Spurs star Victor Wembanyama has been diagnosed with a left calf strain after undergoing an MRI, the team announced in a press release. The French center suffered the injury in Friday’s loss to Golden State.
While the Spurs didn’t give a return timeline for the former No. 1 overall pick, ESPN’s Shams Charania hears Wembanyama will miss a few weeks (Twitter link).
Through 12 appearances this season, Wembanyama has averaged 26.0 points, 12.9 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.1 steals and a league-high 3.6 blocks in 34.7 minutes per game. He’s second in the league in rebounds per contest (Nikola Jokic is at 13.0) and holds a shooting slash line of .500/.345/.857.
The 21-year-old big man missed his first game of the season on Sunday due to the injury — head coach Mitch Johnson indicated Wembanyama experienced soreness in his calf on Friday and would undergo testing.
According to Michael C. Wright of ESPN (Twitter link), Wembanyama was wearing a “small sleeve” on his calf in the locker room following Sunday’s win, but was otherwise in good spirits and didn’t seem to be in any pain. Still, San Antonio is known for being cautious with injuries, and calf strains are notoriously tricky to manage — they can also lead to more severe injuries.
Both Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press and Wright (Twitter links) hear Wembanyama will be reevaluated in two-to-three weeks, confirming Charania’s reporting.
Backup center Luke Kornet and veteran big man Kelly Olynyk are among the Spurs who could receive more playing time with Wembanyama out.
Second-year guard Stephon Castle was also hurt recently, having suffered a hip injury on Sunday which prevented him from returning from the victory over Sacramento (Twitter link via Matthew Tynan). It’s unclear if the reigning Rookie of the Year will miss additional time as a result of the injury.
Several noteworthy players — including Anthony Davis, Ja Morant, Wembanyama and Spurs rookie Dylan Harper — have been diagnosed with calf strains in recent weeks.
Calf strains are all the rage these days.
Safe to say this is quite a strain. It’s the longest calf in the NBA.
And the parade of injuries to top players continues.
Get well soon, Victor!
What other top player is hurt?
Tatum, Young, Garland, Davis, Irving, Haliburton, Kawhi, LeBron, Morant, Jalen Williams, Jalen Green, off the top of my head.
Tatum ok
Young, Garland, Jalen Green are not top players
Kawhi and LeBron are past their peak, I dont think they are top 10
Ja Morant also not sure if I would call him a top player, specially with how he has been playing lately.
Jalen Williams is great but TOP player?
Jokic, Shai, Giannis, Luka are all healthy and those are the TOP players right now
What a pointless line to draw lmao
It’s also not accurate as Luka is not 100% and has already missed 4 of the Lakers 14 games.
Oh ok, you think there are 4 “top” players in the NBA.
Don’t need to continue this discussion further.
What a weird thing to get so defensive about..
Internal injuries takes a lot of time to make sure you are a 100% especially with conditioning. It is best that you work on his free throws while rehabbing so that he still will have his shot when the injury is over.
Jesus Christ, who isn’t injured in the NBA these days?
The Golden State Warriors (except Melton, who is always injured and he was signed knowing he was rehabbing after major surgery).
That is just sports in general now. Nobody really takes much time to rest.
In the NBA season ends and they start playing SL and rec league games, they don’t really practice between games they do shoot around.
NFL has a ton of injuries from contact and non contact.
Training camp is suppose to be the place where you get into game shape. You are suppose to come into training camp already in shape. Something is OFF here. Just too many nagging injuries. Wemby was out all last year. ……. Get well Wemby.
Maybe Chuck Taylors are the answer which is crazy
It’s the same answer to all the injuries since the Warriors upped the pace of play around 2014. The game is so fast now, its played at double speed to the 80s/90s/00s ISO-heavy ball. The Movement Warriors started this, and its due to the human body not being able to play this fast a game without breaking down. All the guys who don’t get injured know to not play at 100% or to save the afterburners for when it’s safe.
Davey,
Have you ever seen the Suna from 2000s? Honest question lol they started this not GSW
They did it for sure, but had a lot of detractors because no ring, GSW was the first team to actually chip from it. I should have put the Suns in there too, they def deserve some of the credit. But Curry and the Warriors are the ones the entire league copied the style of, not the Suns.
Agreed about the ring, in fact Run TMC also revolutionized the speed and pace of a basketball game.
It actually started with Bill Russell Celtics.
There is some truth to what Davey says. Cause teams always copy the champs. The Bulls triangle changed the offense. But Warriors did speed it up with small ball.
Yup. I’ve posted a year or two ago, the game is much, much faster on both sides of the court ……. combine it with more athletic players, hops, speed.
I credit the SUNS with starting that faster game though.
That’s why the way they are training and fitness they focus on is all wrong. Notice Jokic is barely ever injured and has none of these common issues. Players need to train their bodies not to put on a lot of muscle and not to only focus on being as fast, strong, and agile as possible. They need to treat this sport like a marathon not a sprint.
Joker’s an anomaly, both ability and IQ are off the charts – however, it greatly helps that his game isn’t overly-reliant on speed and power – help’s prevent injuries.
Joker has speed, but it’s about controlling pace (like Luka, like prime Lebron) …… he has power, but it’s predicated on his massive size and ability to create space in the half-court.
It’s more than that though. Look at the three Achilles injuries last year Tatum, Lillard, and Halliburton. There have been injury and medical experts that have explained how all three injuries happened on the same kinds of step back moves for a reason. They were all quick motions where the body weight and pressure are loaded onto ligaments not meant to be used that way and it’s always going to be a ticking time bomb.
Ultimately, it’s no different than the pitching injury epidemic in baseball being linked to velocity and spin rates. If you focus on fitness and motions that the human body is not built to do it’s not a matter of if but when. NBA players are focusing more on strength and speed than on stamina, endurance, and recovery.
The NBA season doesn’t generally lend itself to focus on recovery.
Outside looking in bro science here but –
What are the chances that the play in tournament has led to more injuries? Unless you are a 1-2 seed you really don’t have enough breathing room to take your foot off the gas. The difference between being a 6 seed and a 7 seed has changed so drastically that if you are in the last 2 weeks of the season as a 7 seed, you’d rather go balls to the wall to maybe get out of the play in than be content with your position and prioritize health/rest.
Or the fact that if you don’t play a certain amount of games (a percentage that Im not sure how they came up with) you are ineligible for awards. Essentially tying your income to playing through injury if necessary. I really don’t understand how the players would be at fault for the writers choosing them for an award. If the majority of writers truly believe that a guy who played 51 games is the MVP, why can’t that be the case? The league getting involved in that makes it seem like they have very little trust in the system that they implemented. Again, not the fault of the player.
Spurs now have no chance at anything but 4th or lower seed. He’ll be out over a month.
Yao Ming 2.0