How All-Star starter Victor Vembanyama secures team history

Add another honor to growth Victor Vembanyama legend because it secures a unique place in narrated history San Antonio Spurs franchise. Having been selected as a starter in the 2026 All-Star Game, he recently turned 22, becoming just the fifth Spur ever to start in the annual NBA Classic.

They are not on that list Hall of Fame professional basketball players Tony Parker and Manu Ginobiliwho are widely regarded as two of the top six players in team history.

While the selection marks Wemby’s second consecutive All-Star nod, it is his own first as a starter. With distinction it joins the icons of San Antonio Tim Duncan and David Robinson both love Vembanyamaare big men who were taken first overall in their respective drafts. The top draft pick in 2023 appears on his way to the kind of turnarounds Duncan and Robinson did before him.

Robinson’s rookie year marked the largest single-season turnaround in league history at the time. It was a record that stood until the Spurs broke it again, with a game (36) in Duncan’s first year as a pro, eight seasons later. The Spurs won their first championship in Duncan’s sophomore year.

Since this latest Wembanyama accolade, Spurs sport 29 wins until mid-January and sit second in the Western Conference table. They won 34 games all last season.

Kawhi Leonard, who won the 2014 Finals MVP award, and Alvin Robertson, the NBA Defensive Player of the Year and a four-time All-Star, round out the players in franchise history who have been selected as starters. San Antonio has now had at least one All-Star selection in 43 of the 49 NBA All-Star Games since the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, tied with the Los Angeles Lakers for the most of any franchise in that span.

Victor Vembanyama’s look ahead to the 2025-2026 season

Spurs’ top scorer for the third season in a row helped leads the Spurs to 29-13 with career averages of 24.5 points, 10.9 rebounds, three assists and 2.6 blocks in just under 29 minutes in 28 games. He is also shooting a career-high 51.6% (238-461) from the field and 38.2% (47-123) from beyond the arc. The 2023-2024 Rookie of the Year is the only player in the NBA with 20-plus points, 10-plus rebounds and two or more blocks. He leads the NBA in blocks per game and ranks fourth in rebounding.

This season, the 2023-24 Defensive Player of the Year runner-up extended his streak to 101 games, the third-longest streak in NBA history and a franchise record. On January 13 at Oklahoma City Thunder, blocked the 500th shot of his careerbecoming the second youngest player in NBA history to have 500 blocks and the fourth fastest ever to 500 in 143 games, joining Robinson, Manute Ball and Mark Eaton.

In November’s win over the Chicago Bulls, Wemby became the first player in NBA history to record 35-plus points, 10-plus rebounds, 5-plus assists, 5-plus 3-pointers and 5-plus blocks in a game.

The 7-foot-5 phenom will suit up for The World Team on February 15 in a new format with two teams of US-born players and one team of international players competing in a round-robin tournament. All-Star starters are determined by a weighted vote of fans (50%), current NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%).