SAN ANTONIO — Looking around the gym, the memories of the Spurs’ golden era are living along the walls. But it’s not just the banners hanging by the window in the practice facility.
The dual courts at the Victory Capital Performance Center are surrounded by gray cushions, a needed protection for when practicing playoff basketball gets off the rails. Embedded within the sea of gray are little alcoves, booths for sitting and observing. These will house anything from onlooking staff to special guests of the team.
At the Spurs’ final full practice before their return to the playoffs, Hall of Famers Manu Ginobili and Gregg Popovich filled the booths. Sitting, observing, watching over the new era of the franchise that they made synonymous with success. Sometimes Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Boris Diaw and other Spurs legends are lurking around. David Robinson is often sitting courtside. The history of the Spurs is not just a memory in San Antonio.
But on this day, in the middle of all of the action, is Victor Wembanyama. Just like Duncan before him, he is tasked with leading a championship team at just 22 years old. This is the kind of pressure that is rarely thrust on such young shoulders. But he appears to be ready to lead one of the premier franchises of the 21st century back to the postseason after a six-season absence.
“I’m as ready as you can be, Wembanyama said. “This moment, it’s really what you work on all year, but also your whole career.
“We’re dreaming of the playoffs as kids before coming here.”
He claims he has not played in a truly high-stakes game since the Olympics, but there have been occasions this year that show Wembanyama is ready for the playoffs.
A January game in Houston was the turning point, the moment he showed how powerfully he can respond to adversity in a short period of time. A week earlier, he was in the same arena, having his worst game of the season as the Rockets’ wings shoved him off his spot and swarmed the ball all night long. He looked like he had no answers, fueling concerns that his emergence as a physical force this season was still a little premature for playoff basketball.
The Spurs returned to Houston eight days later, and Wembanyama had a second half that is right up there for the most dominant moments of his career.
“I’m trying to do things on the court that nobody does,” Wembanyama said that night. “So I have to work in a way that nobody does.”
He completely blew up the Rockets’ game plan by getting downhill from open space rather than trying to fight for post position in traffic. He played with a level of fire he hadn’t shown earlier. But there was even a level of precision and dedication all the way down to diving for a dead ball just to ensure the team had possession in the event of a coach’s challenge.
“The goal is to have, every night, this level of dedication,” Wembanyama said.
This is the ethos most young players have to learn the hard way. Typically, a promising young star arrives in the postseason, gets overwhelmed by decision fatigue and gets swallowed up by the moment eventually. Most playoff defenses can take away your main thing, your bread and butter, and force you to eat scraps. Wembanyama’s season has been about building out the breadth of his butter, giving him and the Spurs a list of options as long as a Cheesecake Factory menu.
He operates from the post, the elbow, the middle pick-and-roll, and you never know where it’s going to come from any given night. There were many reasons the Spurs went on the league’s best run after that game in Houston, going 29-3 with him in the lineup starting that night. Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper found their 3-point shot. Julian Champagnie replaced Harrison Barnes in the starting lineup on New Year’s Eve and shot 40 percent from deep there on out. Even Carter Bryant became a valuable rotation piece.
But it was the nightly evolution of Wembanyama that was the driving force. By the end of the season, it looked like the Spurs didn’t just have a plethora of ways to use their star. It appeared that they truly understood him and he finally understood himself. All the things they experimented with in the beginning of the year are now their core competencies. Every ballhandler now has a good sense of when he’s in lob range (i.e., he is standing on the court). Perimeter defenders steer the ball into spaces where he has a clear view of the offense’s primary action and the hidden secondary option.
The Spurs have painted a clear picture of how they can win a title, and he is the centerpiece. For a team that entered the season aiming to simply make the playoffs, there has actually been a lack of suspense getting to this moment. It was apparent months ago that the playoff drought was over. It might have been clear even as soon as Wembanyama destroyed the Dallas Mavericks on opening night.
This season’s suspense has been in evaluating whether Wembanyama really is ready for the run. The battle of wills. The adjustments chess match. The go-to moves and actions that cannot be taken away by the most imposing defenses.
There will be moments ahead that will make or break him. He’s done it all up to this point to prepare himself for when they come.
“I can’t really help but dream about it, of course,” Wembanyama said. “But we have to stay grounded, stay in the moment.”
Now the moment has arrived.