Spurs Notes: Wembanyama, Bryant, Fox, Castle, CP3

Victor Wembanyama may be the future face of the NBA, but the Spurs center has garnered the respect and admiration of his coaches and teammates by always putting the team first, writes Tom Orsborn of The San Antonio Express-News.

“I have never one time seen him put anything individually self-serving above the team in any way,” head coach Mitch Johnson said. “He’s one of the 18 members of the team and he acts like that 100 percent of the time.”

Much like all-time Spurs greats David Robinson and Tim Duncan, Wembanyama is unusually modest for a star player and welcomes being coached hard when warranted, Orsborn notes.

“I want to be held accountable,” Wembanyama said. “I don’t want favors. I want the same treatment as everybody else.”

The 7’5″ center is inclusive by nature and supports of all of his teammates, per Orsborn, whether they’re key members of the rotation or at the end of the bench.

“It doesn’t matter who you are, he’s trying to embrace you, get everyone into the culture of the team from top to bottom,” said fourth-year wing Stanley Umude, who is on a two-way contract with San Antonio. “He’s all about winning. No ego stuff going on. With him it’s, ‘We’re all here with the same goal in mind and we’re just trying to get it done.’”

Here’s more on the Spurs:

• In an interesting feature story for The Athletic, Jared Weiss profiles rookie forward Carter Bryant, who is a grandchild of deaf adults (GODA). The 20-year-old grew up in a household that spoke American Sign Language (ASL); his mother is an interpreter, and his father coached the girls basketball team at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside (CSDR). Bryant also developed his defensive skills in an atypical way: playing pick-up games with deaf kids, with no verbal communication. “If I’m guarding the ball and I have four other people behind me, you kind of have no idea what’s going on,” Bryant told The Athletic. “So being able to check out your peripherals, use your feet and just have a sense of natural feel for the game, it’s different. We take it for granted as players, and we don’t use our other senses as much, but we don’t have to.”
• Star guard De’Aaron Fox has largely tried to lead by example since the Spurs traded for him last February, but he felt the team losing its competitive edge in Wednesday’s game against Golden State and he challenged the group to step up, according to Mike Finger of The San Antonio Express-News. “I just asked the guys, ‘Do we want to be the team that every (opponent) wants in the playoffs?’” Fox said. The game was tied entering the fourth quarter, but the Spurs responded to Fox’s remarks, defeating the shorthanded Warriors by 13 points. Fox was named an All-Star replacement later that evening, Finger adds.
• Second-year guard Stephon Castle credits former teammate Chris Paul for helping avoid him a sophomore slump after winning Rookie of the Year in 2024/25, per Orsborn. “What he showed me last year, I feel like it helped me this year,” Castle said of playing with the future Hall of Fame point guard last season. “He was a coach on the floor for us at all times, especially for me.” After being waived by the Raptors on Friday, Paul officially announced his retirement from the NBA.