There are times during a long 82-game season when the NBA can feel a little boring. This has not been one of those weeks. Just last night, we had Bam Adebayo going nuclear out of nowhere to score 83 points against the Wizards, plus Jaylen Brown getting ejected against the Spurs for some run-of-the-mill arguing after a missed call.
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Last night’s developments have taken center stage, but the league is still talking about Friday’s Spurs-Clippers game, or more specifically, what happened in the immediate aftermath. The Spurs trailed by 25 at one point but came storming back to steal a win, and afterwards, Victor Wembanyama was so emotional that he had to wipe tears from his eyes.
Wemby’s display of emotion is an uncommon occurrence in professional sports, especially after a regular-season game, and while, of course, some so-called alpha males took him to task for it after the game, the general response from the sports world has been overwhelmingly positive because it’s rare proof that a superstar athlete really does care so much about winning and losing.
On the latest episode of No Fouls Given, Paul Pierce firmly planted himself in the pro-Wemby camp. “I think the guys who show this type of emotion are the ones that you don’t know what they put into it,” he said. “And when they go through something, and they overcome a hurdle, sometimes that comes out.”
The Spurs have been red-hot, and they’ve clearly established themselves as a serious championship contender. By this point in the season, winning is something they’ve done quite a bit of. Pierce pointed out, though, that this is one of the gutsiest wins the Spurs have had all year.
“It was on a back-to-back,” he explained, “down 25, they could have packed it in. And he’s like, ‘Whoa, I’ve probably never been a part of that before in the NBA,’ to where that’s something that, ‘Hey, we know who we are, we know that this can show up again, so no matter what, I feel like we could do it again.'”
Pierce’s nickname is The Truth, and he showed some honesty in admitting that he’s been in a similar spot before. “When I’ve cried after a game,” he said, “all the work that I put in comes out. ‘Cause people don’t see that part. People don’t see me running up sand hills, falling, scraping my knee, running my track, turning my ankle, rehabbing, all of this stuff.”
“And in some games, you gotta dig deep, and you figure out more about yourself when you get in these types of situations, and sometimes those emotions come out,” he continued. “I’ve seen Kevin Garnett cry in an interview, I’ve seen Allen Iverson, and we know how passionate those guys are about the game.”
The NBA has been searching for a new “face of the league” as LeBron James and Steph Curry near the end of their careers. Wemby not only has the physical gifts to fill the role, but he’s also shown now that he can be the one to bridge the gap to those fans who think the league has an effort problem or a selfishness problem.
He’s the total package, and despite the way he makes it seem like he’s playing a different sport than the rest of us mere mortals, his emotions make him more relatable to fans than any other player in the game.
