Spurs' Victor Wembanyama Goes Viral for Peculiar Pregame Routine
The San Antonio Spurs were the Oklahoma City Thunder’s kryptonite in the regular season.
The Spurs went 4-1 against the Thunder, the defending champions who posted a league-best 64-18 record. Spurs center Victor Wembanyama earned the league’s first-ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year, and Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just became the back-to-back NBA MVP.
The Western Conference Finals will be a heavyweight battle for the ages.
But Wembanyama did not look very intimidating during his pregame warm-up ahead of Game 1 at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City on Monday night.
The Athletic’s Jared Weiss posted a video on X showing Wembanyama balancing on one foot while a member of the Spurs’ training staff jabbed all over his body. “This is how Wemby warms up to practice staying on balance through contact,” Weiss wrote. I’m sure it’s extremely effective, but it looks like how I’d imagine a giraffe being tickled.
It came in handy in the first half, when Wembanyama split Gilgeous-Alexander and Chet Holmgren’s double team to essentially gracefully fall backward into a dunk:
Wembanyama entered this season officially listed at 7-foot-4 after playing at 7-foot-3 last season, per ESPN’s Michael C. Wright last September. At just 22 years old, he could continue growing, as if the league wasn’t already terrified enough of his impending decade-long reign.
The Spurs have had to play without Wembanyama twice in these playoffs and didn’t skip a beat. He suffered a concussion in Game 2 of their first-round series against Portland, and the Spurs won Game 3 by 12 points. Then, he was ejected early in Game 4 against the Minnesota Timberwolves on May 10. The Spurs lost 114-109, but easily could have won the game.
Wembanyama is the scariest part of facing the Spurs, but San Antonio’s young, dynamic guards pose their own threat. Similarly, while Gilgeous-Alexander is the back-to-back NBA MVP, the Thunder have the deepest rotation in the league. Seven games of that, please.
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This story was originally published May 18, 2026 at 7:55 PM.