San Antonio will be without its young star and Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner for its playoff push.
SAN ANTONIO — The City of San Antonio and fans of the Spurs around the world were in shock after Thursday’s news that All-Star Victor Wembanyama has been diagnosed with a season-ending injury.
The Spurs announced that Wembanyama has deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. The condition was discovered when Wemby returned from All-Star Weekend in San Francisco.
“It’s a big blow for San Antonio, ’cause he’s the heart of the team,” said one fan at Chris Madrids in the wake of the news. “We’re gonna feel it, but hopefully we can bounce back from it.”
Fans reacted online as well.
Realizing this isn’t a game where you can “turn injuries off” in career mode like NBA 2K, one of the hosts for the Pick a Side podcast, Drew Velez, was broken when hearing the news.
Another fan was willing to take the injury from Wemby in order to save his season.
Play-by-play announcer for the Spurs Jacob Tobey gave insight to the historic sophomore season Wemby was putting together before the diagnosis and sent well wishes to the young star.
A lot of fans moved from sadness to being thankful this blood clot was discovered when it was.
Chris Paul reacted to the news after Thursday morning’s shoot around, explaining what Wembanyama means to the locker room on and off the court.
“You can’t replace Vic. I can’t stand on a guys shoulders and block every shot at the rim,” Paul said. “Aside from his basketball ability, his charisma and what he brings into the locker room I think is what we will miss the most.”