Team Spurs was disqualified from the All-Star Skills Challenge after using a controversial time-saving shooting approach.
SAN ANTONIO — San Antonio Spurs players Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul exited the 2025 NBA Skills Challenge event very early during All-Star Weekend because of a controversial time-saving strategy.
Team Spurs opted to chuck their shot attempts at the rim to have the fastest time in the obstacle course.
The crowd began to boo, and once they finished their run, the NBA disqualified them from the competition because they did not use legitimate shot attempts.
However, according to Warriors’ Draymond Green, Wemby concocted the idea and exposed the event’s loophole after clearing it with several NBA staffers long before it started.
“Wemby walked around the court asking everybody,” Green said. “He asked, but he may not have asked the right people, but I will say in Wemby’s defense, he asked a lot of people.”
Green added that Wemby was practicing the hack during All-Star practice while Paul was practicing shots for the event.
Following the disqualification, Paul argued his point on the strategy to the officials, but his arguments were ignored.
“The old man followed the rookie right off the cliff,” Green laughed.
This begs the question of whether the shot attempts were legitimate or not.
Technically, Wembanyama shot the basketballs at the rim. According to the NBA Skills Challenge rules, players have a “max of three (3) valid attempts, move on after a make or three (3) attempts.”
Isn’t this what Team Spurs did? And isn’t the goal of the game to have the best time and not the most made shots?
Ultimately, it was a clever attempt to win the event, and the NBA will likely tweak the rules next season.
“I had the best time of the night, but it didn’t count,” Wembanyama said.