The Magic Behind Victor Wembanyama's Feat: 'It's Very Believable'

On a collapsible bench in the San Francisco locker room, Victor Wembanyama put on a sweatshirt and extended his legs. He was about to depart from the Chase Center, and this time would be different from the previous one.

It had been precisely one year since Wembanyama left the same arena and encountered a terrible situation. Something didn't feel right, and medical examinations following the 2025 All-Star Game discovered a blood clot in his shoulder.

Right away, it cast doubt on so many things that had been assumed to be true:

His well-being. His professional path. The destiny of his team.

But as he remained seated in that chair late Wednesday night, the world felt once again within reach of his size-20.5 feet. He had traveled to China and returned. He made his way back onto the court and was selected as an All-Star starter. His Spurs reignited enough hope in the community to gain backing for a new arena, and they had won enough games to position themselves among the NBA's top teams.

When asked to contemplate this change and whether it would have been hard to envision a year prior, Wembanyama paused, then shook his head.

"It's highly convincing," he remarked.

There, right there, lies the core of Wembanyama's enchantment. In his perspective, the extraordinary is considered ordinary. The unprecedented becomes commonplace.

And nothing is beyond comprehension except defeat.

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The past 12 months of Spurs' history have passed by in the blink of an eye, making it difficult to fully comprehend the extent of the change in atmosphere. On the morning that news of Wembanyama's deep-vein thrombosis diagnosis surfaced, was anything clear?

The Spurs' latest star player—whom they planned to center their team around for the next ten years—was not assured of returning to play.

The team's head coach, who had led the club for over 25 years, had experienced a stroke and was unlikely to come back.

Their team included athletes who had yet to secure an NBA victory, and they were uncertain if they would ever conclude a Spurs playoff slump that was set to reach six years.

And their supporters were confronting the bleak chance that if San Antonio couldn't devise a solution to replace the outdated Frost Bank Center, another city might.

But just observe what has transpired since then. A young talent, Stephon Castle, completed a Rookie of the Year season. Another one, Dylan Harper, came in through the latest bit of luck from the Spurs' lottery.

Mitch Johnson was given a permanent head coaching position with the support of Gregg Popovich. Wembanyama obtained medical approval to return to basketball and used his summer to prepare both mentally and physically for peak performance.

And when everything aligned in October? The Spurs didn't merely begin to win. They started winning extensively and rapidly, making all the talk about potentially securing another championship by 2028 or 2029 seem overly negative.

They defeated the Rockets, they overcame the Nuggets, and they bested the Lakers. They managed to beat the reigning champion Thunder, not only once but four times out of five attempts.

They secured victory through the voting process. They achieved All-Star honors, including for new players, second-year athletes, coaches, players filling in due to injuries, and global stars.

"It wasn't in any way simple," Wembanyama stated.

He simply makes it appear that way. Whether he's effortlessly pulling lob passes from the rafters and through the hoop or leading one of the NBA's most remarkable single-season comebacks of the decade, Wembanyama compels you to reconsider what is achievable.

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Throughout the league and within the Spurs fanbase, this is the current situation. Although over half a century of playoff outcomes indicates that a team as young as the Spurs has no chance of making it to the NBA Finals this spring, is it as surprising now as it was in February?

Even if a difficult period is ahead, whether during the remainder of the rodeo road trip or at a crucial point during a seven-game series in April or May, can Wembanyama lead the Spurs out of it as he did following last year's moment of self-reflection?

Perhaps not. Perhaps it will require him a few years of postseason trial and error for him and the Spurs to transition from lottery teams to championship winners, similar to how most champions before him achieved success.

But if a 22-year-old Frenchman defies the odds — and every logical timeline — once more?

No matter what you do, avoid referring to it as impossible.