San Antonio Spurs big man Victor Wembanyama and guard Chris Paul recently teamed up for the Skills Challenge at All-Star Weekend. But Team Spurs didn’t come out on top in the event — that honor went to Team Cavs, which was comprised of Cleveland Cavaliers stars Evan Mobley and Donovan Mitchell.
In fact, Wembanyama and Paul were disqualified from the challenge after they tried to exploit what they thought was a hole in the rules.
The final outcome of the Skills Challenge wasn’t one that Paul and Wembanyama were hoping for, but Wembanyama seemingly set himself up for success with the work he put in prior to the event. Allegedly, San Antonio flew a performance coach and physical therapist out to San Francisco so that Wembanyama could go through his pregame routine.
“Wembanyama took the loss in stride, according to multiple sources, though he had prepared as if the Skills Challenge were a real NBA game,” Michael C. Wright wrote.
“The Spurs flew their massage therapist to San Francisco, along with the physical therapist and performance coach to run Wembanyama through his usual pregame routine, a source told ESPN, because ‘he takes it so seriously.'”
The Skills Challenge wasn’t the only aspect of All-Star Weekend that Wembanyama participated in. He earned his first All-Star selection of his NBA career and played for Team Chuck alongside the likes of Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver Nuggets big man Nikola Jokic.
Four teams in total partook in the tournament, and Team Chuck was one of the last two standing. The squad lost to Team Shaq in the final contest of the tournament, but Wembanyama was arguably the best player on his team in that contest with a team-high 11 points to go along with three rebounds.
While Wembanyama came up short in both of the events he played in during All-Star Weekend, he will very likely have more chances to be on the winning side in future iterations of the weekend.
He just turned old enough to legally consume alcohol in January, yet he’s staked his claim as one of the best centers in the NBA. In only his second season in the league, he’s averaging 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and a league-high 3.8 blocks per game.
Wembanyama is trying to lead the Spurs to their first playoff appearance in a while, and the team is facing an uphill battle at this point. San Antonio is five games back of the Dallas Mavericks for the No. 8 seed in the West with a record of 23-29.
