Victor Wembanyama will make history as the youngest Spur to play in an All-Star Game when he takes the hardwood at San Francisco on Sunday.
SAN ANTONIO — Sitting at 23-29 and 12th in the Western Conference standings after a 2-4 start to the Rodeo Road Trip, the Spurs will have their work cut out for them if they want to make the Play-In Tournament this season.
But the team has still benefited from standout play that has already granted San Antonio more wins than they had all of last season, and assured the team will finish with its best record since at least 2021-2022, when they went 34-48.
Chief among those contributors, of course, is 21-year-old franchise star Victor Wembanyama. The Frenchman has improved in virtually every key stat from his Rookie of the Year campaign, punctuated by his league-leading 3.8 blocks per game. He’ll participate in his first All-Star Game this weekend in San Francisco, where he’ll be joined by teammates Stephon Castle and Chris Paul—giving San Antonio the distinction of having representation across all three days of All-Star competition.
Here’s when to catch the trio as they take the court with the rest of the league’s elite this weekend. All the marquee events below will be broadcast on TNT and TruTV, and all times are Central.
Stephon Castle
Season Stats: 12.9 points per game (most among rookies with more than 40 games played), 3.5 assists, 2.8 rebounds per game. 0.9 steals per game (tied for first among rookies).
The Spurs’ first-year point guard is a bona fide Rookie of the Year contender, and was selected for Friday’s Rising Stars Game this year. In actuality, it’s a four-team, three-game tournament in which the winning squad will punch their ticket to Sunday’s All-Star Game tournament.
Castle joins the Lakers’ Dalton Knecht and the Grizzlies’ Jaylen Wells on Team C, which will play 2024 first overall pick Zaccharie Risacher and Team T in the semifinal game at 8 p.m. Stick around for the Rising Stars final if Team C pulls out a win in their first game—and potentially more competition in Sunday’s All-Star Game tourney, which starts at 7 p.m.
Regardless, Friday won’t be the only time we see Castle in All-Star Weekend action. While it shouldn’t technically be part of his case for Rookie of the Year, a memorable performance in Saturday’s Slam Dunk Contest surely wouldn’t hurt, either.
Castle, who’s developed a knack for flying to the rim when he’s got the open lane, will be looking to bring home the franchise’s first Slam Dunk Contest trophy when he goes up against Matas Buzelis, Andrea Jackson Jr. and two-time defending champ Mac McClung. The soarin’ and dunkin’ gets underway as part of State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, which kicks off at 7 p.m. with the Kia Skills Challenge.
Victor Wembanyama
Season Stats: 24.3 points (third among NBA centers), 11 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 3.8 blocks per game. Shooting 47.6% from the field, 35.2% on three-point shots, 83.6% at free-throw line.
San Antonio’s ascendant face of the franchise became the youngest player in its history to reach the All-Star Game when he was selected for the Western Conference reserves on Jan. 30. That selection automatically removed him from Rising Stars competition, which for a second straight year he was tabbed to participate in.
For the first time, the game will be played as a mini-tournament format, with the All-Stars drafted onto three teams (Wemby is on Team Chuck’s Global Stars) while the victors of the Rising Stars three-game tournament will win rights to join them as the fourth team.
The tournament starts at 7 p.m. Sunday. Team Chuck will first play Kenny’s Young Stars, led by Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Miami’s Tyler Herro and the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson.
But Wemby will be in action even sooner than that.
He’s teaming up with Paul as one of four duos to compete Saturday in the Kia Skills Challenge, which tests players on their basketball fundamentals. Their competitors will be Donovan Mitchell and Even Mobley on Team Cavs; Zaccharie Risacher and Alex Sarr on Team Rooks, uniting the two top draft picks from last summer; and Draymond Green and Moses Moody on Team Warriors.
The Skills Challenge will kick off State Farm All-Star Saturday Night at 7 p.m.
Chris Paul
Season Stats: 8.1 assists (seventh among all players), 9.2 points, four rebounds, 1.3 steals per game.
San Antonio’s 39-year-old leader is a nine-time All-Star who further cemented his “Point God” legacy when he moved into second-place on the all-time NBA career assists ladder in December, trailing only John Stockton. He won’t reach double-digit All-Star Game appearances in 2025, but he’s heading to California nonetheless to compete with Wembanyama in Saturday’s Kia Skills Challenge—an acknowledge, perhaps, of the resume he continues to pad now that he’s in the twilight of this NBA career.
The Skills Challenge is the first event up on All-Star Saturday Night, which starts at 7 p.m. and also features the Starry 3-Point Contest and AT&T Slam Dunk Contest.