Recovering well, Victor Vembanyama’s second challenge

After catching a franchise recordVictor Wembanyama’s Spurs have a chance this Sunday night to make amends with a 6th win in six games. “Wemby” will be trained against the Suns, so it will be his 6th match in less than 15 days. After eight months without playing, the Frenchman is playing the best basketball of his young career with 30.2 points, 14.6 rebounds and 4.8 blocks on average.

These are stats worthy of Shaquille O’Neal or the A’s David Robinson. These are MVP statistics, but there is no question of burning out at the beginning of the season, and he assures that his priority is to recover well after each match.

Faster and faster game

“Yes, of course, because very busy players get injured more often than others”answers about this phase of recovery. “They have to be even more mindful of their recovery because the more things you do, the more muscles and body parts you use that become sore or tight. So that’s even more important. But for all of us, we’re also making progress in this area.”

And that’s all the more important as the NBA game relies more and more on speed, as was the case against the Heat who made their revolution. “He set a lot of screens and got open to the basket”explained Spurs coach Mitch Johnson. “And the pace they play is hellish, so the game almost never stopped. It was a physical game on both sides, in a good way.”

As a result, Gregg Popovich’s successor saw signs of fatigue in his leader. “We could clearly see that he was tired in the fourth quarter, and it was justified, so we took him out for two minutes. But he came back, finished the game, and that’s unbelievable to me.”

Shaq’s advice

The best blocker and rebounder in the NBA, Wembanjame could take some advice from Shaquille O’Neal, posted this week about the Spurs’ great start to the season.

“I’d tell him to pace himself” Shak answers when asked if he had any advice to give San Antonio’s young downtown. “Phil Jackson, and I don’t know how he did it, but during the three years we were winning in a row, sometimes he would come and say to me: “Hey, rest for these two games. I need you to rest. No parties, no tailgating, no commercials. Just rest. But when you come back, I want you to average 40 points.” Phil did a great job on my playing time and injuries. (…) So Wemby has to do the same: if he ever has a small injury, he has to allow himself to rest for a week or two. If they lose one or two games, it doesn’t matter. The most important thing is to have home advantage. There’s no point trying to finish with a 72v–9l record while playing injured. We have to be as fresh as possible for the playoffs.”