Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama expected to miss rest of season

According to Shams Charania of ESPN, deep vein thrombosis is a form of blood clot. San Antonio believes Wembanyama’s health scare is an “isolated condition,” Charania adds.

The Spurs are optimistic that Wembanyama will be fully recovered by the start of the 2025-26 campaign, a team source tells ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.

Mike Finger of the San Antonio Express-News confirms that reporting, writing that the Spurs are not worried about Wembanyama’s long-term health. Wembanyama’s condition is not considered as serious as the blood clot issue that effectively ended Chris Bosh‘s career, according to Finger.

In their statement, the Spurs stated that the issue was discovered after Wembanyama returned to San Antonio following Sunday’s All-Star Game in San Francisco. NBA insider Chris Haynes hears that the team was informed of Wembanyama’s condition on Thursday.

On Wednesday, the Spurs had listed Wembanyama as doubtful to suit up for Thursday’s contest vs. Phoenix due to an illness. The game will take place at the Moody Center in Austin, and Wembanyama was not present for shootaround Thursday morning, per Finger.

As Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes.com tweets, a deep vein thrombosis “is a clot that develops in one of the major veins of the body, usually in the lower extremity.” Brandon Ingram went through a similar issue while with the Lakers back in 2018-19, causing him to miss the final 19 games of that season. 

A source tells Sam Amick of The Athletic that Wembanyama has had low energy of late. When he was still experiencing low energy at All-Star Weekend and his two-day vacation after the break, he underwent testing, which revealed the DVT. 

Amick and Tom Orsborn of the Express-News are the latest reporters to confirm the Spurs are optimistic about Wembanyama’s long-term prognosis.

As ESPN’s Bobby Marks notes, Wembanyama will no longer be eligible for major postseason awards due to the 65-game rule. The league’s reigning Rookie of the Year was the odds-on favorite to win his first Defensive Player of the Year Award after finishing as the runner-up in 2023-24.

This is terrible news for anyone who follows the sport, but particularly for Wembanyama, one of the NBA’s premier young players. Still, it’s encouraging that the Spurs seem confident that the issue was caught early and that 2023’s No. 1 overall pick will be ready to play again to open 2025-26.

In 46 games during his second season, Wembanyama averaged 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.1 steals and a league-high 3.8 blocks per game in 33.2 minutes per contest. His shooting slash line was .476/.353/.836, with nearly half of the Frenchman’s field-goal attempts coming from behind the three-point line.

Wembanyama’s absence will certainly decrease San Antonio’s odds of making a postseason push, but that’s a secondary concern. The Spurs have been in a funk of late, going just 5-13 over the past 18 games. They’re currently 23-29, 3.5 games behind Golden State for the final play-in spot in the West.