Peter Okereke
The San Antonio Spurs made it to the NBA Finals with a thrilling Game 7 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Saturday evening on the road. Victor Wembanyama was pivotal in this one, leading his team in scoring with 22 points, while playing his usual otherworldly defense.
Wembanyama has come a long way in his development in a such a short amount of time.
Recently, former NBA Sixth Man of the Year Jamal Crawford, who helped Wemby develop his dribbling skillset, revealed a conversation he had with former Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich.
“He was like, ‘You know what? Honestly, I think we’ve even held him back,’” Crawford said quoting Popovich, per Jared Weiss of The Athletic.
“‘He was ahead of where we thought he would be, and he’s so unique. We didn’t know exactly how to use him, and we kind of figured it out.’”
Victor Wembanyama was coached by Popovich during his NBA rookie season back in 2023-24, and while the Spurs weren’t a good team that year, it was clear to everyone in the basketball world that they were looking at a future superstar.
San Antonio drew plenty of criticism from fans during that season for their seeming reluctance or inability to get the French star the ball, and as Popovich mentioned, it seemed at times that the team wasn’t quite sure how to best utilize their rising star’s ultra-unique skillset.
But over the last two years, the Spurs’ front office has used its immense NBA lottery luck to retool the roster around Wembanyama. This was in addition to some savvy trades, including De’Aaron Fox, while keeping mainstays Devin Vassel and Keldon Johnson around for the long haul.
The Spurs now have a forthcoming NBA Finals matchup with the New York Knicks on their hands, with Game 1 set for Wednesday evening in San Antonio.
