How Victor Wembanyama and the Spurs turned adversity into wins

NOW IN HIS third NBA season, San Antonio Spurs heart Victor Wembanyama has aged out of the Rising Stars competitors at All-Star weekend. That did not preserve the 7-foot-5 famous person from imposing an outsized impact on final Friday’s festivities.

Spurs rookie Dylan Harper stood close to half courtroom for tipoff of Game 1 of the 2026 Rising Stars occasion, pushing and shoving New Orleans Pelicans heart Derik Queen for place as an official rushed over to intervene.

Queen lunged in response. Harper wasn’t having it.

As the Pelicans’ rookie reached out to shove Harper along with his left arm, the Spurs’ guard grabbed it with a glance of disgust on his face and slammed it down, simply as the ball was tossed, displaying a aggressive hearth not often seen at All-Star festivities — ignited by Wembanyama’s strategy to the occasions in Los Angeles.

A Spurs staffer joked later that Harper and teammates Stephon Castle and Carter Bryant — all Rising Stars contributors — felt the Frenchman’s vitality on the flight to Los Angeles and reacted accordingly. Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards responded to Wembanyama’s depth as nicely, saying the two-time All-Star “set the tone” for an All-Star Game that was the best it had been in years.

“I’ve always thought to myself that if I was in [the All-Star Game], I’m never stepping onto the court to lose or not [play hard],” Wembanyama mentioned earlier than the weekend. “I’m thinking it’s [not] OK to lose. I’m going to be out there. I might as well win.”

Wembanyama and the Spurs plan to hold that very same mentality headed into the final 27 video games of the season on the hunt for the workforce’s first postseason berth since 2019. That quest resumed Thursday evening in a 121-94 “home” win in Austin, Texas, in opposition to the Phoenix Suns, nearly a yr to the day that desires of titles practically died in the metropolis of San Antonio.

On what sources described as a scary and emotional day filled with confusion inside the group, information dropped final Feb. 20 that the Spurs could be shutting down Wembanyama for the remainder of the season after docs had recognized the younger star with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.

That devastating improvement registered as one sliver of adversity in a 2024-25 NBA season chock filled with it. It began with Hall of Fame coach Gregg Popovich struggling a stroke before a game not even 10 days into the season that left then-38-year-old assistant Mitch Johnson in cost. Later got here a recreation postponement in January that left the Spurs milling about lodge rooms in Santa Monica and later downtown Los Angeles, as soon as smoke from wildfires in Malibu and Pacific Palisades began to encroach their location.

In addition to shutting down Wembanyama, the Spurs shelved commerce deadline acquisition De’Aaron Fox, who underwent season-ending surgery final March to restore tendon injury in his gnarled left pinkie, leaving the workforce out of the playoffs for the sixth straight yr on the heels of a 34-48 end.

A season later, the Spurs maintain the league’s third-best report (39-16) and a 13-7 mark in opposition to the NBA’s different 9 groups with successful percentages of .600 or higher (Detroit is the solely workforce of this group San Antonio has but to face) headed into Saturday’s matchup in opposition to the flailing Sacramento Kings at the Moody Center on the campus of the University of Texas. The Spurs’ speedy turnaround appears unbelievable — to everybody, that’s, besides Wembanyama.

“Not hard to believe, no,” he mentioned. “Because I’ve seen everybody put in the work. I’ve seen everybody sacrifice things. [It’s] very believable but doesn’t mean it was easy by any means.”

WEMBANYAMA’S FIRST ALL-STAR weekend had not been notably optimistic. San Antonio had misplaced 4 of six highway video games headed into the break final yr, and Wembanyama’s schedule in San Francisco proved brutal. He had scored 11 factors on 5-of-7 taking pictures in the championship of the league’s mini-tournament that changed the conventional All-Star Game, although the effort stage from the different gamers on the courtroom left a lot to be desired.

Wembanyama mentioned he felt exhausted coming off the Spurs’ closing recreation earlier than the All-Star break, a 116-103 loss to the Boston Celtics. He’d exhibited comparable signs at the begin of the journey on Feb. 3 in Memphis, however he’d chalked it as much as a bug he had been making an attempt to combat off.

“I think it played apart, not 100% of course,” Wembanyama mentioned after Thursday’s win over the Suns. “But I mean I was 21 and still learning, still growing my conditioning. So, it doesn’t explain everything, but I think it explains a lot. I was feeling very, very bad the few weeks before I had diagnosis.”

While in Wyoming for a short reprieve following All-Star weekend, Wembanyama began to really feel discomfort and swelling in his proper arm, and alerted the workforce’s medical workers. Once he returned, the workers ran him by means of a battery of checks, which detected a blood clot. The analysis despatched Wembanyama reeling, leaving him to ponder his mortality each on and off the courtroom.

“I remember the All-Star Game last year was the worst I had ever felt on a basketball court in my life because, I mean, I had 5% maybe of bloodflow in my right arm,” Wembanyama mentioned.

In between taking blood-thinning treatment, visits to docs and grinding by means of a meticulous rehab routine, Wembanyama determined after enduring this expertise he described as “traumatic” that he’d embark on a journey to push himself bodily and mentally by means of unconventional means. Wembanyama additionally wished to verify he was savoring a lot of the experiences that his superstardom afforded.

So, along with internet hosting a chess match at his courtroom in Le Chesnay, France over the summer season, Wembanyama visited Costa Rica and Tokyo, the place he performed soccer. He frolicked at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and spent 10 days at a Shaolin temple in Zhengzhou, China, soul-searching whereas training kung fu and meditation with monks.

Wembanyama additionally met with Hall of Fame large males Kevin Garnett and Hakeem Olajuwon to choose their brains.

He would not formally play once more for the Spurs till the Oct. 6 preseason opener.

“It was really just a sad time,” Johnson mentioned Wednesday, shortly after the workforce’s arrival in Austin. “There was so much uncertainty. At first stage there was no basketball being discussed. It was health. It was well-being. It was really a flat moment for us. It was not long after we acquired De’Aaron, and I think they played five games together.”

It was sunny on the morning of the Wembanyama announcement with a brisk wind and temperatures hovering in the mid-30s. Spurs CEO R.C. Buford stood alone in the health club at Moody Center in Austin watching as the gamers filed in for shootaround forward of a matchup in opposition to the Suns. Every participant was accounted for apart from San Antonio’s tallest. Reporters requested questions instantly. The membership’s public relations workers disappeared into one other room to find out how you can finest ship the information it could reveal minutes later.

A 26-point efficiency by Fox that evening in solely his sixth recreation with the workforce pushed San Antonio to a 120-109 win. In the hallway leaving the enviornment, Fox expressed remorse leaving Moody Center headed towards the workforce bus.

“We were ready to hit the ground running and you get news like that,” he mentioned. “It is definitely a tough thing to overcome because of the production he gave us.”

San Antonio would drop 19 of its final 30 video games, together with 11 of the 18 Fox sat out. Wembanyama would use the time away to rehab and replicate, earlier than embarking on a whirlwind summer season of transformation in preparation for this season.

JOHNSON FIRST JOINED San Antonio as an assistant in 2016 for the workforce’s Austin G League workforce the similar yr the Spurs drafted present Pelicans level guard Dejounte Murray with the twenty ninth decide.

Johnson had been working with Murray since the level guard was 15. So, as soon as the Spurs started vetting Murray, Johnson additionally caught the group’s eye due to his acumen as a coach and communicator.

“He’s going to be a head coach in this league for a long time,” Murray instructed ESPN. “He’s got the work ethic, the brains, the patience. He played the game. He checks every box, man. He’s not shy. He’s comfortable in any room he’s in. I still keep in contact [with Spurs players]. They love him.”

So did the group’s brass after watching how Johnson navigated the ups and downs of a chaotic season filling in for Popovich and main San Antonio by means of the maladies that compelled the early ends of the season for Wembanyama and Fox, even with out a full complement of assistants. Once the 2024-25 season ended, the group felt assured, in line with sources, in what Johnson may be capable to do with a full workers, a wholesome Fox and Wembanyama, and an offseason to implement his personal methods and fashion of play.

The Spurs eliminated Johnson’s title of performing head coach in May, naming him the franchise’s nineteenth coach whereas permitting him to fill out the workers of assistants led by affiliate head coach and defensive specialist Sean Sweeney.

Throughout all the turbulent instances, courting to even earlier than Popovich suffered the stroke, Johnson had earned the belief of the gamers to educate them simply as exhausting as his predecessor. During a Spurs loss earlier this season in Memphis, the gravel-voiced Johnson screamed from the bench: “Get a f—ing rebound!”

“Pop kept it honest,” mentioned ahead Keldon Johnson, the longest-tenured member of the Spurs who’s in his seventh season with the workforce. “And Mitch would always keep it 100 with me, not sugarcoat it, tell me when I’m wrong but also give you that praise. I feel like that builds trust. He’s earned that trust to be able to coach us, get on us and get the right response and get us motivated.”

That has enabled the 39-year outdated to educate in his first NBA All-Star occasion in his first full season as head coach. But Johnson says he believes none of his private success or the workforce’s would have been attainable had San Antonio not been crushed down by the making an attempt season of 2024-25.

“Last year there was so much, and it was new for me, unplanned or prepared by me that I didn’t know anything other than just trying to get through that day or what we were going through,” Johnson mentioned.

DESPITE FINISHING FIVE video games out of the play-in race a season in the past, the group remained quietly assured in San Antonio’s capability to compete with any workforce in the NBA. Sources inside the group over the summer season pointed to Johnson’s unshakable management in the face of adversity as one cause. But the greater cause was the return of the workforce’s two stars, notably the large man on whom they’ve hung their hopes for the future.

When the membership shut down Wembanyama final season, he was far and away the front-runner for NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Despite enjoying solely 46 video games, he nonetheless completed the season as the league’s chief in complete blocks. This season he has picked up the place he left off, averaging a career-high 24.4 factors whereas taking pictures 51.1% from the subject and 36.3% from 3-point vary, each additionally the finest marks of his younger profession.

And his chemistry with Fox, whom the Spurs acquired from Sacramento after he particularly mentioned he wished to play with Wembanyama, has been a lot improved. Wembanyama and Fox performed a complete of 120 minutes collectively final season over 5 video games with the Spurs, notching a internet score over that span of minus-2.4.

This season, when the duo is on the courtroom collectively, San Antonio’s report is 22-9 with Wembanyama and Fox producing a internet effectivity of plus-10.9 in 645 minutes, in line with ESPN Research. Although the Spurs rank twenty ninth in on-ball screens and handoffs per 100 possessions, they common 1.25 factors per direct play when Wembanyama units an on-ball display screen or handoff for Fox, good for the fourth-best effectivity amongst combos to run 150 or extra performs collectively, in line with GeniusIQ.

Then, there’s the return and continued improvement of Castle, the 2024-25 NBA Rookie of the Year. After taking pictures 42.8% a season in the past, he is as much as 46.4% this season, displaying improved effectivity with the similar variety of pictures per recreation. Keldon Johnson, a contender for NBA Sixth Man of the Year, and beginning small ahead Devin Vassell are coming into their primes at age 26 and 25, respectively.

San Antonio’s 2025 draft picks — Harper at No. 2 and Bryant at No. 14 — are additionally contributing closely. Seemingly, most of the roster is, contemplating the Spurs’ rotation options 10 gamers who’ve performed 40-plus video games this season. San Antonio is one in every of 4 groups which have had a minimum of 10 gamers play a minimum of 40 video games this season, together with the Utah Jazz, Miami Heat and Boston Celtics, in line with ESPN Research.

The Spurs’ depth lightens the blow the membership absorbs in the non-Wembanyama minutes. At the All-Star break final season, San Antonio produced a internet effectivity of minus-7.9 with Wenbanyama not on the courtroom. This season, the Spurs’ internet effectivity with out Wembanyama sits at plus-1.0. When Wembanyama sat out 12 video games due to a left calf pressure earlier this season, the Spurs went 9-3.

“I don’t believe we’re ahead of schedule at all,” Bryant mentioned. “I think we’re going to just keep rolling.”

Pondering what lies forward over the subsequent 27 video games, Wembanyama appeared keen — nearly giddy — having led the Spurs to a report of 11-5 in opposition to groups presently in the high six of the Western Conference. San Antonio has suffered solely three losses in opposition to Eastern Conference groups.

“Only one way to find out,” he mentioned. “But just like anything, what’s gonna happen is gonna happen. There’s gonna be some good. There’s gonna be some bad. It’s about how we react to everything.”

The Spurs have proven as a lot all season, bouncing again from a disastrous 2024-25 marketing campaign that ultimately left Wembanyama soul-searching and the group’s brass over the summer season pondering the membership’s subsequent strikes.

But by means of all of it, Mitch Johnson stays satisfied San Antonio would not be right here now with out these arduous experiences.

“I do think now, and I think probably more as time goes on, [last season] probably served as a vehicle for this team to be as close as we are,” Johnson mentioned. “We’ve had a lot of unique, rare experiences. We’ve had some things that produce a lot of time together and they produce events that typically stir or produce conversations, and maybe a little bit more deeper conversations; things that make you reflect on life or things you’ve [gone] through. So, I do think it’s played a part in this group’s journey even though it isn’t necessarily directly involving basketball.”