Wembanyama off to a smooth start
SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama thought he knew what to expect from his first day on the job.
He had heard his new boss could be a bit difficult. The 19-year-old came prepared to be baptized with fire, if not brimstone.
And when not one, but two Spurs summer league practices passed without Gregg Popovich raising his voice above room temperature?
Wembanyama admits he was a little disappointed.
“I thought I would experience the yelling a bit earlier,” Wembanyama said Friday. “I haven’t yet, but I’m ready.”
The NBA’s No. 1 overall draft pick can rest assured. There will be a time for his new head coach to go volcanic later.
For now, the 74-year-old Popovich is only in observation mode, keeping a side eye on a Spurs summer league squad that he doesn’t technically coach. That job belongs to assistant Matt Neilsen.
That is not to say Popovich has not already taken a keen interest in his new teenaged charge.
“He communicates a lot with me,” Wembanyama said. “He wants to take care of me. He’s really present and it’s really comfortable” Wembanyama appears to be settling into his new San Antonio surroundings just as comfortably.
After a whirlwind first week as an NBA player that involved little in the way of actual basketball, Wembaynama was relieved to be back in his element this week — on the court, with a ball in his enormous hands.
“Unfortunately, I had a lot to do off the court,” he said. “I’m glad it’s over and I can focus on basketball.”
For the time being, that means getting his size 20 ½ feet wet with the Spurs’ summer league squad, which began practice Thursday.
So far, so good in that respect.
“I had a warm welcome with the guys,” Wembanyama said. “I was told beforehand there was a good dynamic with the team, on and off the court. I started to feel it already.”
Wembanyama’s new teammates have been impressed with how the highly touted 7-foot-3 rookie has acclimated.
By all accounts, the ballyhooed big man has not big-timed anyone.
“He looks like he cares about the team first,” second-year guard Malaki Branham said. “We did a lot of scripted stuff and he’s a fast learner. It’s good to see that.”
Behind the closed doors of the Spurs’ practice gym, Wembanyama has also wowed on the court.
“He doesn’t have to jump to dunk the ball,” Branham said. “Just tiptoes. When he did that, I was like, ‘Dang.’ ”
The rest of the world will have to wait to witness Wembanyama’s exploits in an NBA jersey.
Wembanyama will not travel with the team to Sacramento for a pair of games that constitute the California Classic next week.
He is expected to join the squad in Las Vegas for the NBA’s primary summer league, which for the Spurs tips off with against Charlotte on July 7.
That is where Wembanyama anticipates making his NBA debut.
“I can’t wait to wear that Spurs jersey for the first time,” he said.
Wembanyama acknowledged a tinge of disappointment in having to skip the games in Sacramento, especially given the Spurs’ schedule there. After opening Monday also against Charlotte, the Spurs are set to take on the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.
Wembanyama is particularly bummed to skip that one.
“It’s the Lakers,” Wembanyama said. “It would have been fun. I want to play as many games as I can, but sometimes you have to make sacrifices.”
Some of those sacrifices involve Wembanyama’s plans for after summer league.
Wembanyama has declined to play for the French national team in FIBA World Cup held in August.
Having played into June with his French League squad, and with his inaugural 82-game NBA season on the horizon, Wembanyama felt it best to prioritize rest after returning from Las Vegas.
A desire to keep himself in play for the 2024 Olympics in his native Paris also factored into the calculation.
“I think more than two years without rest is too big of a risk,” he said. “There are big events coming up like the Olympics that I really, really don’t want to miss. To be available for the national team for the next however many years, I feel like I need to miss this one.”
It was a decision — no doubt disappointing to French fans back home — that Wembanyama did not take lightly.
“My career is going to be as much with the (Spurs) franchise as with the national team,” Wembanyama said. “There’s titles to win with both. Missing the national team is just like missing a season with the Spurs.”
Now that they have Wembanyama in the fold and on the court, Spurs staffers view these next few weeks as a prime opportunity to learn all they can about their superstarin-waiting.
It is still early in the process, for both the player and the team.
“He is a unique player, and it is up to us as coaches to find good spots for him to develop,” Neilsen said. “In saying that, he has a lot to learn about NBA basketball and the Spurs.”
For now, those lessons are still coming quietly.
When the yelling starts, and it almost certainly will, Wembanyama vows to be ready for it.