The musical Rent asks, “How do you measure a year?” And in the case of Victor Wembanyama’s mind-bending debut NBA season, there’s really no good way. The newly minted unanimous Rookie of the Year averaged 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, and a league-leading 3.6 blocks per game—numbers that make him not just one of the greatest rookies the league has ever seen, but also one of the NBA’s best players right now.
Yet that’s a rather dull way of summarizing the most thrilling individual season in recent NBA history. It’s not just that Wembanyama has the statistical profile of a future MVP. It’s that every time he takes the court, he makes a handful of plays that we’ve never even considered, let alone seen before. They don’t track this on Basketball Reference, but I have to think Wembanyama led the league in guffaw rate. Laughter is the only reasonable response when a 7-foot-4 skyscraper hits a stepback 3 from 35 feet or spooks NBA players into U-turns away from the rim.
After watching nearly every Spurs game this season, my enduring memory of Wembanyama’s first campaign will be the countless times he made me say, “Oh shit.” When he made me laugh. Or shake my head. Or jump up from my couch. Wembanyama’s nightly exploits turned a mostly noncompetitive Spurs season into ground zero for a basketball revolution. Perhaps the greatest way to appreciate his immeasurable talent—and understand where the Wemby era might be headed—is to compile the games, buckets, blocks, and more that simply beggared belief.
The “Oh Shit” Games
Victor Wembanyama Introduces Himself to the League
Wembanyama’s otherworldly potential was self-evident from the moment he stepped foot on an NBA court, but it took a few games—five, to be exact—for those brilliant flashes to coalesce into a sustained performance. Against the Phoenix Suns on November 2, Wembanyama dropped 38 points, his second-highest total of the season, and provided the first glimpse of what a fully operational hooping Voltron looks like. He deterred Devin Booker on drives, caught lobs that had no business being caught, blocked Drew Eubanks at the rim, and outdueled his idol, Kevin Durant. With San Antonio up 119-116 with three minutes to play, Wembanyama flushed a lefty dunk over Eubanks from outside the restricted circle. Two possessions later, he caught a pass at the top of the key, shook Eubanks with a jab step, and canned a side-step 3 to put the Spurs up 10. Wembanyama’s first “oh shit” game pushed the Spurs’ record to 3-2 (the group chat, irresponsibly, may have started talking about the play-in) and came at just the right time—it gave Spurs fans something to hold on to during the team’s subsequent 18-game losing streak.
The Alien Vs. the Freak
Wembanyama is a center now. The Spurs began the season (and lost 15 straight games) starting a traditional 5 in Zach Collins alongside Wembanyama in the frontcourt. But on December 8, coach Gregg Popovich moved Collins to the bench, and Wembanyama assumed his rightful place atop the positional spectrum. The shift unlocked the full Wembanyama experience. The slender star became a more efficient scorer overnight, and the extra space afforded him more opportunities as a playmaker. On defense, he proved surprisingly capable of battling stronger opponents, and his blocks skyrocketed as he spent more time near the rim.
In this bout against the Bucks and Giannis Antetokounmpo, Wembanyama (a) stole a pass, took the ball the length of the floor, went behind his back on the gather, and threw down an and-1 dunk on Brook Lopez; (b) tossed himself an alley-oop off the backboard; (c) back-cut Giannis into the stone age; (d) pinned a Damian Lillard layup on the backboard and hit a trailing 3 to tie the game in the final two minutes; and (e) packed Giannis at the rim in a manner I don’t think I’ve ever seen. All told, Wembanyama finished with 27 points, nine rebounds, and five blocks in just 26 minutes. Of course, Giannis got the better of him, posting 44-14-7 and a win. It was the kind of game that should be broadcast on IMAX—it was also a warning for the NBA that another titan had entered its ranks.
The Blocks Triple-Double
In the NBA’s age of statistical inflation, triple-doubles are on the rise. Yet, until Wembanyama did it on February 12, the last triple-double featuring points, rebounds, and blocks was in 2021. In this one, Wembanyama absolutely sonned the post–trade deadline Raptors, to the tune of 27 points, 14 rebounds, 10 blocks, and five assists in just 29 minutes. Poor Gradey Dick air-balled a layup trying to outmaneuver Wemby’s outstretched arms, only to get his own rebound and fall victim to Victor’s 10th swat anyway.
The Five-by-Five
In a season of ridiculous statistical accomplishments, Wembanyama’s five-by-five might be the most auspicious. A box score can’t capture the myriad ways that Wembanyama warps the typical geometry of basketball, but the five-by-five (i.e., recording at least five points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks in a single game) at least gestures toward the totality of his impact.
Wembanyama came one assist shy of his first five-by-five in February vs. the Kings. Just one night later, he managed the feat against the Lakers, logging 27 points, 10 rebounds, eight assists, five steals, and five blocks to become just the 15th five-by-fiver in league history. The NBA’s all-time five-by-five leader is Hakeem Olajuwon, who did it six times. The only other player to do it more than once is Andrei Kirilenko. Wembanyama, who is now the youngest player to manage the feat, seems poised to become the most prolific. He will sleepwalk to five points and five rebounds each night. He blocked five shots in 24 games as a rookie—that’s light work for last season’s blocks leader. And despite playing on an [ahem] offensively challenged roster, he garnered five or more assists 24 times, including in his final eight games. That leaves steals as the tallest hurdle to more five-by-fives for Wembanyama, but that’s hardly insurmountable: The only players with more five-steal games than Wemby (who had three) were steals coleaders De’Aaron Fox and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
Chemby: The NBA’s Next Great Rivalry?
Wembanyama vs. Chet Holmgren has all the makings of the NBA’s next great rivalry. The two star rookies are both over 7 feet tall, with a combined 15 feet and 6 inches of wingspan between them. Both can shoot 3s and put the ball on the deck. Both are poised to redefine the center position. Both have a nasty streak and seem to relish the opportunity to battle one another, dating back to their preprofessional days.
For all their similarities, one key difference makes them ideal foils. Unlike Wembanyama, Holmgren played a critical role on a contending team. The 2022 no. 2 pick averaged 17 and eight for the Thunder, offering both floor spacing (37 percent from 3) and rim protection (2.3 blocks per game)—a potent combination that unlocked OKC’s preferred style of play and helped it earn the West’s top seed. After finishing one and two in Rookie of the Year voting, the stage is set for years of drama: Will Wembanyama’s individual brilliance be able to power his team past Holmgren’s?
Fortunately for fans, this long-term question will be punctuated by frequent clashes. In their first matchup this season, a 36-point Thunder win in mid-November, neither Wembanyama nor Holmgren reached double figures. In the second, both centers played well (and hard) as the Thunder blew out the Spurs again, this time by 26. But the third time proved to be the charm, as this rivalry took a leap on February 29.
Only Chet and Wemby know how they feel about one another. (For what it’s worth, they apparently have “no” relationship, outside of a little social media spice.) But I will say this: They certainly go at each other. In their late-February meeting, Wembanyama ripped a huge late-game 3 and then stuffed a Holmgren jumper to seal a Spurs win. After the game (the Spurs’ first back home after their annual rodeo road trip), Wembanyama told the San Antonio faithful that he “missed this shit” as David Robinson beamed nearby. It’s not that this game was awesome, which it was. It’s not that it cemented Wembanyama’s Rookie of the Year case, which it did. It’s that it felt like an iconic rivalry was hatching in real time.
The Legend Grows
For a lot of first-year big men, the so-called “rookie wall” looks like something north of Winterfell: imposing and insurmountable. But Wembanyama spent the stretch run of the season refining and adding to his game to an almost unprecedented extent. Like a superhero coming into his powers, he harnessed his passing ability, improved his scoring efficiency, and fashioned himself into arguably the scariest defender in the league. In his final 20 games, he averaged 24 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, and over four blocks per contest, leading the Spurs to a modest yet notably improved 8-12 record.
At a certain point, Wembanyama’s rookie season began to feel like a folk tale. And when we relay the stories of Rookie Wemby to future generations, we’ll have to mention his epic battle against fellow folk hero Jalen Brunson. On March 29, Wembanyama tallied a career-high 40 points and 20 rebounds to best the Knicks and Brunson, who scored 61 in yet another Herculean effort to propel his team to the playoffs. Wembanyama and Brunson were two of the defining players of the 2023-24 season, each in their own way—Wembanyama as the impossibly gifted alien transmogrifying the game itself, and Brunson as the diminutive but supremely crafty point guard finding ever more creative ways to shake loose. For 48 minutes near the end of a historic campaign, these two produced all kinds of fireworks and treated fans to a clash that future poets will write epics about.
That Nuggets Game
It’s not hard to find the symbolism in Wembanyama’s April 12 performance against the defending champions. For one, it was the third time the Spurs and Nuggets faced off in the span of a month, and watching Wembanyama process and adapt to Nikola Jokic over the course of those three games felt like watching a precocious pupil learn from a sage master. Make no mistake: Jokic dominated. But Wembanyama managed to bother Jokic in ways no one else can, not only blocking his shots, but forcing the best player alive into floaters and even rare dunks.
But the Spurs’ win over the Nuggets in the second-to-last game of the regular season was symbolic in another way, too. Denver came into the contest needing to defeat the Spurs and then beat the Grizzlies two days later to clinch the 1-seed and home-court advantage in the Western playoffs. And sure enough, up 21 midway through the third quarter, Denver seemed well on its way.
But then Wembanyama sprung to life. He scored 17 points in just three minutes, pirouetting around Aaron Gordon in the post and capping it off with a pull-up transition 3 from the logo. Wembanyama brought the Spurs all the way back, and San Antonio beat Denver on a Devonte’ Graham floater at the buzzer that doubled as a death knell for the Nuggets’ pursuit of the 1-seed—a major subplot of the ongoing 2024 playoffs as Denver faces perhaps its toughest test in the second round against Minnesota. The Spurs weren’t ready for the big time this year, but the win hit like a message: They’ll be a part of the playoffs soon enough.
The “Oh Shit” Buckets
This Shammgod and Scoop on Rudy Gobert
The Spurs’ last generational talent was nicknamed “the Big Fundamental,” so it’s thrilling in an entirely new way to watch Wembanyama embrace the flashier elements of scoring. He’s like some unholy combination of Tim Duncan and the freewheeling Manu Ginóbili (and, bien sûr, Tony Parker). There’s something exhilarating about the fact that Wembanyama has Robinson, Duncan, and Popovich as mentors and has also trained with Jamal Crawford to learn the “full version” of the shake-and-bake. What does a player even do with such a range of influences? Well, probably something like this:
This Stepback 3 Over Jarrett Allen
On the one hand, you’d like to see your 7-foot-4 center get the highest-percentage looks. On the other hand, stepback 3s are shockingly efficient for Wembanyama! “I feel way more comfortable when I can flow into my shot by being in movement already,” Wembanyama told The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor in a sit-down after the season. Sure enough, the numbers bear that out: Wemby shot 39 percent on off-the-dribble 3s in his rookie year, a better rate than on catch-and-shoot attempts (28.3 percent) and 3s overall (32.5 percent). Wembanyama’s free throw percentage (80 percent) suggests that his shooting off the catch will come around, but already, the stepback 3 looms as a signature—and totally unguardable—move. In a league where tough shotmaking comes at a premium, having plays like this to fall back on will go a long way toward Wembanyama’s ability to carry an offense.
This Scoop … Dunk?
Wembanyama might be the NBA’s preeminent scoop artist—and he’s taking the shot in entirely new directions. He has several lefty scoop layups (another potential signature move), innovative lefty scoop dunks, and, of course, the aforementioned Shammgod scoop over Gobert. This type of shot is typically best utilized by small guards—the Steph Currys and Kyrie Irvings of the world, who must use unorthodox angles to finish around taller defenders. Turns out, being able to literally reach around defenders makes for some pretty spectacular scoop-ortunities as well. I’ll confess that I’m not sure whether the following bucket is technically a scoop; there isn’t much precedent in the annals of basketball highlights for a dunk that begins with a straightforward near–free throw line takeoff, morphs into an underhand finger roll, and then reverses back into an overhand slam. But whatever it is, it’s revelatory—and according to the NBA, it was the second-most-viewed highlight of the entire season.
This Iso Vs. Nic Claxton
Unlike so many of Wembanyama’s highlights, this play doesn’t jump off the screen—but look a little closer, and join me in my astonishment. With six seconds to go in the third quarter, Wembanyama has the ball at the top of the floor, pretty close to the half-court line, and is guarded by Claxton. With just five dribbles, he executes three successive crossovers and finishes a lefty layup over Claxton’s outstretched arm to close out the quarter with a bucket.
If this bucket seems understated, well, that’s the point. With a few straightforward moves, he turns a simple iso at the top of the key into a clean layup. Plays like this belie a maturity, deliberateness, and workaday brilliance that will unlock Wembanyama’s full potential. The dunks and stepback 3s are amazing, but this is how you build a foundation for efficient and consistent greatness. One can only guess how 29 NBA coaches would react after seeing a play like this: “Oh shit.”
The “Oh Shit” Blocks
This No-Look Block
Perhaps my personal favorite highlight of the year. No other play better encapsulates the blend of length and wherewithal that makes Wembanyama such a terrifying defender. Defending the pick-and-roll is a dance that takes young bigs years to master (one that Wembanyama is still learning) because it often requires guarding two men at once: the ball handler attacking downhill and the screener rolling to the rim. Through feints, stunts, anticipation, and positioning, the best pick-and-roll defenders can contain penetration without allowing an easy pass. In this play, Wembanyama actually misreads the action, turning his back on ball handler Tyus Jones to guard the roller. Except he then realizes that the pass isn’t coming, turns, extends his right arm behind him, and blocks Jones’s layup attempt without even looking. It’s the ultimate example of Wembanyama’s defensive power—his margin for error is so high that even his initial mistakes can turn into highlights.
This Block of an Andrew Wiggins 3
Wiggins is 6-foot-7 with a 7-foot wingspan.
Wembanyama started this closeout with a foot in the paint helping on a pick-and-roll. He ended it with his hand on the ball and one of the most ridiculous photos of the NBA season.
This Block of the Best Player Alive
On the very first play of the Spurs’ mid-March showdown with the defending champs, Jokic caught the ball on the left wing, used his strength to back Wembanyama all the way down to the basket, and attempted the sweeping righty hook that has proved unstoppable against such great defenders as Anthony Davis and Rudy Gobert. Jokic hesitates for a moment then puts up the shot anyway. And Wembanyama, on his heels a bit from battling Jokic for position, stretches out his left arm and gets a hand on it. It’s jarring when a play you’ve seen countless times (a Jokic post-up) ends differently. This block set up one of the most fun Jokic performances of the season—31 points on a procession of high-arcing floaters to avoid a similar fate—but provided a proof of concept that Wembanyama can impact the big fella in ways no other defender can.
When People Learned the Hard Way
One of my favorite game-by-game subplots of Wembanyama’s rookie season was watching overconfident opponents challenge him one-on-one, especially early on, before the league grasped the extent of his defensive impact. One or two times per contest—particularly in Wemby’s first matchup against a given team—some brave soul would take it upon himself to try to teach the rookie a lesson. You could always see it coming: An offensive player would take a beat, size Wembanyama up, and often take it right into his chest. I admire the gumption, but this usually turned out to be a losing proposition. Just ask OG Anunoby (or Gobert, or Jimmy Butler, or Clint Capela, to name a few), who challenged Wembanyama on a drive and had his shot literally snatched out of the air.
The “Oh Shit” Minutiae
The 5-1 Inverted Pick-and-Roll
For the first two months of the season, Tre Jones served as the control group for the Spurs’ Great Jeremy Sochan Point Guard Experiment; he was the steady hand coming off the bench, and his minutes often coincided with San Antonio’s (and Wembanyama’s) best stretches. But in early January, Popovich added Jones into the starting lineup and kept him there the rest of the way. Much like Wemby’s shift to center, playing more minutes alongside an archetypal caretaker point guard brought out the best in Wembanyama. He and Jones were San Antonio’s best two-man lineup combination: Improbably, the cellar-dwelling Spurs had a positive scoring differential when those two shared the floor. And Jones assisted Wembanyama more than any other Spur, according to PBP Stats, as the fourth-year guard displayed an advanced understanding of how, and where, to feed the star rookie.
But the chemistry between Wembanyama and Jones isn’t one-way. Wemby also assisted more of Jones’s buckets than any other Spur, often out of inverted pick-and-rolls that generated some of the most jaw-dropping passes of Wembanyama’s season. In a reversal of the typical positional alignment, Jones likes to screen for Wembanyama near the top of the key and then roll into the gaps of the defense. Because he’s so tall, Wembanyama can pass over or around the defense to find Jones on the short roll, where the point guard can either finish at the basket or ping the ball to open shooters. As much as Jones’s passing helped Wembanyama score efficiently, their two-man game also helped Wembanyama hone his ability as a passer and pick-and-roll ball handler—a massive development for the future of San Antonio’s offense.
When He Stole From the King
Even GOAT candidates with a basketball super-brain must recalibrate their spatial awareness to account for Wembanyama’s length. At 39, LeBron remains a freight train in transition and one of the most dangerous open-floor playmakers in the NBA—which is why it stood out when Wembanyama poked the ball away as James tried to rampage by him in transition.
This Corner Pindown Action
The following highlight is technically an “oh shit” bucket, but it belongs in the minutiae category because of everything that comes before. The Spurs like setting an off-ball screen for Wembanyama in the corner, giving him the option to catch and shoot, curl into the lane, or, as he does here, back-cut to the rim. Wembanyama’s movement off the ball was one of the most pleasant surprises of his rookie season. It’s not just his intuitive sense for when and where to cut, but how hard he does so. He works off the ball, which sometimes results in spectacular dunks but just as often gives him the slight advantage he needs to open up a better look for himself or a teammate.
The Michael Myers Effect
I mean, what the fuck??
