and Cleveland, came as a surprise.
“They sprung it on me,” Julian said of potentially making the NBA. “They told me: ‘This is going to happen to you. You’ve got to be prepared.’ I just took the opportunity when it came and went with it.”
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Julian spent the next two years preparing for that possibility. His point totals skyrocketed, resting just above 19 points per game. He quickly settled into a role as a sharpshooter. Then came the decision.
“After three years of St. John’s, we knew there was really nothing more we could do for him,” Macon said. “It was time for him to take that next step.”
Again, Julian followed in his brother’s footsteps. He left St. John’s and entered the 2022 NBA Draft with high expectations, making the trip to Barclays Center to be in attendance. Like Justin, he went undrafted.
“I didn’t think it was going to happen to me,” Julian said. “I thought my number was going to be called and I was going to be a pretty solid (draft pick). I was hurt. Like any guy that goes and doesn’t get drafted, you get humbled.”
Justin and Julian both ended their interviews the same way.
After discussing their respective journeys and relationship, one ended with a firm handshake, the other with a quick sign-off over the phone.
“Appreciate you, my guy,” they said.
Hard to believe so-called “twin telepathy” doesn’t exist, given how often the Champagnies’ journeys intertwined — intentional or not — even on draft night. That time, for once, Julian gained from being a step behind.
“I always tell Justin he’s my test dummy,” the now-Spurs forward said. “I just watch what he does and learn from him.”
In 2022, that materialized in a phone call. Justin, a year removed from his own draft woes, landed himself a two-way contract with the Toronto Raptors and spent a season splitting time between the mainstay roster and the franchise’s G League affiliate, Raptors 905.
The day before Julian was set to be drafted, Justin was upgraded to a regular two-year, non-guaranteed deal that had him in high spirits. He passed those along to an ego-bruised Julian.
“He was telling me: ‘It doesn’t matter,'” Julian said. “‘If you get an opportunity, that’s what matters. Hearing your name called is just a pat on the back.'”
Justin’s next words came true expeditiously.
“If you get a two-way,” he told Julian, “you’ll have to figure it out.”
Twenty-four hours after his name wasn’t called by either Adam Silver or Mark Tatum, Julian inked a two-way deal with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The terms were simple. Julian’s shooting was enticing, so Philadelphia would give him the opportunity he was looking for, but he’d be back-and-forth between Doc Rivers’ squad and the Delaware Blue Coats.
He didn’t much mind that. And he wasted no time showing it.
“We had a little youngsters scrimmage at the end of practice,” Rivers said of Julian, Isaiah Joe and Trevelin Queen after a day of training camp. “They all played well … Julian had a terrific camp.”
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Julian’s summer performance allowed him to stick around for the first half of the season. He notched only two games under Rivers, but spent the other games improving his shooting, playmaking and physicality. His dream, for the time being, was realized; perhaps he was meant to be in the NBA.
When reality struck, it kicked off the worst two days of his life.
The 76ers waived Julian on Feb. 14 — Valentine’s Day. Normally, that’d be enough to put life on hold, but Julian had other commitments.
“I do have a girlfriend,” he laughed. “Well, a fiancé now.”
Determined not to let the news cloud the occasion, the pair went for steak.
“It ruined my day,” he admitted, “but I didn’t let it ruin our day. So, we went to dinner. Did our thing. Dinner was terrible, but we laughed about it.”
After they ate, Julian and Velez headed back. Julian, his future uncertain, posed an idea to his fiancé, wishing for a way to control something.
“Do you want to go home?” he asked.
She agreed. The two swiftly packed, got in the car and drove to New York.
“That was it,” Julian said. “I never looked back. Worst two days of my life. Longest two days of my life. I didn’t know what was going to happen next.”
Evidently, Justin did. At the conclusion of Julian’s two-day nightmare, Justin’s phone rang with a call from his agent. He was playing for the Miami Heat’s G League affiliate, the Sioux Falls Skyforce, after being waived by Toronto — but the call wasn’t for him.
The Spurs wanted Julian, and Justin had the honor of telling him.
“Yeah Bro,” Justin texted his twin. “Your time off is done. You’re coming back.”
At a dinner table in Sacramento occupied by players who suited up for the Spurs at the 2023 California Classic, an ensemble of phones started chirping.
Julian, having finished in the top five of all participants in both rebounding and assists, knew a deal with the Spurs was in the works. He averaged 14 points in both Sacramento and Las Vegas with multiple 30-point outings to follow up a strong 15-game stint at the end of 2022 when San Antonio brought him in to finish the season.
The only question was the numbers.
“I was just waiting,” Julian recalled. “Then everybody’s phone started dinging, and it’s me on the screen. It was pretty cool just to get to experience that, and see that (my work) paid off.”
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In a few short months, Julian earned the respect of his other teammates, but more importantly, of Gregg Popovich, who oversaw his growth from the start. The result? A four-year, $12 million deal that kept him rostered through 2027.
“(Julian) has good ability,” the Spurs’ septuagenerian coach said. “He’s got great size for his position, and we’ve been impressed with him. He has been a really good addition for us.”
Despite the praise, it took some time before the shock value of playing under a coach as tenured as Popovich wore off.
“I was definitely scared,” Julian said. “That’s Coach Pop. I was very petrified. Coming here, I knew I had to make a lasting impression. You don’t get first impressions back.”
Similar to the 76ers, the Spurs found intrigue in the forward’s shooting ability. Being young, they also saw an opportunity to workshop his skills over time, which appealed to Julian equally. Though he wouldn’t have minded another two-way deal if that’s what it took.
“You have a niche,” Popovich told him early on. “You can shoot the basketball, which makes you valuable. But you’ve got to work on defense and become a complete NBA player.”
Julian knew how dire it was for him to accomplish that — lest he risk being waived again and falling out of favor with the league.
“Any guy who goes undrafted and gets cut in the same year,” Julian said, “someone who doesn’t really see the fruits of his labor, is going to be nervous. You’re going to be on edge.”
What exactly was he thinking?
“I’ve got to be damn near perfect to make this work. To stay.”
Julian Champagnie’s fingers twiddled as he pretended to type in the Spurs’ locker room inside Frost Bank Center. In his lap, an imaginary computer he was using to mock reporters, sat open.
“All y’all do is type,” he joked.
One reporter took the bait. “They might be typing about you,” he quipped.
“Oh,” Julian said with a grin. “Never mind then.”
In his second full season for the Spurs, that often was the case. Facing the media at the podium had become normal for the 23-year-old because of his strong play. On the year, he was averaging a hair over 10 points per game on 36 percent shooting from beyond the arc — figures that rivaled his short 15-game stint prior to Victor Wembanyama’s arrival.
He was playing freely again, and this time in a much more substantial role.
“When we got him, Pop challenged him to believe in himself and have confidence through the highs and lows of the season,” Spurs acting coach Mitch Johnson explained. “And he has.”
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For Julian, shooting came easy. He developed that part early on, but the confidence aspect of his game? That came a little harder. That’s why he focused his efforts on developing a strong mindset, regardless of result.
“If you miss five in a row, you can make five in a row,” Julian said. “I’ve done it. I’m going to continue to take good shots and force-feed myself confidence.
“I don’t like to expect things. I like to strive for them.”
The idea of being a confident shooter loomed over Julian as he entered his second full season in San Antonio. If nothing else, it was going to have to become a staple of his game because without it, he wasn’t going to be able to pitch in the way his teammates — or Popovich — for that matter, expected.
“That’s important for us,” he said. “Shooting is his biggest improvement.”
“I have such high expectations for him,” Chris Paul added. “Ju can really shoot that ball, and we’re going to need him to do that.”
So, Julian watched. As a visual learner, he made sure to monitor defenses to better understand how he could get shots to fall. How he could find his spots.
In the case of a non-favorable outcome, he also had to learn to let go.
“It’s basketball, Julian said. “There’s going to be games where you shoot well and some where you don’t. People are going to get down on you. Fans, coaches, teammates — whatever it is.
“I just tell myself: ‘Keep shooting. Keep shooting. Keep shooting.'”
As Julian kept at it, his impact only grew. Games where he shot five or more 3s became commonplace, and when Popovich left the sideline for recovery, he continued to pitch in as a key piece of Johnson’s rotation. But it wasn’t just on the court that Julian was making his presence felt.
“I think you’d be great for something we do here.”
Gregg Popovich’s words hung in the air as Julian considered what he might be signing up for. This was the first the forward had heard of whatever “something” was. It was Christmas time, though for an NBA player, that could mean anything from a mattress giveaway to a basketball clinic.
Upon asking for clarification, Popovich remained vague.
“It’s nothing much,” he told Julian. “Just Christmas stuff.”
It wasn’t until a week prior to the event that Julian learned he’d be Santa’s elf, helping pass out Christmas presents to families in San Antonio.
At 6-foot-7, it was rare for Julian to feel small, but when “Santa” was really Victor Wembanyama, who was a heckuva lot taller and skinnier than folklore suggested, it checked out.
“It kind of works,” Julian laughed. “He’s so big. And I’m big, too, just not as big as him. It’s a give-and-go. I look small and he’s big. It works perfectly.”
Together, Wembanyama and Julian handed out presents to families in San Antonio. As recognizable as both were, for once, it wasn’t about the basketball.
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“I find that kind of stuff fun,” Julian said, “giving back to the community and stuff like that. We’re not here without all the fans. Turning around and giving back for an hour or two hours is nothing. We have so much time.
“I told Vic we’ve got to make it a tradition.”
The Spurs, no strangers to community involvement, look for players like Julian. Whether it be serving Thanksgiving meals at Frost Bank Center, handing out presents near Christmas or signing autographs before games for fans pressed up the thin metal barriers, that much is evident.
Pair that with his on-court prowess, and Julian is a seamless fit.
“It’s always good to work with good people,” Johnson explained. “You see how they support each other, how they pick each other up … It’s a testament to the organization for identifying and acquiring certain types of guys.”
“They don’t make them like that much anymore,” Macon said. “He’s such a good person. I like to think that things work out for people like that.”
One of Justin Champagnie’s favorite memories with his twin brother took just a few seconds to recall.
“Personal favorite memory?” he asked rhetorically. “Oh yeah, I have one. It was right when he got into the league. We played one-on-one at St John’s — at his college. And I busted his ass. 5-1.”
Macon didn’t see the game in question, but he knew the twins spent part of their summer training at the Red Storm’s gym. Justin worked mostly on his shooting, which was point of emphasis for him heading into his fourth NBA season, while Julian continued force-feeding himself confidence.
“You’ve got to have that,” Justin said of Julian’s confidence. “You can’t put a cap on it. It’s a beauty to see. It’s going to carry him far.”
When Julian made his way back to San Antonio, his work didn’t go unnoticed. Wembanyama lauded him with a ceiling as high as a top shooter in the league, while Jeremy Sochan commended his growth.
“He worked his ass off this summer,” Sochan said. “When he first got here, he never had any excuses. Whenever his name got called, he was ready. He’s always up for the test. You’ve got to be proud for him. Happy for him.”
The current Spurs G Leaguers doubled down on that.
He’s been through Austin,” David Duke Jr. said. “Now he’s doing his thing up there. Guys like that are easy to root for.”
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Taking a look back at his journey, Julian holds true to one thing. From his start in the G League to a four-year contract with an up-and-coming Western Conference squad, his game might have changed, but his morals haven’t.
“Being a good person has been one of the things that’s pushed me ahead,” Julian said. “I’m coachable. I’m likable. I’m going to go and do everything you ask me to do. I might not be the best at everything, but I’m going to try.
“That’s just … me. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
Through all of it, Julian has had the privilege of a built-in role model.
“Having a twin brother, we know what’s going through each other’s minds,” Justin said. “When I see him going through problems, I let him know. When he sees me going through it, he’ll let me know. It’s an easy fix.”
From Day 1, sharing a court with one another was among the greatest honors either twin was given. Doing so at the highest level only made it better.
“Where we come from, you don’t really see this kind of stuff happen,” Justin said. “It’s a blessing. It’s great to see him out there doing what he loves.”
“Just seeing him on the court,” Julian added, “It makes me feel good. Like: ‘Damn. We actually got there.’”
Monday evening, the latest chapter in a twin rivalry will join the rest. The Spurs, already in Washington, D.C., will take the court at Capital One Center looking for a win to break their two-game losing skid while the Wizards look to save face in the top-heavy East.
As usual, Justin has one objective.
“I’m going to try to bust his ass,” he said. “It’ll be fun.”
Meanwhile, Julian has a score to settle with his 7-minute-older brother.
“Justin definitely beat me a couple of times,” Julian conceded, “but I definitely got him a couple of times. When we play Washington, you’re just going to have to see it live in action. I’m going to make sure I actually guard him.”
Either Julian is providing a biased account, or Justin is a liar.
Perhaps a bit of both.
As for the history books documenting the pair’s childhood backyard battles? Justin isn’t quite ready to relinquish his crown.
“He’s going to have to admit it,” Justin said. “I won. He knows it.”
