Victor Wembanyama didn’t book a vacation. Less than two months after the New York Knicks closed out San Antonio in five games, the 22-year-old center gathered seven teammates in Nanterre, just outside Paris, for an intensive offseason training camp.
De’Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Tobias Harris, Harrison Barnes, Carter Bryant, and Jordan McLaughlin made the transatlantic trip, per ESPN. Chairman Peter Holt, general manager Brian Wright, and head coach Mitch Johnson also attended. When a front office crosses an ocean for a voluntary offseason workout, it signals something.
Leadership built in the Paris suburbs
Nanterre is where Wembanyama first suited up for Nanterre 92 at age 15 and started drawing looks from NBA scouts. These are not unfamiliar courts. Bringing teammates into that environment, pulling the organization along with him, is as deliberate a statement as anything he could do in San Antonio.
The work has been serious. Per reports, Castle and Harper, both emerging as key pieces of the Spurs’ future, spent extended time working on pick-and-roll sequences with Wembanyama running the action. Fox, the veteran point guard brought in to compete immediately, was reportedly getting up shots well before group sessions began each day.
Spurs CEO R.C. Buford confirmed the camp in comments relayed by ClutchPoints, noting the group was doing “serious work” rather than treating the trip as a PR exercise.
“When Wemby calls, you answer,” a source close to the group told ESPN.
Bouncing back from an unfinished season
The Spurs went 62-20 in the regular season, the best record in the Western Conference. They swept through their first two playoff rounds, then ran into a Knicks team that would not fold. New York won the Finals in five.
The loss still sits. That’s why this camp is happening.
San Antonio has the roster to compete at the highest level again. Wembanyama is locked in through 2031-32 on his five-year, $252 million extension. Fox brings playoff experience and leadership to the backcourt. Harper and Castle are two of the most promising young players in the league. What the 2026 Finals exposed was execution under pressure, not a talent gap. That’s fixable, and Wembanyama appears determined to fix it on courts where he first learned what it meant to be a professional.
The competition is already moving
The Western Conference looks different heading into 2026-27. The Lakers are rebuilding. Oklahoma City remains hungry. Denver is formidable. None of them, right now, are running offseason camps across the Atlantic with their coach and GM in attendance.
That distinction matters. Seven of Wembanyama’s teammates, plus the entire front office, have already answered the call. The 2026-27 season starts here, in the Paris suburbs.
