Victor Wembanyama has turned over an ankle in each of his last two games and finished both. The French center says that is not luck.
Asked after San Antonio’s 124-109 NBA Cup win over the Sacramento Kings on Friday what stood out from the night, Wembanyama went straight to the moment he twisted his ankle and credited his conditioning.
“But I’ve trained my ankles and they’ve been through these ranges before, so it’s nothing new,” he told reporters.
In the same answer he broke the work into two sides.
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“Now, you have to avoid (turning an ankle) because it’s a violent stimulation for the ligaments. But on one side, flexibility and mobility. And on the other side, strength. It’s a good recipe.”
Two ankle rolls in 48 hours
On Wednesday night at home against Dallas, Wembanyama rolled his ankle with 9:11 left in the fourth quarter after stepping on Walter Clayton Jr.’s foot. He walked off, returned with 6:05 to play, and finished with career highs of 52 points, 24 rebounds and eight blocks in a 112-111 win over the Mavericks.
Less than 48 hours later he landed on Domantas Sabonis’s foot in Sacramento, twisted his left ankle, and still logged 30 points and 14 rebounds in 26 minutes.
‘He pops right up’
Guard Dylan Harper described what he sees from the bench.
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“He’s Superman. He rolls his ankle and pops right up and acts like nothing happened.”
Head coach Mitch Johnson, speaking in the same session, said the conditioning work is baked into the calendar.
“Victor’s done great with his fitness. He’s done a great job every year of continuing to grow in that way.”
The 22-year-old missed most of the second half of 2024-25 to deep vein thrombosis, and his summer program was built around getting the body back. San Antonio sit at 7-2 with the league’s longest winning streak at seven games, and play Portland on Saturday to close out a back-to-back.
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