Let's start with this: He brought a book to the All-Star Game.
As if the NBA needed more proof that San Antonio's Victor Wembanyama is different, the latest example came Sunday in a locker-room video posted by the league. Wembanyama was getting settled in before the games and Denver's Nikola Jokic was puzzled by what the Spurs star had with him.
“You really brought a book?” Jokic asked.
“I read before every game,” Wembanyama said.
Even at All-Star weekend, Wembanyama didn't change who he is. He got himself and Spurs teammate Chris Paul disqualified from the skills competition at All-Star Saturday night after finding what he thought was a loophole in the rules and could increase the chance of winning. He brought the book on Sunday. He was visibly frustrated when his team lost the All-Star tournament final.
San Antonio knows, and has known, that Wembanyama is the face of the Spurs. The rest of the league has probably figured out that he's one of the faces of the league — the game globally, too — and is well on his way to super-duper-superstardom, if he's not there already.
LeBron James had nothing but rave reviews for Wembanyama when the 7-foot-3 French center — who just turned 21 last month — was coming into the league. James heaps the Wemby praise even higher now.
“I’ve seen one quote that he says that nobody better call him past 9 o'clock at night because he’s either reading or he’s asleep. I think that’s super cool. I think that’s super dope,” the Los Angeles Lakers' star said. “That lets you know where his mind frame is at, where he is at intellectually, and I think he’s been great, obviously, for the franchise with the Spurs. But he’s going to be great for our league for so many years to come.”
Wembanyama was the unanimous rookie of the year last season; he's the favorite, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, to be defensive player of the year this season. He is almost certainly going to make the All-NBA team. He will likely get MVP votes.
All for good reason.
His scoring average is up. Rebounds per game, up. Shooting percentages, up. He's already taken 403 3-pointers and blocked 176 shots this season — no player in NBA history has ever finished a season with those numbers, and Wemby did it this year by the All-Star break. He's averaging 24.3 points, 11 rebounds, 3.8 blocks and 3.7 assists; the only other player to finish a season averaging all that was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in 1975-76.
Golden State's Stephen Curry was asked what he marvels at when he watches Wembanyama.
“Everything he does,” Curry said. “Everything.”
The Spurs have been through some things this season.
Gregg Popovich, the franchise patriarch and someone Wembanyama calls the best leader he's ever known, had a stroke in November and coached only five games before needing to be replaced by assistant Mitch Johnson — who, by all accounts, has done an admirable job. The travel has been brutal, even by San Antonio standards: the Spurs went to New York for a few days over Christmas, spent a week in France for the NBA Paris Games, were in Los Angeles when wildfires were ravaging that city and are now dealing with the annual rodeo road trip that displaces them for much of February.
Paul says the team has had chances, pointing to how 10 of San Antonio's 29 losses have been by five points or fewer.
“I think we can really put something together after the break," Paul said.
With Wembanyama, all things are possible and the Spurs are most certainly in the play-in tournament mix. San Antonio — which added De'Aaron Fox around the trade deadline — is 3 1/2 games out of the final play-in spot with 30 games left to play. It's not out of reach.
“Gaining a bit of confidence because we have such changes in the season,” Wembanyama said, asked what the Spurs need to do for the stretch run. “Also defense, I think, is the key. Going back to the status of one of the best defenses is the key.”
Let that be yet another example of how he's different. At the All-Star Game, he was talking defense. It's who he is. It's how he approaches the game. He plays the right way. He studies. He gets his rest, does his homework. And his fellow All-Stars seem to be taking notice.
“I think it’s great for a person like him to be so competitive and so focused and so driven in all aspects of his game, no matter where he is,” New York All-Star guard Jalen Brunson said. “It could be preseason, it could be in All-Star, he’s going to have that same mindset. That’s what we’ve seen. And obviously the things he does on the court are just abnormal for someone his height. He's ridiculous, and to see how he works, his preparation, I think I admire that most.”
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Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
