San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, center, celebrates after a basket by Spurs guard David Jones Garcia, left, in overtime during a preseason NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
Darren Abate/Associated Press
Victor Wembanyama understood the words, in French and in English.
He just didn’t want to believe them in either language.
Article continues below this ad
Followed by an even more sinister phrase: Out for the season.
Eight months after the Spurs’ 21-year-old star first heard those words last February, he does not sugarcoat how they affected him.
“It is life changing,” Wembanyama said, “spending so much time in hospitals hearing more bad news than I wish I heard.”
SPURS NATION: The best Spurs coverage in the Alamo City, delivered to your inbox
Last season, Wembanyama left for his triumphant first All-Star appearance in San Francisco and never came back to an NBA floor.
Article continues below this ad
The blood clot in his right shoulder reminded both the blossoming young superstar and the team that employs him of one unassailable fact of life: Not a day in this world is guaranteed.
Medically cleared, mentally rejuvenated — and now an inch or two taller — Wembanyama enters his third NBA season bent on making up for lost time.
That starts Wednesday, when the Spurs open the 2025-26 campaign at Dallas.
“I feel like he’s on a mission,” forward Keldon Johnson said. “Like he has something to prove.”
Article continues below this ad
The Spurs’ hopes for breaking a six-season playoff hiatus lie with Wembanyama promptly resuming the work of taking the NBA by storm.
Since February, general manager Brian Wright has done much to upgrade the roster around the towering Frenchman, trading for All-Star guard De’Aaron Fox, signing veteran center Luke Kornet and drafting a pair of scintillating lottery prospects in Dylan Harper and Carter Bryant.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) celebrates after a basket with teammate Luke Kornet (7) during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game against the Utah Jazz, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in San Antonio. (AP Photo/Darren Abate)
Darren Abate/Associated Press
Those newcomers join a cast that includes Stephon Castle, last season’s NBA Rookie of the Year, as well as capable holdovers Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, Jeremy Sochan, Harrison Barnes and Julian Champagnie.
None of it matters unless Wembanyama returns to being Wembanyama.
Article continues below this ad
“We want this team to be in the reflection of Victor,” said coach Mitch Johnson, who in May was formally anointed the successor to Gregg Popovich following the Hall of Famer’s stroke. “He’s our best player. He’s our guy.”
Wembanyama’s sophomore campaign ended prematurely as he was playing some of the best basketball of his life.
He finished the season averaging 24.3 points, 11 rebounds and a league-best 3.8 blocks and was on his way to a likely Defensive Player of the Year and All-NBA honors before being shut down.
MORE SPURS: 3 Takeaways as Spurs polish off perfect preseason
The earliest returns on Wembanyama’s comeback have been promising.
Article continues below this ad
Wembanyama appeared in all five of the Spurs’ preseason victories, averaging 17 points, eight rebounds, four assists and two blocks in 20.4 minutes, all while nightly delivering the kind of jaw-dropping highlights that leave even the most grizzled NBA observers gob smacked.
“I just don’t ever recall a player who has so much influence on both ends of the floor,” Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said.
That’s no faint praise coming from Carlisle.
An NBA lifer, the 65-year-old Carlisle has for decades enjoyed a front row seat to witness the best basketball players the planet has produced.
Carlisle played with Larry Bird and coached Dirk Nowitzki and Luka Doncic. He played against Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He has coached against LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Shaquille O’Neal — and yes, Tim Duncan.
He has never seen anything like Wembanyama.
“He can block a shot from a guy shooting the ball from 10 feet away — without jumping,” Carlisle said. “It’s just staggering. His skill as a ball-handler — he’s doing the ‘Shammgod’ move and all that stuff. It’s just like, ‘Whoa.’”
Asked the natural follow-up: How on Earth does a coach go about scouting against a player who doesn’t appear to be from, well, Earth?
“You just watch,” Carlisle said. “In disbelief.”
Indeed, even after two seasons in the league little remains believable about Wembanyama — including his listed height.
The Spurs pegged him at 7-3 ½ in his first two campaigns, before bumping him up to 7-4 this season. For a short spell this fall, the team’s official website listed Wembanyama at 7-5. That has since been amended back to 7-4.
There are lies, damn lies and Wembanyama’s true height.
San Antonio Spurs forward/center Victor Wembanyama (1) shoots around Indiana Pacers forward Isaiah Jackson, left, during the first half of a preseason NBA basketball game in Indianapolis, Monday, Oct. 13, 2025. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)
AJ Mast/Associated Press
San Antonio Spurs Victor Wembanyama (1) blocks shot of Guangzhou Loong-Lions Frank Kaminsky (44) in a Spurs preseason opener vs. Guangzhou Loong-Lions on Monday, Oct. 6, 2025 at Frost Bank Center.
Ronald Cortes
Chuck’s Global Stars’ Victor Wembanyama (1) gestures after sinking a basket against the Kenny’s Young Stars during Game 1 of the NBA All-Star Game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area News Group via AP)
Jose Carlos Fajardo/Associated Press
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama dunks past Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro during the NBA All-Star basketball game Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated Press
The fuzziness and fudging around his measurements have only served to heighten the Bunyan-esque mythology Wembanyama attracts.
How tall is Wembanyama really?
“I’d have to stand on this chair and get a measuring stick,” Mitch Johnson said. “None of us are close, so it’s all a guess.”
The blood clot that leveled the Spurs’ Leviathan last February did not seem to care what the tape measure said. Whether 7-3 or 7-4 or 7-5 or another number entirely, it didn’t matter. Wembanyama’s season was over.
Wembanyama spent his forced break from basketball traveling the world — training with Shaolin monks in China, kicking soccer balls around in Japan and Costa Rica, playing chess in Paris.
The idea, Wembanyama said, was “to not keep myself from doing stuff” despite the health scare.
“Being a professional athlete doesn’t matter,” he said. “I’m still going to do the things I want to do as a human.”
It turns out the awful words Wembanyama heard that fateful day in February did indeed change his life.
“I learned a lot, more than I could tell in just one interview,” Wembanyama said. “Things I’m never going to forget because they’re marked in my body. And at the end of the day, I’m grateful.”
