What if Victor Wembanyama Never Wins Any Awards?

NBA

Thelesterlee
November 18, 2025

In 2023, Joel Embiid won the MVP Award—appearing in only 66 games.

The following season, the NBA implemented a new rule requiring players to participate in 65 regular-season games to be eligible for awards.

A short-sighted rule change—expedited by NBA TV broadcast contracts up for renewal and a loud narrative claiming NBA stars miss too many games with load management.

Most years, this won’t matter.

It’s hard to maintain an MVP campaign if a guy didn’t play 80% of the team’s games.

But the rule has unintended consequences.

By attaching legacy and contract bonuses to a 65-game minimum, players may rush back from injuries—like Joel Embiid tried—and now we’re all pretending like we can’t hear his knee caps swishing like hot soup through our televisions.

As mentioned earlier, most players won’t be affected by the change.

But Victor Wembanyama isn’t most players.

Victor Wembanyama—averaging 26.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 3.6 blocks—leading the NBA in blocks and the Spurs to a hot start in a frontloaded Western Conference.

Spurs star center Victor Wembanyama will be sidelined for a few weeks due to a left calf strain, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania on Monday.

The Spurs are erring on the side of caution in bringing back the franchise cornerstone, who underwent an MRI on Sunday. A source told ESPN that Wembanyama will be reevaluated in two to three weeks.

Listed as questionable early Sunday due to left calf tightness, Wembanyama was ruled out ahead of the tipoff for San Antonio’s victory against the Sacramento Kings. (ESPN)

The Spurs will be without Victor Von Doom for a “few weeks” as he recovers from a left calf strain.

Last season Victor only played 46 games; his season ended early after a deep vein thrombosis diagnosis.

And now he’s set to miss a month of games.

NBA reporters cannot wait to rename the Defensive Player of the Year trophy after Wemby.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is already drafting up new NBA logos in his image (also drafting up his FBI deposition as his league suffers the consequences of their full and complete devotion to gambling for a few extra dollars and a league full of guys working with the mafia).

What happens if one of the most physically unique, automatic DPOYs can never stay healthy enough over the length of his career to ever qualify for an award?

What if Victor Wembanyama never wins any awards?

For the Spurs, it’s the best-case scenario.

All those awards make Victor Wembanyama’s future earnings increase exponentially.

The words “super max” will never be uttered in San Antonio.

They’ll have a game-destroying defensive anchor for the cheap as an indentured servant, eventually only letting him out of his cage for the playoffs.

They won’t need him in the regular season because they’ll have so much extra cap space to sign a perfectly fit regular season squad, one Victor Wembanyama monster playoff run away from a championship parade.

For the NBA, they juice up his All-Star votes, wheel him out there for the tip-off like Hannibal Lector, he can still be their little zoo animal they can force to take photos with their million-dollar sponsors and their children who will ruin the planet.

For Victor, he’ll play 65 games.

This is a sicko wholly aware of his destiny to be the GOATest of All Time.

He’s only one injury-plagued season away from hiring the most expensive, experimental physical therapists, developing a routine and recovery to create an indestructible 8-foot-tall machine.

As you read this, Wemby is in a Bacta Tank in the heart of an Icelandic volcano—IV pumping his blood streams with intergalactic elements unseen by man’s eye.

The hypothetical is honestly disrespectful to Wembanyama. He will play 65+ games most years, even if he forces the NBA to allow guys to play with crutches.

The future 10-time NBA MVP will be fine.