Christmas Day will be a different kind of homecoming for Julian Champagnie, the former St. John’s star.
For the first time since college, the Brooklyn native will step on the Garden floor in a significant role.
The 6-foot-8 Champagnie is enjoying a breakout season for the improving Spurs, averaging 12.5 points, 5.1 rebounds and shooting 36 percent from 3-point land on 7.3 attempts in 29.3 minutes.
He has appeared in all 29 Spurs games, making 26 starts as a court spacer on the wing.
“I’m looking forward to experiencing the tourist New York Christmas,” Champagnie told reporters this week. “I’ve never experienced that before. I wanted it to snow, but it’s not going to snow, so whatever.
“The 24th [my fiancée and I] will do Christmas Eve together. Just chill. She’s from New York, too. We’re going to see the tree, do a couple of things, some observatory decks. Just look around, experience the city again. It’s been a while.”
The 23-year-old Champagnie spent three years at St. John’s and was a two-time All-Big East First Team selection.
But he went undrafted in 2022 and was waived by the 76ers in February 2023.
The Spurs picked him up, and signed him to a partially guaranteed four-year, $12 million deal that July.
Champagnie began to carve out a role for himself last year, playing in 74 games and posting 6.8 points in 19.8 minutes.
He played just three minutes in the Spurs’ trip to the Garden last season.
“I always said I was going to fit in no matter how I had to,” Champagnie said. “Here they wanted me to shoot the basketball. I like to shoot, so it kind of worked out.”
Not only will Champagnie get to return to the Garden — one of the Johnnies’ home courts — on Christmas Day, but on Friday the Spurs will be in Brooklyn to face the Nets.
He grew up in that borough and attended high school at Bishop Loughlin, which is just a few blocks from Barclays Center.
But he’s not going to let it be a distraction.
“I’m in New York for work this week,” Champagnie said. “I’ll see everybody I want to see and everybody I have to see. But the main focus is still the main focus. I’m going there to win two games. That’s our goal. So I can’t act like I’m home. Not yet.”