Spurs shut down Victor Wembanyama over blood clot in shoulder
AUSTIN, Texas — San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is expected to miss the remainder of the season with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder, the team announced Thursday.
The Spurs said in a statement that the condition, a form of a blood clot, was discovered after Wembanyama returned to San Antonio after the All-Star Game. The condition is typically treated with blood-thinning medication, which usually precludes a player from participating in a contact sport such as basketball.
Wembanyama started feeling symptomatic recently but believed he would feel better after two days off following the All-Star Game, sources told ESPN’s Shams Charania. When symptoms persisted, Wembanyama underwent a battery of tests that showed the clot.
A team source told ESPN that the Spurs are optimistic that Wembanyama will make a full recovery by the beginning of the 2025-26 season.
“It’s tough,” Spurs point guard Chris Paul said. “Tough more than anything, I think for all of us, knowing how much he means to our team, but more so knowing how much he means to the game and how much he loves to play.”
Wembanyama, the reigning Rookie of the Year and a first-time All-Star this season, was averaging 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists and a league-leading 3.8 blocks in 46 games for the 23-29 Spurs.
The team said in its statement that updates on Wembanyama’s condition would be provided as appropriate.
The Spurs’ chances to make the postseason took a major hit, according to ESPN Analytics, with Victor Wembanyama expected to miss the rest of the season.
Spurs Playoff Chances
“I think everybody understands that basketball is what we do and not who we are,” Paul said. “So life and everything is so much more important, but for us, we know losing a big part of our team like that is [made up for] by committee. And trust me, you can’t replace Vic. I can’t stand on a guy’s shoulders and block every shot that comes to the rim.
“Aside from his basketball ability, his charisma and what he brings into the locker room I think is what we’ll miss the most.”
Wembanyama will not be eligible for All-NBA, Defensive Player of the Year and other major awards because he did not meet the 65-game minimum. Wembanyama had been a -2000 favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year at ESPN BET and had attracted over three times as many bets to win the award prior to the Spurs’ announcement. Afterward, Memphis Grizzlies forward Jaren Jackson Jr. moved from +2500 to Defensive Player of the Year favorite at -130.
Wembanyama’s departure is a second big loss for the Spurs this season, coming about 3½ months after coach Gregg Popovich had a stroke and was forced to take an indefinite leave from the sideline.
Wembanyama had already taken 403 3-pointers and blocked 176 shots this season. No player in NBA history has ever finished a season with those numbers, and Wembanyama did it before the All-Star break.
Information from ESPN’s David Purdum and The Associated Press was used in this report.
The “Get Up” crew argue whether it’s fair to already call the Anthony Davis trade a failure for the Mavericks. (2:25)
Dallas Mavericks star power forward/center Anthony Davis will miss at least two more weeks due to his left adductor strain, the team announced Thursday.
The team statement, which was the first official update since the diagnosis of Davis’ injury, said the 10-time All-Star is “making good progress” and would be reevaluated in two weeks.
Davis, the headliner of the package the Mavericks received in the trade that sent Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers, suffered the injury during the third quarter of his Dallas debut on Feb. 8.
Davis missed his first three games as a member of the Mavs due to an abdominal strain that he suffered on Jan. 28, four days before the teams agreed on the stunning blockbuster deal. He will miss a minimum of 10 games due to the adductor strain, including seven over the next two weeks.
Davis has played 43 games this season, meaning that he will fall short of the 65-game minimum to be eligible for major awards such as All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year.
The Mavs’ other top two big men will also be sidelined for an extended period. Daniel Gafford (grade 3 MCL sprain) and Dereck Lively II (stress fracture in ankle) are expected to miss at the least the majority of the remainder of the regular season.
The Mavs signed 7-footer Moses Brown to a 10-day deal Thursday to address their glaring lack of center depth.
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| Entering Thu. | After News | |
|---|---|---|
| Play-In | 15% | 0.4% |
| Playoffs | 3.2% | <0.1% |
| — ESPN Analytics | ||
Three ripple effects of Victor Wembanyama injury: How season-ending diagnosis impacts Spurs, DPOY race, more
On Sunday, Victor Wembanyama’s extremely promising career hit an important milestone: he played in his first All-Star Game. It turned out to be, in all likelihood, the final game of his second NBA season. Wembanyama is now expected to miss the remainder of the season due to deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. What a difference a few days can make.
The priority now is ensuring a speedy recovery. By all accounts, the Spurs expect this to be an isolated incident. Wembanyama’s long-term outlook is positive, and San Antonio’s future remains bright because of it. But what about the short-term? What does Wembanyama’s absence for the remainder of this season mean for the both the Spurs and the rest of the league? Below are some of the key ripple effects of Thursday’s news.
Wembanyama will end this season having played 65 games. That obviously takes him out of the running for a number of honors he was in line to receive. He will no longer be the Defensive Player of the Year, nor will he be chosen to an All-Defense or All-NBA Team after the season.
Wembanyama obviously has plenty of time to win trophies, and he still has two years to earn eligibility for the more lucrative Rose Rule max contract. In all likelihood, he does so, but removing him from the running this season makes it far easier for other players to cash in on the contractual benefits that come with those honors.
The big “winner” here, if anyone can really win an injury, would be Evan Mobley. Last offseason, Mobley reportedly signed a five-year, $224 million max rookie extension with the Cavaliers. However, that contract reportedly had Rose Rule escalators included that could take it to $269 million. Mobley was already an All-NBA candidate, but removing Wembanyama from the picture almost certainly opens up a spot. Wembanyama had all but run away with Defensive Player of the Year (he was a -2000 favorite on Thursday morning before the injury news broke). Now, Mobley is right in the thick of the race. Either honor would make Mobley eligible for those Rose Rule escalators.
The same is true for Jaren Jackson Jr., though he is fighting for a true, 35% super max as a slightly older player. Jackson earning eligibility has a chance to be a win-win situation for both him and the Grizzlies. Memphis traded Marcus Smart at the deadline largely to free up some cap space over the summer. They did so figuring they might need to renegotiate-and-extend Jackson’s contract. However, if Jackson is supermax eligible, they’ll simply be able to tack on his new mega extension to his existing deal without touching that cap space, giving them a bit more short-term flexibility to work with.
Cade Cunningham and Scottie Barnes both reportedly have the same Rose Rule escalators in their deals that Mobley does, but are only in the running for All-NBA, not Defensive Player of the Year. Trae Young stands out as a possible All-NBA candidate who could make himself eligible for a 35% supermax with his current team as well, though considering he was a replacement All-Star, the odds are probably against him. Every slot counts when it comes to these eligibility rules, so removing Wembanyama from these races has a chance to make other players a lot of money.
Even with De’Aaron Fox in tow, it’s hard to imagine the Spurs reaching the postseason without Wembanyama. They are 3.5 games out of the No. 10 seed in the Western Conference as of this writing, and their net rating for the season dips by more than 10 points per 100 possessions whenever Wembanyama is out. There isn’t a proven backup center on the roster right now. Zach Collins was traded in the Fox deal. Charles Bassey is in and out of the rotation, and the same is true of Sandro Mamukelashvili. Jeremy Sochan has played some backup center, and he will likely continue to get a look in a small-ball lineups. But the backbone of San Antonio’s roster is now out.
That probably won’t impact the playoff race much, but it could prove quite meaningful in the draft. The Spurs aren’t exactly hurting for young talent, but now they’ll likely add another lottery pick to the mix next summer. If the lottery were held today, San Antonio would have the 10th-best odds. The Spurs are currently tied with the Trail Blazers in the win column, though, so there is room for them to rise up the draft board depending on how the rest of the season goes. Note that the Spurs also control Atlanta’s unprotected first-round pick, so they could potentially have two lottery choices in June.
That may not be what the Spurs were planning when they traded for Fox, but it’s obviously not a bad place to be. This is a very strong draft class, and if Wembanyama continues to progress as he has thus far, the Spurs won’t be using their own first-round pick in the lottery again for quite some time. It never hurts to add one extra blue-chip talent.
Now we’re venturing into speculative territory here, but it’s worth noting that the Spurs have only gotten five games out of Fox thus far. That obviously isn’t enough time to fairly judge his fit with Wembanyama, or how the rest of San Antonio’s young talent fits with the pair of them.
So what does that mean? Well, a two-month sample might have given them an idea whether the three-man trio of Fox, Stephon Castle and Jeremy Sochan is viable together, for instance, as relatively limited shooters. Those three are still all available, but the experiment is no longer fair because it doesn’t include Wembanyama’s unusual shooting from the center position. Now, the Spurs basically have to run it back next season to truly test how these incumbent players fit together.
Is that the end of the world? No. Outside of the Fox trade, the Spurs have proven comfortable slow-playing their build around Wembanyama. Another year of evaluation isn’t going to hurt anybody. It just means that we can probably rule out another big trade like the Fox deal until at least 2026.
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Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama (shoulder) expected to miss rest of season
San Antonio’s All-Star center will be sidelined due to deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder.
From NBA.com News Services
Spurs center Victor Wembanyama will miss the rest of the 2024-25 season.
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Spurs center Victor Wembanyama will be out for the 2024-25 season after being diagnosed with a blood clot in his right shoulder, the team announced Thursday.
The news comes hours before San Antonio was readying to host the Phoenix Suns (9:30 p.m. ET, TNT) to tip off the post-All-Star Break portion of its schedule.
Wembanyama’s condition — deep vein thrombosis — was diagnosed this week after he returned from the All-Star Game, the Spurs said. It is almost always treated with blood-thinning medication, which typically precludes a player from participating in a contact sport such as basketball.
Athletes who are involved with contact sports are typically advised to avoid using such medication because of the heightened chance of bleeding.
Per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News, the team is optimistic about Wembanyama’s long-term health and that he will recover to play next season. The reigning Kia Rookie of the Year, Wembanyama dazzled in 2023-24, posting 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 3.6 blocks per game in 71 games with the Spurs.
A favorite for the Kia Defensive Player of the Year award, Wembanyama is leading the NBA in blocked shots (3.8 bpg) while also posting 24.3 points, 11 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. He has already taken 403 3-pointers and blocked 176 shots this season. No player in NBA history has ever finished a season with those numbers, yet Wembanyama did it this season by the All-Star break.
“I’m in shock,” Miami forward Kevin Love said when told of the news shortly after the Spurs announced Wembanyama’s condition. “Absolute shock.”
He made his first All-Star appearance last weekend, taking part in the Kia Skills Challenge and the All-Star Game itself.
He finished with six points and four rebounds as Chuck’s Global Stars defeated Kenny’s Young Stars in his All-Star debut and had 11 points and three rebounds in a 41-25 loss to Shaq’s OGs in the Final of the All-Star tournament. His loss is a massive blow to the Spurs, who are contending for a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Such cases have affected NBA players before, including now-retired Hall of Famer Chris Bosh — whose career was cut short after he was diagnosed with blood clots.
Some athletes have come back, sometimes better than ever, after dealing with blood clots.
Serena Williams was diagnosed with the problem known as a pulmonary embolism — a clot on the lung — in 2011 and was the dominant women’s tennis player in the world again when she returned.
“Scariest thing I ever experienced,” Williams said months after returning.
Wembanyama is widely considered the brightest young star in the game.
“I’ve seen one quote that he says that nobody better call him past 9 o’clock at night because he’s either reading or he’s asleep. I think that’s super cool. I think that’s super dope,” Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James said this past weekend. “That lets you know where his mind frame is at, where he is at intellectually, and I think he’s been great, obviously, for the franchise with the Spurs. But he’s going to be great for our league for so many years to come.”
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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