Most players use the final weeks before training camp to work on their own game. Victor Wembanyama is using his to build everyone else’s.
The reigning Defensive Player of the Year has organized workouts in Paris this month, gathering a mix of returning Spurs and new additions on his home turf. No mandates, no coaches, no formal structure. Just a 7-foot-4 Frenchman who led his team to the NBA Finals last season deciding that chemistry is too important to leave to September.
San Antonio opens training camp September 29. The kind of initiative Wembanyama is taking here – organizing chemistry sessions across an ocean before the season starts – is what veterans with three or four rings do. He is 22, entering his fourth NBA season.
What the Spurs are building on
The baseline is exceptional. Last season, Wembanyama averaged 25 points, 11.5 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game – the latter leading the league. He earned Defensive Player of the Year honors as the award’s first unanimous winner. San Antonio pushed through the Western Conference and reached the Finals before losing to the Knicks in five games.
That run earned him a five-year, $252 million extension in July. The notable detail: Wembanyama was eligible for the 30% supermax, which would have approached $303 million. He signed at the 25% maximum instead, leaving roughly $50 million on the table to give the Spurs more flexibility to build around him. “Spurs family, I’m here to stay,” he posted after signing. “Whatever it takes.”
A franchise cornerstone takes charge
San Antonio was once the city where Tim Duncan built five championships on quiet excellence and structural basketball. Wembanyama carries something different – a French-born player with a global profile, organizing team sessions in Paris before anyone else is even thinking about October.
Oklahoma City and San Antonio open as co-favorites to win the 2026-27 title at +270, according to multiple sportsbooks. Paris workouts do not guarantee rings in June. But they are a data point about who Wembanyama is choosing to be three years into a career already generating franchise-redefinition conversations.
For a franchise defined for two decades by a player who barely spoke, it is something to hear Wembanyama do the organizing.
Sources: ClutchPoints, SI.com
