Victor Wembanyama weighs in on Minneapolis.
Regular Wemby W
I’m changing my fucking flair. I’ve been trying to find a new team since the bastards bought the team I was a 30 year fan of and fucked Luka over. Now’s the time. Can’t fight it any longer. It’s Spurs from here on out.
Fuck the Mavs and fuck ICE.
Not happy with the new owner having donated $100 million to Trump?
I must’ve missed this, sheesh, that’s obscene but not surprising. I’m unfortunately a Cowboys fan and Jerry Jones donated \(20k to Ted Cruz's reelection along with a whopping \)1 mil to his gaudy inauguration. Definitely makes me care less about supporting the team not to mention this year was a train wreck. At least his daughter donated to a few democratic governors in other states, thankfully.
Can you simply stop being a cowboys fan?
Haha yes, I’m more of a Seahawks fan nowadays anyway because of my wife and and haven’t spent money on them in awhile aside from an impulsive jersey back when they were on their (totally fake) comeback after their bye. Ragrats.
[deleted]
Spurs have always been an organization built on doing the right things. Coach Pop would regularly speak out about stuff like this.
I’ve been debating this thing too. I really like Castle
One of my best friends is a Mavs fan. We know how yall feel, especially after we lost Micah, being that majority Spurs fans are Cowboys fans. We are also Rangers fans. Yall are welcome to the fandom in my book, despite the rivalry.
Personally, I’ve never been a Mavs hater. My first NBA game was Spurs at Mavs in Feb ‘97. The Spurs won 111-97 and that was the day I became a Spurs fan, but I can’t hate the Mavs cuz of that day.
We Spurs fans welcome you. It’s a fantastic team. There is so much to look forward to and you are as legitimate a fan as someone who has followed them for 30+ years.
Long-time Mavs Fan.
Fuck ICE! Fuck the Mavs (ownership)!
Holy shit he changed his flair
Knew I liked him when he called out the NBA celebrating Karl Malone, dude just doesn’t miss on these things
Well he was asked abt Kobe v Duncan and picked Kobe. I was kinda surprised after he talked about Malone.
Not excusing him but I wonder if he is totally in the loop on that. Social media still sucks Bryant off but they are quick to make fun of Malone (deserved). Possible he hasn’t been exposed to Bryant’s rape (and admission of lack of consent) case in depth
i highly doubt that. with his ethical basketball statement, the dude is hip on all the buzz surrounding all things hoop.
and especially of late, the kobe thing has not been under the radar.
edit. i am a huge fan of wemby. i love how much he despises the thunder. i love his attitude and his game is so much fun to watch. i look forward to many contentious playoff series to come.
Karl Malone is also a more cut and dry case where there was never any question of his guilt.
I think Kobe’s legendary status, combined with the horrible helicopter accident affects the way people talk about Kobe. If he was still around, you’d get sound bites of people bringing up allegations, it would follow him around like it has with Malone. But I feel like there’s a discomfort people have with talking about the dead that way.
Well I am 34 and I never knew that Kobe admitted it was rape, I thought the entire redemption arc and him winning in court was because he said it was consensual…
This is what he said: “Although I truly believe this encounter between us was consensual, I recognize now that she did not and does not view this incident the same way I did. After months of reviewing discovery, listening to her attorney, and even her testimony in person, I now understand how she feels that she did not consent to this encounter.”
Take it for what you will
He didn’t admit to rape.
He was kidding and did change his pick to Duncan…
Give Wemby the MVP just for speaking up that a lot of other high profile guys don’t do. Some so called “face of the league” guys are just big pussies.
You can’t blame Lebron… He’s just not informed enough to know whether killing people is bad
he literally states that he is withholding what he wants to say because of his personal costs?
Well he also says he is concerned as a foreigner living in this country. This adminjstration is incredibly petty
I mean, his honest feelings might be that he wants to see ICE agents [redacted]. I took it to be him hiding his power levels while hinting about how he really feels.
Love this fucking guy!
The biggest rising star in the NBA is afraid that if he expresses himself that the government will retaliate and deport him.
Let that fucking sink in.
Edit: https://www.ilcm.org/donate/ Donation link for the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota
The World Cup is going to be a fucking shitshow
If it’s gonna happen
First time following soccer? They are degenerates.
Bro Qatar used slave labor to build stadiums for the World Cup. FIFA still went out their way to change league schedules and move the World Cup from a summer event to a winter event. They don’t GAF
It’s hopefully too extreme of a comparison, but it makes me think of the Olympics being in Germany in 1936
Man could you imagine the basketball storyline if that happens. Not about the non basketball implications just the basketball. Being that we’ve actually get to see him be in the NBA and improve rapidly before deportation, There would be a lot of discourse for years on if the best player in the world plays in the NBA or not, and the world championships and Olympics would get much more discourse.
Arvydas Sabonis is a “what if”, but Wemby would be more of a “we know”
whatever basketball implication there may be would be a thousand time less important than the non basketball implication. The NBA would shutdown overnight because of player’s strike, billions of dollars would be lost, it would be an absolute shitshow
Maybe I’m just jaded but I have a hard time believing the players would buy into this en masse. I mean Wemby himself, who has said more than most have in this video, has said the cost of saying more is too much for himself right now.. in this same video.
It’s different when it happens to “one of us”.
For sure his teammates would do it. And those teammates have friends across the league they may get on their side. What would happen if the Spurs players boycotted every nationally televised game they are in if this admin deports Wemby?
i mean it sets a precedent though. there’s plenty of international players in the league. if they could deport wemby, they could deport any of them.
Hot take but if the players union set up their own league with team ownership being similar to packers set up, I’d buy shares.
That’s North Korea level of shit.
fascism
Land of the free
Real. No bs, honest about how he feels and what he can and cannot say.
We all get pretty clearly how fucked up the situation currently is.
As soon as I saw the video, it’s sad that my mind went straight to “how are Trump supporters going to excuse or justify this?” and had small hope that this would be the line.
Foolish of me tbh. As soon as the administration came up with some BS about Pretti being a criminal, that’s all they needed to not believe their own eyes. ICE could murder a sleeping infant in broad daylight and Trump supporters would justify it if they claimed the infant was illegal or a danger to the officer somehow
I got curious and checked the conservatives sub just moments ago. It’s all Pretti character slander.
Extremists are wild.
I get curious and check that sub sometimes. I regret it every time. it screws with my faith in humanity lol
even if it’s mostly bots. the fact people set up bots to do this do a murdered man. when did literal crazy shit get so acceptable?
It’s fucking insane over there. I check every now and then as well (when something insane like this happens or when Trump does/says something objectively terrible) and even then, they either justify it or ignore it altogether. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I’m the crazy one.
It’s fun when the instant reaction there is “this is bad” and then all of that gets removed
I think that’s the craziest part, any sort of criticism or disagreement of this regime IMMEDIATELY gets bombarded with downvotes and eventually removed.
It’s funny that whenever something big happens that sub would have plenty of people going “umm guys, this is wrong”. And then the mods purge all those dissenting voices the next day
The vast majority of posters over on that subreddit are rather conveniently ignoring all the smartphone footage.
I saw only 1 poster who said that there needs to be an investigation. Because the credibility of ICE / DHS is at stake. Not because a civilian was murdered by ICE while being well within his constitutional rights and not doing anything threatening.
It’s just depressing how people can’t acknowledge the truth when it goes against their political worldview.
Even the few that DO acknowledge all of the footage manage to justify it somehow.
You even see self described ‘constitutionalists’ talking about how the murder was justified because the dude had a holstered gun on him. I’ve seen people excuse the murder as a fight or flight response on the agents part; same thing with Renee Nicole Good.
Or my favourite one: ‘none of this would be happening if blue states simply cooperated with ICE’. Reeks of ‘well, I wouldn’t have hit you if you didn’t make me angry’ mentality.
They will do ANYTHING but admit that mistakes are being made. Like you said, all in the name of political worldview and owning the libs.
Some right wing news orgs are now trying to say his phone looked like a gun. They are twisting themselves in any which way to get something to work and it’s not going well it seems. So pathetic.
Using the AI photo that removed a head from one of the other people to do it too
It’s pretty saddening looking from outside of USA. There’s such a big divide on “left” and “right” now that people are throwing away their values and empathy, just so their “side” can be “correct/justified”.
I just wish people would see things less left/right but more just/unjust.
The funny thing is if you check directly in the aftermath of events, it’s not the case. After Renee Good, initial comments there were saying it was a bad thing, until they got their playbook laid out for them with the “facts” of her being extremist, and the grainy angles showing she “definitely was trying to hit the guy”
After this one, the initial comments was this was not a good look and was a tragedy, but now their playbook has yet again been laid out for them where he was interfering, shouldn’t have showed up with a gun, didn’t have ID on him, all the talking points you expect to read at this point.
People see it for what it is, but they’re so entrenched in not believing some of the people in charge can lie that maybe they just feel too embarrassed they got duped and revert to bad faith arguments to not face actual injustices they’ve been tricked by.
The president walked back his initial rhetoric about Good saying it was a tragedy, and after Pretti I believe certain people are going to be fired. Press Sec is not running as hard of defense for DHS with this one like they did with Good and there’s more social unrest.
Don’t take that snowflake sub seriously, it probably is a lot of bots or people who just wait to be told what to say. But always check when the news is breaking and you’ll sometimes find decent people who have just been misled and fall for the propaganda machine and there’s dissenting opinions. Once the mods have gotten hold of the threads, there’s only 1 opinion you’ll see among the sea of deleted comments, and it’s the one licking the boot.
It’s fun to compare notes on what other people got banned for with those petty mods. In my case, it was just pointing out that Trump voted with an absentee ballot.
I don’t know if they were bots or not, but I saw a lot of Trump supporters flooding comments sections with the lie that the murder victim pointed his gun at the ice officers and deserved to die.
They jumped on the opportunity to start a pro-Ice lie of a narrative before video footage proved it wrong.
It’s easy to be on the right of history, and like usual, conservatives are on the wrong side. History repeats itself I guess.
“I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”
Donald Trump
January 23, 2016
(Cannot believe he said this shit 10 years ago. Turns out he wasn’t playing)
We all get how fucked up
Unfortunately, no. Not all of us get how fucked it is.
Unfortunately it is far from all. Plenty of people still supporting what happened to Pretti.
“Saying everything that’s on my mind will have consequences too great to me right now”
he knows there’s a non zero chance he gets deported if he said more extreme stuff. i wonder what his thoughts are on abolishing ICE
The awful thing is that more people might actually question their opinion of the current administration if it revoked a superstar athlete’s work visa for speaking his mind than because of videos of protestors getting shot.
More people know about Ali refusing the draft than the Ken state massacre
He waa hated in the moment.
MLK had like a 20% approval rating in 1968. He called out injustice and the vast majority of Americans at the time said “fuck off”.
The Kent State shooting also had like 80% approval in favor of the national guard. Americans love to pretend they were always on the right side of history.
LIBERALS at the time wanted the protesters to be arrested and have the book thrown at them.
Conservatives wanted them gunned down en masse.
But he stood tall. He was the 🐐
Fair
Marco Rubio has already claimed they can deport people just for their speech
Now you are labeled a domestic terrorist for calling ice nazis.
The Nazi ass ICE head Bovino implied the same shit
Yeah but then he can just buy a shiny “trump gold card” because of course that’s a thing.
he probably has some thoughts on what should happen to a certain someone
He’s so ridiculously composed for his age. What an impressive, down to earth dude who also happens to be 7’5 and incredibly good at basketball
France knows a thing or two about revolution too.
every successful french revolution has been a bourgeois revolution. the only peoples revolution was the 1871 paris commune, and that was brutally suppressed
He is, at the same time I’m pretty sure I saw him call Caruso a little bitch during a game, among some other colorful reactions to other players too 😆
Edit: The Draymond stare down was my favorite so far though
My fucking GOAT. This is what a real superstar does.
i love that hes a young person saying this, we cant let young people think any of it is in any f***ing way normal
It takes actual balls to do this, because there is a chance this murderous administration deports his ass or worse, tries to disappear him. Wemby not using passive language and calling this shit for what it is, is true bravery and integrity.
Fucking shame on every single American star staying silent.
he is so fucking awesome man
Today, he is my goat too.
Victor staying true to his name
Winbanyama
More manly than actual grown men in this country
How much do you expect this man to grow damn
MORE.gif
He’s at least 3 Greg Bovines tall
Wemby W, i get not being able to speak your mind because of real consequences for you & your family but still wanting to acknowledge it.
Kids a smart young man.
Mavs fan falling in love with Spurs player. Only fascists could make it happen.
Fuck ICE.
with you there (Mavs fan who’s still without a team after Luka got backstabbed)
p.s. fuck ICE, fuck Nico, fuck the Adelsons
Fuck I’m a Wemby fan
[Epic Handshake Meme]
Mavs Fan Rockets Fan
Love Wemby Fuck ICE
This guy is so likeable, reads the books that I read, not afraid to speak up, confident in himself. This is a proper pro athlete that kids CAN idolize.
Stormlight? The silence from other older stars is making me glad to see him emerge as the new face of the league
I mean Sanderson’s work is pretty much about defending innocents so if he likes the books, I get an idea about what’s going on in his mind. Being French and a Sanderson fan too, I feel like I share some way of thinking. French are pretty open about what they think and don’t mind saying it, mostly in being respectful and polite. That’s my history sharing discussion with American people.
real respect for his candor, he is saying what a lot of us are thinking/feeling lately. guess im a spurs fan now FUCK.
That’s my king. So proud to have him as the face of our franchise. We are so lucky
W and Anthony Edwards cant even give his own fans this much sympathy
Do you seriously think Ant has formed a single political thought in his life? I mean what are you expecting there
I really dont care if anything im shaming him if he hasnt
I’m sure this made Pop very proud to hear.
Spurs media team must be absolutely flummoxed to have a superstar who will actually voice opinions
They had coach Pop not hesitate to comment on social issues for 20+ years, they are not flummoxed in the slightest
Now I have the word flummox stuck in my head.
2 key differences
The chances of Wemby getting deported for his political opinions are low but it’s not zero. That’s what he was implying in his answers.
When did they have a superstar who did not voice opinions? Kawhi? Because Parker/Ginobili/Duncan did speak up on things when asked during their time.
W-emby!
Imagine this keeps up and all international athletes just leave and go home?
That’s actually the best chance to have a US MVP 🤣
NBA Europe will be lit
Nah too much money for them to leave this and go make pennies abroad.
simply because there is no competition. i guarantee you if you offer jokic half his salary or even less to have the same competition but at home he would come.
I don’t think Vic really cares that much about money; obviously he cares somewhat but this is a dude with real integrity, I think he moreover just wants to play at the highest level
I respect Wemby saying what he can and being honest that there is a lot he cannot say, considering he’s not a citizen so easier to send him out of the country (mind you at this point the consequences for citizens seem to be worse…).
This slide towards darkness has been in progress for a long time, and getting worse this century in particular, yet reflecting on how far we’ve fallen in my lifetime hurts.
Refreshing to hear someone say “I’m not gonna say something politically correct” and have it be a positive thing.
the overton window has shifted tremendously
The US is under a dictatorship and dictators do what this goverment is doing. Simple as that.
He’s so goated
Thats Pops boy. It’s Wemby’s league
Man it’s so refreshing to have something other than PR responses for once
You just know that he isn’t staying in the US when he’d finished playing ball.
That’s not uncommon for athletes that go to America from first world nations.
French man knows what needs to be done. News at 5.
He gave a very good answer the first time, guys. Move along and let him keep it to what he’s comfortable with. Nobody misunderstood the first statement and needed the follow ups. I know that’s nitpicky, and I’m not saying it’s a horrible offense those guys asked those follow up questions, but read the room.
Absolutely wild that ppl act like this is a courageous thing to say. Stating the obvious is now a risky, subversive act? That’s scary af.
he’s an immigrant technically so i understand his pov, american ones should not be afraid tho, I guess they don’t have a “backup plan” like for Victor to just return in Europe so their financial deals are more fragile
Gj wemby be real
This is all we ask for…. Some many athletes won’t even acknowledge the problem and that’s what drives me crazy. Just tell the people you can’t truly speak your mind on the situation, we all can read between the lines
Rockets fan my whole life.
Wemby fan for life now.
IMO - Fred and the players union should just not play.
IDGAF about entertainment when civilians are at risk of being killed for demanding accountability and equity for everyone.
Fuck the billionaire owners and their bottom line, fuck sponsors for the league, fuck the entire system.
Can’t tell if he’s media trained or just going from the heart but this a great answer. Probably helps that you’re asking a French guy about protesting and revolution.
Id like Trump to try to pronounce wembanyama.
Trump would pronounce it incorrectly on purpose like he did with Obama and Kamala because he’s racist lol
He would just say about him what he said about Giannis.
Freedom is an illusion, really sad what our veterans fought so hard to keep and now it seems to slip away so easily
Remember Wemby at home have far-right fascist Le Pen (Rassemblement Nacional) getting bigger every year… its not only the US, this is a world thing where all this parties follow the same topics and talking points.
Afraid to speak in the land of the free. God you seppos have ruined your country.
Well done on VIC for saying what he could.
Guy going to make widows peaks great again
League’s in good paws I mean massive, meaty, hands now.
WEMBY!!! More!!!!
the head shake and loss for words is what so many of us are feeling right now.
not only the fact it happened, but the fact so many morons are defending and trying to justify it, in the name of politics.
Good shit.
Everyone with a platform should be using it.
Well… being french i’m pretty sure what he really thinks but he is tied to living in the US if he wants to stay in the NBA.
Wemby a real one. Can’t wait for the next decade of Ant v. Wemby match ups. Sick budding rivalry with mutual respect. Love that he spoke out supporting MN. Also, dude is French, could probably teach us a couple tricks when it comes to effectively protesting…..
Victor Wembanyama channeling his inner Gregg Popovich. The stunning thing about this is that he says very clearly that he cannot say what he would like to say because of the consequences.
Obviously an athlete has bigger issues such as losing sponsorships, but saying “the government sending masked government agents into the streets and peoples homes where they have killed people multiple times is bad” is not a Democrat/Republican or left/right issue. People generally going about living their lives don’t want to be harassed or killed by the government. We built our country on this idea.
FUCK ICE
This guy was raised incredibly well.
Pop is so fucking proud of this kid today
Fuck yes. We need more players & coaches to step up.
I really hope Ant takes some time to understand how much our community is hurting & how insane this fascist regime is. We cannot normalize murder or the elimination of our constitutional rights.
thank you GOAT
Meanwhile Ant in his own city, don’t give a fuck, embarrassing.
It is truly embarrassing that more american players have not made statements like this (that are relatively tame!).
Credit, to KAT, Hali, and Mitchell (afaik).
This league, until proven otherwise, is entirely performative with respect to the actual social justice and societal issues. They ride the coattails of titans like Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabarr who had to make ACTUAL sacrifices and tradeoffs to fight for their causes. Too many NBA players buy into Jordan’s “Republicans buy shoes too” mentality. It’s a little gross if I’m being honest
Larry Nance Jr.
Props. My favorite statement yet
He’s a well read young man who seems very well grounded in who he is and his world view, from what he’s said he definitely has stronger opinions on this but can’t express it
What an extremely thoughtful young man. I’ve never wished for anything good for the spurs organization, but I truly hope for the best for Wemby. I hope he stays healthy and wins many championships after Jokic retires with four more.
Isn’t he French? They pretty much invented overthrowing their government when taken advantage of
Embarrassing country.
The Timberwolves who live in the state (with the exception of Jayden Clark) are too cowardly to speak up, yet someone who doesnt live here and risks his career by speaking up has more courage.
They know how to protest. You should see what they did when asked to work 36 hrs a week instead of 35.
37,5 ;) !
Love his self awareness. As a foreigner seeing this, it’s just mind boggling to me. It may not be that deep, but it feels like witnessing the image you had of a country slowly dissolving. Just sad.
Comrade Wemby such a W
Wemby’s eloquence and empathy is so refreshing.
where are the American athletes weighing in here… so disappointing
I’m glad he doesn’t ascribe to the “ICE buys sneakers too” ideology.
Say what you want about France, but they don’t fuck around when they see bullshit from their government. I wish even a quarter of the American population had the balls of French people.
W wemby
I like this kid. He reminds me of Kareem in all the best ways
That’s my Wemby!
Another reason why Wemby is my favorite person in the NBA. He has a long career ahead of him in the league, but something tells me he’ll be doing important things when he’s done playing. He’s an all-time person and personality.
Give him the DPOY. Defensive Person of the Year.
I can’t hate you, Wemby.
LeBron could NEVER be this manly. LeBron has the ability to speak out against this tragedy and move actual waves but doesn’t because it would affect his bottomline.
Great response. Kinda sad we have to applaud him saying the obvious. But when there’s dumbasses like Ant’s fence sitting ass on the league you gotta be grateful for the Wembys out there. Don’t think most players realize how much of an impact their words have so huge respect to those that do
the spurs and drafting top 30 all time players who are also stand out humans
name a better duo
Wemby just became my favorite NBA player.
Peace
“I prefer not to speak. If I speak I am in big trouble”
-Wemby
Turns out Wemby is my goat after all. Lot of players think they would be Bill Russell and yet clearly they are not.
He’s a wise kid.
Thats my MVP/ Shaolin monk
My GOAT
He is truly the role model the league needs
The league’s future is in good hands.
Wemby really trying to be my favorite player of all time
Takes some real balls for an international player to speak up on this. Respect
Respectable answer. He told us exactly what he’s thinking without saying it (unlike a lot of these clowns who couldn’t care less)
But we have freedom of speech, right?
We shouldn’t be scared to speak our mind, right?
We’re losing our rights day by day and it’s really, really frightening.
My woke king
You can tell when people are well read
This man just a walking W that my oui oui
Very well spoken young man.
Love to see it