Next season, if they get a healthy DeAaron Fox and Victor Wembanyama back on the court — with some new players and growth from others — the San Antonio Spurs are poised to make a leap.
Wembanyama said he is ready to do his part. Speaking to the media for the first time since having to end his season due to deep vein thrombosis in his shoulder, Wemby said he planned to be back. Via Mike Malone at The Athletic:
“I’m not going to expand on that too much, because it all remains to do for me,” Wembanyama said. “But I’m hungry, and I will be ready.”
Wembanyama averaged 24.3 points and 11 rebounds a game this season and was on the way to winning Defensive Player of the Year and being named to an All-NBA team when he had to shut things down. This is how dominant he was: Wembanyama played in 46 games but still finished with 176 total blocked shots, the most in the league this season by a lot (28 more than the Bucks’ Brook Lopez, who was second).
Wembanyama was asked if this injury, which can linger, meant he needed to adjust his career expectations. A thoughtful man, Wembanyama talked about the big picture.
“I think it’s all about perspective,” Wembanyama said. “All the attention I got from the incredible people here, incredible at their jobs. From my visits to the hospital and such, I think I got as good (of) care as you can get as a patient. So, looking back, I’m really lucky … But, all of us in that (locker) room, all of us in the league, we do with what we get, we do with what we are blessed with. And I’m still in the 1 percent luckiest people, so I’ve got nothing to complain about, and it is a really slight setback.”
Read the full article here