Photo credit: Reginald Thomas II/San Antonio Spurs
You don’t often hear players and coaches, especially those who are untested in postseason battle, publicly delve into team-specific goals set behind the scenes. The questions are asked each year, but for the young, developing lot in the league, the typical answers are purposefully vague.
“I think we expect continuing to take steps in the right direction. Everybody wants to know (what that means) by how many wins and this and that, or where do you end up at the end of the season,” Mitch Johnson said after Monday’s practice. “If you go to where we were last year, and what we felt like we could have done, and where we ended up, and then where we are right now, we want to continue to improve and get better and feel good about that as we continue to grow throughout the season.”
It’s well-executed coach-speak, and somewhere in the background, Gregg Popovich is no doubt proud of his protégé and the “process over results” mentality that’s been a primary tenet of the Spurs’ entire operation. Of course these guys want to win, but for a franchise in the midst of a six-year playoff drought, the “no skipping steps” approach is appropriate.
But then there’s Victor Wembanyama, whose confidence, determination and commitment to the ultimate goal supersede any perceived threat of potential bulletin-board material or a headline taking him to task. He does not mind speaking expectations into existence, because he seems to truly believe it’s his and his team’s destiny to be the best.
“Success would be getting into the playoffs and not the play-in,” Wembanyama said casually. “So I guess that means 6th seed.”
That may simply be Victor’s personal expectation, or at least he’s been the only one willing to put a number on it in front of cameras. But make no mistake: This team is ready to follow its 21-year-old superstar into the breach — from the elder statesmen of the group, to the teenager selected in the late lottery just a few months ago who has yet to feel the flames of the NBA fire.
“When the head of the snake is saying that,” Carter Bryant said. “I mean, it gives you the utmost confidence to go and compete.”
These aren’t like the old days.
As much as San Antonio wants to revive the feel-good of the ‘Big 3’ era, this is something entirely different.
Back then, the world knew what Tim Duncan was, and the city knew the team it already had in place. It was impossible to know a dynasty was coming, but the Spurs — with David Robinson, Sean Elliott and Avery Johnson already in tow — knew the wins were on their way so long as Pop and Co. didn’t screw things up for the home team.
When Tony Parker arrived, San Antonio was already a freshly minted champion. Manu Ginóbili? The icing on the cake that fortified the Spurs’ future and title runs to come.
Nope, this isn’t that.
Back then, pieces were added to a puzzle that was nearing completion; now, the Spurs are starting a puzzle from scratch.
There’s an anticipation of the unknown, the unpredictable, and in the case of Wembanyama, the unprecedented. There’s a giddiness around the team and fanbase alike — the kind that comes with something new and exciting, when there are still surprises around every corner even knowing this is just the start of the journey.
It’s kind of the beauty of it all. We are watching in awe as a 21 year-old phenom is just now discovering what he can do with his body, that he can post up, that he can be an initiator and facilitator, that he doesn’t need to allow smaller players to push him away from the interior, that 240 pounds moving downhill is enough to dislodge other giants around the league from their spots. Think about it: This is a player still very much at the beginning of his learning curve, and we are all wondering when, not if, he’s going to be an MVP in the league.
What’s even wilder, one could argue, is that the reigning Rookie of the Year, the No. 2 overall pick in June’s draft, and a newly minted max-contract point guard are backseat storylines. That is only the norm in a solar system where Wembanyama is the sun.
But Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, De’Aaron Fox, and the other celestial bodies that surround Victor don’t mind their places in line. They benefit from Wemby’s gravitational pull, and even considering his young age, they have no problem calling him a leader. Neither do the youngest of the bunch, including Bryant, who can only shake his head at the thought Victor is fewer than two years his senior.
“Every time I’m in the gym, I look over and I know I’m going to see him in the gym — a player of his caliber coming in every day with the same intensity, and working on the same things every day, making sure he’s sharpening his tools to things that he’s going to go to consistently,” Bryant said. “He also cares about you outside of the game of basketball. He’s going to text you, he’s going to call you more on the road, he’s going to make sure he talks to you, he’s going to make sure you do stuff outside of basketball.
“He understands that if you want a team to really run, you got to have different parts, like a car. You can’t just have an engine and wheels and expect the whole thing to go,” he continued. “There’s a lot of different parts and a lot of different things that make the car go. He’s definitely the engine, but he understands the little parts of it all.”
And Wembanyama will need those parts firing on all cylinders if the Spurs are to achieve not only the lofty goal he revealed for this season, but for all campaigns to come. The fun part for San Antonians will be viewing the car being built in front of them, from the nuts and bolts to the final paint job, all while expectations of success spike. There is no more waiting around, it’s time to test the speedometer.
Only time will tell if another Spurs dynasty is born, but whatever comes this way, watching it all unfold from infancy will be a treat. That patience from the organization and from you, the fan, is about to be rewarded. And so long as the basketball gods bless him with good health, a new era in this city — the ‘Wemby’ era — is set to truly begin.
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