With regards to the harm report – and to life basically – we’re all day-to-day.
Final week, the San Antonio Spurs introduced that Victor Wembanyama would miss the remainder of the 2025 season resulting from “deep vein thrombosis in his proper shoulder” – a blood clot, in layman’s phrases.
That is nothing to fiddle with. Wembanyama celebrated his twenty first birthday lower than two months in the past. He has what everybody expects to be an extended, legendary profession forward of him. It’s clearly the fitting transfer to close him down for the rest of the season and do all the things potential to place this within the rear-view mirror.
Within the meantime, although, I wasn’t fairly ready for the way exhausting the information would hit me.
The final picture most of us have of Victory Wembanyama on a basketball court docket is watching him and Chris Paul attempt to rig the abilities problem of their favor throughout All-Star Weekend. It’s precisely the sort of nonsense story I like diving into – this meaningless occasion introduced out essentially the most ruthlessly aggressive streak in two absolute maniacs born a full technology aside. Sorry if this sounds corny, however I believed there was one thing endearing and considerably hopeful seeing Wembanyama care a lot about one thing so silly.
I’ve additionally been drawn to all Wemby-related footage in Netflix’s “Court docket of Gold” docu-series, chronicling a number of of the world’s greatest groups competing on the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Watching the best way Wembanyama carries himself, seeing how he reacts to the house crowds, realizing that he feels a deep accountability to maximise his actually one-of-a-kind bodily presents – that’s why we comply with sports activities within the first place, proper?
However that phrase…”bodily presents”…
A big a part of Victor Wembanyama’s attraction is that his physique appears to have been designed by a basketball online game developer who eliminated all the boundaries. He does issues that no person has ever seen earlier than. And we’re on the very starting of this journey with him.
It’s sports activities. Accidents occur. Skilled basketball – significantly the grueling grind of an 82-game NBA schedule – is uniquely punishing on even essentially the most bodily match people on the planet. It’s the non-contact, out-of-nowhere, fully mysterious nature of deep vein thrombosis that has me thrown for a loop.
Nothing is assured for anybody – not even the individuals who have each ceiling eliminated. There may be solely proper now, all the time.
The San Antonio Spurs have been planning. Each plan entails Wemby at its middle. Drafting Stephon Fort? That’s a great match round Wemby. Signing Paul within the offseason? Excellent mentor for Wemby. Buying and selling for De’Aaron Fox? Wow, what an awesome operating mate for Wemby!
These plans are on pause for the remainder of the 2025 common season. All the things is now geared towards what’s subsequent when Wembenyama returns. However the Spurs’ rock-solid post-Duncan rebuilding plan now has the slightest sliver of doubt – but it surely was a sliver that didn’t exist a pair weeks in the past.
Get effectively quickly, Victor. I can’t wait to look at you play. I hope to by no means take into consideration this once more.
And 1’s:
• I’ve not gotten used to seeing Luka Doncic in Lakers yellow. It simply appears to be like too unusual. I’m certain there will probably be a day years from now when it’s exhausting to think about what Luka regarded like in every other jersey, however my eyes haven’t adjusted.
• That Shaedon Sharpe dunk … holy moly. For all of the speak of who ought to step up and problem Mac McClung’s dunk supremacy, Sharpe has my vote.
• It isn’t too early to start out excited about your bracket. I’ve already determined that I’m selecting Duke to take it house, even earlier than realizing Tyrese Proctor’s standing. I’m all in on Cooper Flagg. I’m additionally bullish on Michigan State, based mostly largely in my “Tom Izzo in March” bracket philosophy and maybe a little bit of recency bias on that cool buzzer-beater towards Maryland.
• On the ladies’s aspect, I’m throwing my assist behind JuJu Watkins and USC. I feel Watkins is simply unimaginable. I’m additionally excessive on Texas and their relentless defensive depth. Good luck dribbling the ball round Rori Harmon.
