The NBA not only boasts some of the best athletes in the world, it’s practically overflowing with interesting personalities, and they’re all different. From the brashness of Anthony Edwards to the savant-like brilliance of Kevin Durant and the fun-loving nature of Tyrese Haliburton, NBA stars come in all shapes and sizes.
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That’s what makes the whole “face of the NBA” discussion so exciting, because there really are no shortage of great candidates. Is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander so good that it doesn’t matter that he takes a more business-like approach? Nikola Jokic doesn’t look the part, but his multifaceted game does the talking for him. Other international stars, like Giannis Antetokounmpo or Luka Doncic, also have a case to inherit the mantle from LeBron James and Steph Curry.
In the end, it may well end up being Victor Wembanyama. Wemby is a true unicorn, not only for the level of skill he carries in his unprecedented body, but for how interesting he is off the court, as well. The giant Frenchman is just always doing something fascinating, whether it’s training with Shaolin monks in the offseason or challenging New Yorkers to a chess marathon in the rain.
Wemby is already one of the league’s most thoughtful and articulate interview subjects, and he proved it again last night. After he helped lead the Spurs to their 11th win in a row with a modest-by-his-standards line of 12 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists, he was asked in the postgame press conference to give his thoughts on both the face of the league and MVP conversations.
“I think this is something that will get answered on its own,” he said of who will be the face of the NBA. “It’s not something that you can really force or manufacture in a way that people respond to, if you know what I mean. So I have no worries about that.”
Many stars shy away from MVP talk, maybe so as not to seem selfish, but Wemby embraced his candidacy while framing it through a team-first lens.
“Of course, I know I’m in the MVP conversations,” he said. “Of course it’s one of my goals, you know, and I think that the main argument for that is the team success. That’s always the first thing. But I’m also conscious that I need to press the gas a little bit in the last part of the season to win that award,” the lanky Frenchman confessed.
The Spurs are certainly having enough team success to make Wemby eligible for the MVP. Their ongoing winning streak has them just 1.5 games behind the Thunder for first in the West, and they hold the tiebreaker by virtue of their three head-to-head wins earlier this season against OKC.
They also just won a possible Finals preview against the Pistons earlier this week, a matchup in which Wemby vastly outplayed another MVP candidate, Cade Cunningham.
The MVP race has become a war of attrition due to the 65-game rule. SGA needs to play 16 of the Thunder’s final 22 games to be eligible thanks to an abdominal strain that’s kept him out, while Jokic can’t afford to miss two more games after hyperextending his knee and missing a long stretch earlier in the season. That could open the door for Wemby, especially if the Spurs overtake OKC for the 1-seed.
Wemby’s take on the face of the league is so smart. He’s right. It’s not something that the media can force into existence, it has to happen organically. If things keep going the way it looks like they are, though, the answer should be clear to everyone soon enough.
