By: Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press Posted:
Last year, Victor Wembanyama spent part of his offseason in the peaceful company of Chinese monks with hopes of growing both mentally and spiritually.
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Last year, Victor Wembanyama spent part of his offseason in the peaceful company of Chinese monks with hopes of growing both mentally and spiritually.
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Last year, Victor Wembanyama spent part of his offseason in the peaceful company of Chinese monks with hopes of growing both mentally and spiritually.
This year, he got roughed up by a rugby team.
His rationale seems obvious. Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs got near the top of the NBA mountain last season, then fell in five games to the New York Knicks — wasting big leads in all four of their losses. Wembanyama decided he needed to get tougher, so a rugby club in the south of France was enlisted to help with that mission this summer.
He got pushed. He got shoved. He got tossed around. He loved it all. And now, as Wembanyama gets ready for the scrums awaiting in his fourth NBA season, the French superstar listed at 7-foot-4 looks bigger and stronger. That’s great for the Spurs. That might not be great for the other 29 teams.
“It feels like going through something of great magnitude and feels like destiny (for) anybody,” Wembanyama said. “We’re fighting for the top spot of the mountain and we’re going to have to move people in our way. That’s just the way it is.”
The goal for the Spurs this season is clear — a championship, and rightly so. Aiming at anything else would make no sense, especially after winning the Western Conference last season by taking a Game 7 in Oklahoma City to oust the 2025 NBA champions.
It’s not an unrealistic expectation. The annual poll of NBA general managers was released Thursday, and not only did they give the Spurs the nod as favorites to win the 2027 title, they made Wembanyama the overwhelming pick to win defensive player of the year for the second consecutive season and what would be his first Most Valuable Player award.
“We have some goals between us that we’re going to keep between us as teammates, but we have some other goals that are obvious,” Wembanyama said. “We won the West last year. We don’t want to do anything less this year, and we want to be the first seed, and we want to keep fighting for this top spot.”
Wembanyama fills a stat sheet like nobody else in today’s NBA.
He’s finished with at least 176 blocked shots, 168 assists and 122 3-pointers in all three of his seasons thus far (and one of those seasons was cut short by deep vein thrombosis). The only other player in NBA history to put up all those numbers in a season is Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren, who did it once. Granted, there was no 3-point line in the Wilt Chamberlain era and blocks didn’t start getting officially charted until 1973 — but it still can’t be argued that what Wembanyama does night in and night out is unique.
And the Spurs want more.
“I think he has a ton of room to improve in all aspects,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said.
He wasn’t kidding, either.
“I think one thing for him will just be to continue to manipulate the game and dictate the game,” Johnson said. “Not just by scoring, but by making plays for his teammates, forcing the defense to make a decision and taking advantages of opportunities that are in front of him and probably continuing to connect those throughout the game where he’s almost puppeteering the game — as we see the best players in our game do and we’ve seen him do. I think that’s an area for him to continue to grow in.”
It’s been on display at times in the preseason. Wembanyama has always been a willing passer, but prioritizing it even more should create even more headaches for opponents.
“He’s always been a great facilitator,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle said. “He sees the floor well. I mean, his assist numbers, they could vary, honestly. It’s the way he sees the floor, the way teams guard him. He gets a different look every single game. Just knowing him, he’s going to make the right read for that possession. We want him to be default-aggressive in all those situations.”
The Spurs didn’t have the burden of expectation as Wembanyama was entering his first three seasons. Even last year’s team wasn’t thought of as a title contender in October; a playoff team, maybe, but not a team that would win the West title.
Now, the spotlight is on San Antonio. It’s what Wembanyama wanted. The loss to the Knicks only steeled his resolve, and a little help from a rugby club might have provided the boost that could get the Spurs their long-coveted next title.
“We’re in a great spot,” Wembanyama said. “We’re very hopeful. Very ambitious. And we’re ready.”
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