'I Love It!' Victor Wembanyama Reveals Spurs Changes Before Thunder Rematch

The San Antonio Spurs open the 2026-27 regular season Tuesday night at Frost Bank Center against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the team they eliminated in seven games in the Western Conference Finals in May.

Victor Wembanyama met with reporters Monday, one day before the rematch. Last season, the 22-year-old averaged career highs of 25.0 points and 11.5 rebounds, according to the team. He also led the NBA with 3.08 blocks per game. On April 20, he became the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year in the history of the award.

The wait did not feel long to Wembanyama. Last season ran into June, and the Spurs have spent the weeks since settling down, retraining, and getting excited again.

"It's not the main thing I think about, but yeah, of course I love it," Wembanyama said. "What I love the most is the quality of the opponent. That's what we strive for. It's when you start playing very good people, it means you made it to a very good place. So this is what I care about."

Oklahoma City went 64-18 last season and had the league's best record for a second straight year. San Antonio finished 62-20. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won MVP for a Thunder team that won the 2025 championship.

The Spurs took Game 1 of the conference finals in Oklahoma City. The series went the distance. On May 30, San Antonio won Game 7 at Paycom Center, 111-103, behind 22 points from Wembanyama, who was named MVP of the Western Conference Finals.

Shorter-term goals hold more interest for Wembanyama than a target for an entire season.

"We got higher expectations for sure for the regular season, but it's easy to say a goal for the whole season," Wembanyama explained. "What's more interesting is shorter-term goals, because even last year I said the sixth seed back in September or October. But after 50 games, if we were in that top two or top three, obviously the goal is not [the sixth seed]."

"So goals are bound to change over time. We're bound to reach them and exceed them," Wembanyama continued.

San Antonio reached the NBA Finals for the first time since 2014. The New York Knicks won the series in five games and closed it out June 13 at Frost Bank Center.

Until 2024-25, the Spurs had been a lottery team in every season of Wembanyama's career. He does not see a game like Tuesday's any differently now than he would have then.

"I wouldn't say so, because with OKC, we're still fighting for the same vicinity of the same spot," Wembanyama said. "So, still the same intensity. But, yeah, a few years ago when we were — up until last year, the previous year, we had been a lottery team. So our status is different now. This is what changed, for sure."

Gilgeous-Alexander won last season's MVP with 939 points and 83 first-place votes. Nikola Jokić received 634 points and 10 first-place votes. Wembanyama finished third with 569 points.

Wembanyama said the top of the ballot was tight.

"No, it wasn't really a surprise," Wembanyama said. "I think it was tight, and everyone could have — I think everyone could have pleaded for their own cause at this level of the ranking, but Jokić and Shai each had more arguments than me."

In early August, Wembanyama hosted a group of teammates for voluntary workouts in Nanterre, the Paris suburb where he grew up. The Spurs posted video of the sessions Aug. 4. De'Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper, Harrison Barnes, Tobias Harris, Carter Bryant, and Jordan McLaughlin were among the players on the floor.

The gym in Nanterre is where Wembanyama played at 15.

"I would say because it's two of my worlds meeting in one place, in one moment," Wembanyama said. "Because I'm in the exact same location where I've spent so much time — I've probably spent more time in that gym than I have here — but I'm in the exact same gym where I was when I was 15, and with these guys that I met when I was 19."

"A place where I lived intense emotions, with people whom I lived intense emotions with as well. These two things meeting, it's surreal at times. It's a great experience," Wembanyama added.

Tip-off Tuesday is 8:30 p.m. CT, and NBC and Peacock carry the game. San Antonio will be without Harris, who strained his left calf in training camp, and rookie Jayden Quaintance, who had surgery on his right knee in July.