Victor Wembanyama has stayed busy this summer, but one item on his basketball wish list is still waiting.
The France star has already logged two exhibition appearances against Serbia as his national team gears up for FIBA World Cup qualifiers, and he’s keeping himself in the mix for every big stage he can find. That’s part of why Thursday’s matchup with Slovenia carries a little extra sting: Luka Doncic won’t be there.
For Wembanyama, that’s a missed chance to test himself against one of the sport’s biggest international names. He didn’t hide it, either.
"You take the games as they are, the rosters as they are, and the competitive reality means that deep down, I'm a bit gutted not to be playing against Luka. But the opportunity will come round again," said Wembanyama.
Doncic is spending the summer in Los Angeles, working toward the Lakers’ upcoming season while also dealing with a messy separation from his ex-fiancée and recovering from an injury that kept him out of the NBA playoffs. Under those circumstances, skipping FIBA action is easy to understand.
Even without Doncic, France and Slovenia are still set for a notable meeting on Thursday at 2:00 PM EST at the Accor Arena in Paris. That building was the site of Wembanyama’s last appearance there, when he had to watch the American National Team leave with gold at the 2024 Olympics while France settled for silver.
Wembanyama’s summer isn’t about easing off. He’s pushing ahead, and his ambitions haven’t changed. Winning an NBA title and Olympic gold remains the goal, with the Spurs viewed as having a real shot to get back to the Finals next season and France entering the 2028 Olympic Games behind only the Americans in the odds.
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San Antonio's own lesson from the 2026 Finals is the part that still hangs in the air. The Spurs were in position to close out the title, only to let the chance slip away, and that kind of experience tends to travel with a team. If these two franchises cross paths again, the Spurs would have the benefit of having lived through the mistake once already, while the Knicks would be left wondering whether the same pressure points are waiting for them again. [Read more 🡒]
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What makes the debate so compelling is that the Spurs may not be limited to a simple two-man discussion for long. Castle and Harper both bring the kind of upside that gives San Antonio enviable flexibility, and DeAaron Fox only adds another layer to a core that can be argued with the leagues best groups on paper. For a team that has spent years chasing the next wave, the bigger question now is not whether the talent is real, but how far this cluster of high-end pieces can push the organization once it fully settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Kevin Garnett Nostalgia Is Creating A New Timberwolves Debate
The basketball card market keeps finding new ways to reward collectors chasing the stars of the 1990s, and San Antonios place in that conversation is no small one. Alongside names like Allen Iverson and Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan has been part of a broader surge that has pushed values higher across the hobby, with cards tied to that era drawing fresh attention from buyers who once might have focused mostly on the biggest marquee names from Kobe Bryant to Shaquille O'Neal.
For Spurs fans, the intrigue is less about nostalgia than about what it says regarding Duncans standing in the games collecting economy. Recent auction results and sharp price increases have shown that there is real demand building around his cards, but the market is still sorting out just how high that ceiling can go as the hobby reassesses players whose prime came before todays boom in card speculation. [Read more 🡒]