The San Antonio Spurs are, unfortunately, one of the bottom-feeders of the league, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have talent on the roster. In fact, the opposite is true. The Spurs have tons of talented players on the roster, but they’re a very young team with very little experience. But they’re hungry.
On Tuesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies, Victor Wembanyama, the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, got frustrated with his minutes restriction (which is due to an ankle injury). In turn, he checked himself back into the game, bypassing the coaching staff. Wembanyama was promptly sat back down.
After the incident, Spurs teammate Devin Vassell spoke about it, praising Wembanyama for his competitive fire. (H/t Jeff Smith of Sports Illustrated)
“That just shows the level of a competitor that he is and that he wants to win,” Vassell said.
At the same time, however, Vassell admitted that the decision didn’t sit too well with the coaching staff.
“At the end of the day, we are all competitors, we all want to win, and if you feel like you are in a position to where you can help that team, you are going to do whatever you can and want to do,” Vassell said. “I didn’t know he had checked himself in, I think the coaches addressed it.”
In the end, the Spurs lost to the Grizzlies by a score of 106-98, and while Wembanyama’s decision to check himself in may not be one that gets him in the good graces of Gregg Popovich, it’s clear his hunger to win survives above all else.
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