SAN ANTONIO — It was never about Victor Wembanyama ducking reporters.
When the San Antonio Spurs big man chose to walk away from the cameras and microphones after his terrible Game 5 showing on Tuesday night, with his teammates left to discuss how they’d blown a chance to take the lead against the Oklahoma City Thunder at home in these Western Conference finals, the widespread criticism that came his way was about the message he sent by choosing silence. It was one vanishing act begetting another, with Wembanyama setting the stage for a brutal offseason to come if he hadn’t found a way to deliver when the spotlight returned with the season on the line two days later. And then, with the conversation surrounding the 22-year-old taking such a negative turn in the two days between games, he turned in a special performance that spoke volumes about his moxie.
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Wembanyama, who was so underwhelming two nights before that there was widespread speculation about fatigue getting the best of him at this juncture of the postseason, finished with 28 points (10-of-21 shooting; 4-of-9 from three), 10 rebounds, three blocks, two steals, two assists and a plus-13 mark in his 28 minutes of the 118-91 win. Crisis averted. Season saved. The future face of the NBA, this young phenom who has a chance to shock the basketball world by sending the defending champs home early in Game 7 on Saturday, said everything he needed to say with his play.
With his chest, as the kids say. And truth be told, it’s what his coaches and teammates said about him afterward that was more enlightening than anything that came from the superstar subject himself.
“Just a desire to meet the moment,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson explained when asked about Wembanyama’s response. “He’s not always perfect, and we’ve got to help him at times. Obviously, he’s 22 years old, but his passion and desire for being right where he is and at the forefront of it all, and to take the responsibility and the role and the burden of what he does, I don’t know what else to say.
“He is comfortable with that, regardless of the outcome and what that may look like. And I think that’s maybe his biggest growth this year (is) not waiting for it to be perfect, (or) necessarily to know what to do all the time, but (to) attack the moment and have the right approach and live with the results.”
Those closest to him say he didn’t talk out of sheer frustration. He let himself down in Game 5, and decided to skirt the media obligations as a way of focusing on the monumental task that was coming next.
At the risk of being accused of being too soft on Wembanyama — and yes, those accusations are flying at the media and the NBA these days — it should not be overlooked that he’s so ahead of schedule. He’s still three years away from being able to rent a car, yet now has this all-or-nothing chance to reach his first finals at the same age as LeBron James back in 2007, when his Cleveland Cavaliers were swept by San Antonio.
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Michael Jordan didn’t get there until he was 28, when his Chicago Bulls beat the Los Angeles Lakers in five games. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was 24 when, as Lew Alcindor, his Milwaukee Bucks swept the Baltimore Bullets. Kobe Bryant was 21 when his Lakers beat the Indiana Pacers in six games. Wilt Chamberlain was 27 when his San Francisco Warriors lost to the Boston Celtics in five games. Bill Russell was 23 when, as a rookie, he led Boston to a seven-game win against the St. Louis Hawks. Jerry West was 24 when his Lakers lost to Boston in seven games. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder’s back-to-back MVP who Wembanyama wants to dethrone as the game’s best player, made his first finals appearance and won his first title last season at the age of 26.
This is the company Wembanyama is trying to keep.
Regardless of whether the Spurs go on to win it all, there’s a certain statement that comes with carrying a team to the finals stage in the first few years of one’s career. Wembanyama has said time and again that he doesn’t care about San Antonio’s lack of experience, how the fact that this is his first postseason should have no bearing on how far he’s able to take his group. But that’s a delusional outlook.
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The history of this game tells us that the scars almost always come before the success. Yet here Wembanyama and the Spurs were in Game 6, beating these Thunder for the seventh time in 11 tries, with every reason to believe that they can do it again in the series finale. And Wembanyama, who was outspoken with his teammates after Game 5 before choosing to be muted with reporters, is moving in the sort of way that makes you wonder if there’s an upset on the way.
“He was just more assertive today; that’s all it was,” Spurs forward Julian Champagnie said. “Honestly, for us, we think he’s the best player in the world. I think he’s the best player in the world. I think he should know that. He should feel that.
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“He came out and the shots that he took were the ones that he wanted to take, you know what I’m saying? Even if it was a 3 — a couple early 3s — he shot them like he wanted them. Worked his way towards the basket, ran the floor, rebounded. He was hitting first, being physical. And I think he just showed his dominance.”
To some degree, this series has not been about the stars. It has been the battle of the benches, with depth reigning supreme and the victor determined by whichever team’s reserves were more dominant. But there is no other player who can swing a series quite like Wembanyama.
Not SGA, who was a minus-28 in his 28 minutes Thursday night and who hit just 6 of 18 shots while missing all five of his 3s. He’s now averaging 24.3 points (on 37.9 percent shooting overall; 26.1 percent from 3), 8.8 assists, 2.7 rebounds, 1.7 steals and 3.2 turnovers in this series while dealing with the Spurs’ dynamic guards.
Not Chet Holmgren, the Thunder center who simply isn’t equipped to deal with what Wembanyama brings; he had 10 points, 11 rebounds and a minus-nine mark in Game 6. There is, despite all of the pre-series hype on this front, no battle of the bigs happening here.
The outcome of this will likely boil down to Wemby. Will he be the player he was in Games 1, 2, and 6, when he met all those lofty expectations that come with being the league’s latest unicorn? Or, perhaps, might he play more like the young man we saw in Games 3, 4 and 5, when he grabbed a combined 18 rebounds after snatching 41 in the first two?
The answer to those questions will matter a whole lot more than whatever he might have said at the long-awaited return to the news-conference podium.
“Myself?” Wembanyama said in response to a question of why he played so much better in Game 6 than he had in Game 5. “Trusting the game plan. Discussing tactics with the staff and teammates.”
An awkward silence ensued — again. Yet as veteran forward Harrison Barnes shared, Wembanyama is making all sorts of valuable noise behind the scenes while developing as a leader in ways that are typically not seen.
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“I think (it’s being) able to speak in these situations, to be able to talk with confidence, to be able to not only lead by example, but to lead with your voice in those moments, right?” Barnes said. “You don’t see a lot of guys in their third year, at this stage, with this level of responsibility that he has on our team, be able to step into that moment with the comfort that he has.”
And now, with the Thunder about to face a Game 7 for the third time in their past six playoff series, the basketball world will wait to see if Wembanyama can derail a dynasty.
“We’ll be prepared to take the next 40 hours or whatever it may be to try to get ready,” Johnson said. “Go into a hostile environment against the defending champs in the Western Conference finals, (against) a team that’s done it multiple times and knows exactly what it takes. I would expect to get their best punch. I’m gonna go over there eyes wide open and expecting nothing less.”