Center Victor Wembanyama puts on his warmup shirt during the San Antonio Spurs v. Sacramento Kings game at Moody Center on Saturday, Feb. 22.
367 days ago, on Feb. 20, 2025, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, one of professional basketball’s most recognizable players, received news a young player never wants to hear.
“Your season is done.”
The then 21-year-old international superstar was diagnosed with a rare blood clot in his right shoulder, following his first NBA All-Star appearance during a medical evaluation on his return to San Antonio.
The announcement of his season-ending injury came hours before the Spurs’ first of two games at the Moody Center during the 2025 season.
It was a disappointing end to the prodigy’s second season in the NBA. In his shortened 46-game season, Wembanyama was one of the bright spots on an otherwise poor-performing San Antonio squad that was 12th in the Western Conference standings at the time of his injury.
“I remember the All-Star Game last year was the worst I had ever felt on a basketball court in my life,” Wembanyama said. “I had 5% maybe, of blood flow in my right arm … obviously I’m feeling much better, but honestly, I think it doesn’t really compare to last year. I think my diagnosis explained a lot of the way I was feeling back then.”
It was a long journey for San Antonio’s franchise player, but just a little over a calendar year later, Wembanyama and the Spurs have morphed into an unrecognizable team from the last time they were in Austin.
“He’s directly affecting the game or indirectly with his gravity,” Spurs head coach Mitch Johnson said. “It sets the table for everybody else. And it can be hard at times … I still can’t imagine a 22-year-old with so many gifts and talents and weapons to just trust that being sharp fundamentally still leads to greatness.”
Wembanyama was nothing short of excellent on the court in the second and final game at the Moody Center. The two-time All Star led a dominant effort in the fourth quarter to slam the door on the Sacramento Kings.
The center led the Spurs in points, rebounding, assists and blocks for an impressive stat line of 28 points, 15 rebounds, six assists and four blocks in San Antonio’s 139-122 blowout victory over Sacramento — a performance seemingly thought of as impossible around this time one year ago.
Wembanyama checked out of the game when the game was surely in hand for the Spurs, with just over five minutes remaining and a 26-point lead. The Moody Center crowd stood up from its seats to give a standing applause to the superstar as he checked out for some well-deserved rest.
“I think that was (an) above average night for us and for me, but it wasn’t amazing either,” Wembenyama said. “My goal is to make that the standard.”
The Spurs hold a very comfortable seven-game lead of the second seed in the west and are just two and a half games back of the defending NBA champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder, for the top seed.
“He doesn’t care whether we’re playing pickup, one on one, he’s gonna play hard to win,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle said.
Although the Spurs are San Antonio’s team, wearing their “City Edition” jerseys with “San Antonio” sprawled out on the front on both nights, the Austin crowd at the Moody Center gave the Spurs a much-needed taste of home in the midst of their yearly “Rodeo Roadtrip.” The set of games is a grueling stretch of road games in the middle of the season during the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo, taking up tenant space at the Frost Bank Center.
“It’s great to be close to home. It’s great to have our fans here.” Wembanyama said. “It’s a nice little extension of the break, because we know we’re going to be out of there (on the road) for the next few weeks.”
While the Spurs won’t have such a friendly crowd for the rest of the month until they return home in early March, San Antonio has certainly got off to a hot start on its yearly road trip, jumping out to a 4-0 record and sweeping its Moody Center games for the first time in franchise history.