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Wemby Watch: As 2023 ends, Victor Wembanyama keeps on rolling

The 19-year-old rookie becomes the 1st teenager in NBA history to record at least 20 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 5 blocks in a game.

Michael C. Wright and Michaela Gilmer

The Spurs rookie put on a shot-blocking clinic in his 1st matchup against No. 3 pick Scoot Henderson.

Stay up to date on No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama during his rookie campaign with the San Antonio Spurs. A new Wemby Watch drops every Sunday during the season. Here’s what we saw this week.

All-Star praise 🌟 

Count Paris Saint-Germain Football Club among the many in France pulling for Wembanyama to earn an All-Star nod in his rookie season with the Spurs.

Rookie showdown 💪

Wembanyana faced No. 3 overall pick Scott Henderson on Thursday in Portland for the pair’s first battle since last year when the French phenom’s Mets 92 team took on the G League Ignite in Las Vegas. Wembanyama racked up 37 points in that contest while Henderson poured in 28 points.

The matchup drew rave reviews from nearly everyone watching.

More than a year later, the Spurs rookie provided an interesting description of that outing, which was his first visit to Las Vegas.

“To me, it’s the closest thing on earth to a dystopia,” he said.

Back in Portland, however, Wembanyama stuffed the stat sheet with 30 points, six rebounds, six assists and seven blocks on the way to becoming the second rookie in NBA history to tally 30-plus points, five-plus rebounds, five-plus assists and seven blocks or more in a game since 1990. The last player to accomplish it? Spurs legend and Hall of Famer David Robinson.

1-man highlight reel 🤯

Check out every bucket and block from the rookie’s record-setting performance in Portland. 

One stat to know 📊

Wembanyama’s performance against the Trail Blazers made him the first teenager in NBA history to produce at least 20 points, five rebounds, five assists and five blocks in a game and just the second player in league annals to hit that stat line in fewer than 25 minutes of play.

Hall of Famer Julius Erving did it first in 1985.

The Wemby effect 📈

The rookie phenom racked up 1.3 billion views across the NBA’s social platforms (X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube) in 2023. He ranks third among the league’s 15 most-viewed players, trailing only LeBron James (2.8 billion) and Stephen Curry (1.6 billion). 

Advice from a former Spur 👏

Retired big man LaMarcus Aldridge played six seasons in San Antonio, leaving the club in 2020-21 for the Brooklyn Nets, where he played two more seasons before deciding to pursue life after basketball.

Aldridge scored 20,558 career points utilizing mainly two moves, he admitted. The 38-year-old advised Wembanyama to streamline his game similarly.

“He’s so skilled, I would just break his s— down,” Aldridge said of Wembanyama on the “All the Smoke” podcast. “Get a move that if it’s fourth quarter, you’re gonna go to it. My s— was always my fade at the beginning of the game, end of the game. It helps you to stop thinking so much.”

Having watched the Spurs rookie, Aldridge thinks Wembanyama should slow down his game and refrain from overanalyzing potential moves in crucial situations — a penchant that surfaces, in part, due to the 19-year-old’s vast skillset.

“End of the game, you’re too skilled,” Aldridge said. “You’re trying to think, ‘Do I want to do this? Do that? Do this?’ Get one move, where it’s like, I don’t care who’s guarding you, [do it]. Build off that. I feel like he’s so skilled he’s [got] 18 different moves in his head, and he’s playing too fast right now. Slow yourself down, and get two moves to go to.”

Work in progress ⏳

Wembanyama missed two of the Spurs’ four games last week after turning his right ankle on Dec. 23 after landing on the foot of a Dallas ball boy during his pre-game warmup. 

“I’ve never heard of it before,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich joked. “If you’re going to be a ball boy, maybe be more nimble, [and know] what’s going on around you.”

For his part, Wembanyama wants to play every game. 

But he’s learning as a rookie the extreme caution teams take to protect their most valuable assets. Wembanyama expressed he’s fine with that approach, despite a desire to contribute every night on the floor.

“It’s always painful to sit out and watch the guys play without you,” he said. “But it’s like I said before: we think about the long run. The first thing coach told me after I was told I was going to sit out was that my career is longer than that. It’s bigger than just a game against Dallas. We’re going to be smart.”

The club sat Wembanyama again Friday on the second night of a back-to-back against Portland. 

Known over the years for leaning on the side of precaution regarding injuries, the Spurs plan to hold out the rookie from back-to-backs over these next couple of weeks while also limiting his minutes, according to Popovich.

“It’s mandated,” the coach said. “He’s got a minutes restriction and he can’t play back-to-backs for a couple of weeks until they take another picture and check out his foot again.”

San Antonio Hall of Famers such as Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili and Robinson understand the drill all too well.

Circle on calendar 📅

The French phenom meets the Greek Freak, Giannis Antetokounmpo, on Thursday in a nationally televised matchup when San Antonio hosts Eastern Conference powerhouse Milwaukee (7:30 ET, TNT).

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Michael C. Wright is a senior writer for NBA.com. E-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.

Michaela Gilmer is a producer for NBA.com.

The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.

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