Victor Wembanyama Admits Staff Had To Hold Him Back From Re-entering Spurs-Knicks Despite Hypertension Knee Injury

A player going down in the middle of a game, clutching his knee, is always a heart-in-the-mouth moment for everyone. Unfortunately, for the second time this week, an MVP-esque star went down that way.

After Nikola Jokic’s injury last week, it was Victor Wembanyama who went down and gave the San Antonio Spurs fanbase quite the scare. The 21-year-old center was going for a rebound in Wednesday’s game against the New York Knicks when he landed awkwardly and then hobbled off the court.

It did not look good at first, but just like with the Jokic injury, a major issue was avoided. The Frenchman was reported to have suffered a knee hyperextension. So he is not expected to miss significant time.

Things, however, could have been very different had Wembanyama brushed off his injury and returned mid-game. Thankfully, those in charge intervened, according to the Spurs big man himself.

“I was this close to going back into the game, but they had to hold me back,” Wembanyama said after the Spurs won 134-132.

Thankfully, the staff did their job, or else the injury could have worsened, and San Antonio would have lost their best player for a longer period of time. Wembanyama, on his part, realized almost immediately after going down that he had not seriously hurt himself.

Spurs fans were understandably distressed. But as Wemby made his way back to the locker room on his own, nearly jogging, he conveyed to the concerned supporters that he was fine. It drew what was arguably the biggest cheer of the night.

NBA insider Shams Charania later reassured everyone by reporting that Wembanyama had avoided any major injury and had suffered only a “slight hyperextension” in his left knee.

The Spurs have not detailed any timeline for his return. Hyperextensions can be serious, though, as seen with Jokic, who suffered a similar injury, and set to miss at least four weeks of basketball.

Wembanyama’s resilience, this time around, may have to do with how he has been working to keep injuries at bay. The French star, who is 7’4” with a much lankier build than Jokic, needs to work unusually hard to remain injury-resistant.

“As NBA players, injury prevention is what we do the most,” Wembanyama said in an older interview. “It’s so simple because we need it, and there’s some simple exercises that can really help, like isometric holds, because they don’t put as much stress on the joints.”