For a young Spurs team, making a run to the NBA Finals and losing there — at times in heartbreaking fashion — was a lot to process. There were a couple of ways they needed to deal with that, something Victor Wembanyama touched on Monday at San Antonio Spurs media day.
“I couldn’t imagine a better motivation,” Wembanyama said of losing to the New York Knicks in five games — kind of the classic “Mamba mentality” response.
However, it’s more than just motivational fuel the young Spurs need to process, and Wemby understands that. Getting together as a team this summer and working out in Houston — something De’Aaron Fox put together — and in Paris, organized by Wembanyama, helped the team deal with a lot of emotions.
“Obviously, we have to go through some emotions, and you do some of that alone. But it’s better to do it as a team,” Wembanyama said. “I take a lot of positive things of everything we did this summer. Just being together, honestly, it was amazing. Especially Paris for me, that was really touching, very emotional for me...
"[Dealing with the loss] It’s not over. It evolves with time, but I’ve had a few sleepless nights, maybe not sleepless nights, but hard to find sleep sometimes... But there’s just a point where you accept that you have to go through it and you have to feel all of it, and we don’t want to hide from anything. So, we’re gonna face these emotions. Face the reality that we have 100 games to play [to get back to the NBA Finals]. And this is the reality of it. We’re in a great spot. We’re very hopeful, very ambitious, and we’re ready.”
Here are some other things Wembanyama touched on during his media day press conference.
On the Spurs being the hunted now, a team with Finals expectations: “It feels like we’re in our place. It already felt like this last year when we were getting closer to the top of the conference. It feels normal. I would say it felt weird not being in that place in the past.”
On training this summer (along with teammate Harrison Barnes) with French rugby club Provence Rugby in Aix-en-Provence: “It was a great experience seeing the kind of team spirit they have over there. Very inspiring. The relationships between teammates, coaches and fans. It was so interesting for me. The training in itself was really hard. I think it was really good for the vestibular system and new movement patterns and new ways to develop strength as well. But honestly, I’m more grateful for the experience in itself and how I was welcomed there. I’ve never been welcome like this anywhere. I mean, I’m not part of the team, and they treated me like I was.”
On dealing with his heightened level of international fame, something he said he wanted before he was drafted: “It is too much often, but it’s fine. It’s all of it. This is not what I work for, but this is a symbol of success to some extent. It’s the part that I like the least about the Finals or the playoffs expedition in general. But it’s a good sign. So yeah, I still want it.”
On him going from the young, rising player everybody loved to one that other fan bases don’t like (because he’s beating their team): “We’re fighting for the top spot of the mountain, and we’re gonna have to move people in our way. That’s just the way it is. So, I take it as a great sign of respect as well.... Fans will love if you’re on their team, and hate it if you’re not. It’s just the way people experience their own competitiveness. It’s normal. I don’t have nothing against it.”
