When it comes to the injury report – and to life in general – we are all day-to-day.
Last week, the San Antonio Spurs announced that Victor Wembanyama would miss the rest of the 2025 season due to “deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder” – a blood clot, in layman’s terms.
This is nothing to mess around with. Wembanyama celebrated his 21st birthday less than two months ago. He has what everyone expects to be a long, legendary career ahead of him. It is obviously the right move to shut him down for the remainder of the season and do everything possible to put this in the rear-view mirror.
In the meantime, though, I wasn’t quite prepared for how hard the news would hit me.
The last image most of us have of Victory Wembanyama on a basketball court is watching him and Chris Paul try to rig the skills challenge in their favor during All-Star Weekend. It is exactly the kind of nonsense story I like diving into – this meaningless event brought out the most ruthlessly competitive streak in two absolute maniacs born a full generation apart. Sorry if this sounds corny, but I thought there was something endearing and somewhat hopeful seeing Wembanyama care so much about something so stupid.
I’ve also been drawn to all Wemby-related footage in Netflix’s “Court of Gold” docu-series, chronicling several of the world’s best teams competing at the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Watching the way Wembanyama carries himself, seeing how he reacts to the home crowds, knowing that he feels a deep responsibility to maximize his truly one-of-a-kind physical gifts – that’s why we follow sports in the first place, right?
But that phrase…”physical gifts”…
A large part of Victor Wembanyama’s appeal is that his body seems to have been designed by a basketball video game developer who removed all the limits. He does things that nobody has ever seen before. And we are at the very beginning of this journey with him.
It’s sports. Injuries happen. Professional basketball – particularly the grueling grind of an 82-game NBA schedule – is uniquely punishing on even the most physically fit humans on the planet. It’s the non-contact, out-of-nowhere, completely mysterious nature of deep vein thrombosis that has me thrown for a loop.
Nothing is guaranteed for anyone – not even the people who have every ceiling removed. There is only right now, always.
The San Antonio Spurs have been making plans. Every plan involves Wemby at its center. Drafting Stephon Castle? That’s an ideal fit around Wemby. Signing Paul in the offseason? Perfect mentor for Wemby. Trading for De’Aaron Fox? Wow, what a great running mate for Wemby!
These plans are on pause for the rest of the 2025 regular season. Everything is now geared toward what’s next when Wembenyama returns. But the Spurs’ rock-solid post-Duncan rebuilding plan now has the slightest sliver of doubt – but it was a sliver that didn’t exist a couple weeks ago.
Get well soon, Victor. I can’t wait to watch you play. I hope to never think about this again.
And 1’s:
• I have not gotten used to seeing Luka Doncic in Lakers yellow. It just looks too strange. I’m sure there will be a day years from now when it’s hard to imagine what Luka looked like in any other jersey, but my eyes haven’t adjusted.
• That Shaedon Sharpe dunk … holy moly. For all the talk of who should step up and challenge Mac McClung’s dunk supremacy, Sharpe has my vote.
• It isn’t too early to start thinking about your bracket. I have already decided that I’m picking Duke to take it home, even before knowing Tyrese Proctor’s status. I’m all in on Cooper Flagg. I’m also bullish on Michigan State, based in large part in my “Tom Izzo in March” bracket philosophy and perhaps a bit of recency bias on that cool buzzer-beater against Maryland.
• On the women’s side, I’m throwing my support behind JuJu Watkins and USC. I think Watkins is just incredible. I’m also high on Texas and their relentless defensive intensity. Good luck dribbling the ball around Rori Harmon.
