Victor Wembanyama is officially locked in for four more years in San Antonio, and Knicks fans found a way to make it about them.
Multiple reports confirmed Friday that Wembanyama plans to sign a 4-year rookie max extension worth $252 million. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported Wemby settled for the 25 percent maximum extension instead of including escalators that could have pushed the deal up to $303 million if he hit certain benchmarks next season.
Wembanyama reportedly made that decision to give the Spurs more financial flexibility to build a real title contender around him. In other words, he took less to help the team. Sound familiar, New York?
Knicks fans piled on immediately.
“Victor Wembanyama got beat so bad by Jalen Brunson he’s trying to become him,” one popular account posted. Another said “Everyone wanna be like Jalen Brunson lmaoo.” A third called it “the Brunson Blueprint.”
That is peak Knicks fan behavior, and it is not entirely wrong. Brunson famously signed a 4-year, $156.5 million extension with New York in 2024 rather than wait one more year for a 5-year, $269 million deal. Brunson left roughly $113 million in guaranteed money on the table so the Knicks could keep their core together. That decision helped New York build the East contender it has now.
Wembanyama’s move is a little different. He would only need to make an All-NBA team, win Defensive Player of the Year, or win MVP for his deal to escalate by about $50 million. Barring injury, Wemby is basically a lock to hit one of those. He is walking away from something like $51 million, not $113 million.
Still, walking away from any money at 22 years old is a decision. Tim Duncan famously took a pay cut in San Antonio years ago to help the Spurs stay under the tax line. There is a template here, and Wembanyama is choosing to follow it.
The Spurs now have real cap flexibility to add another star next to Wemby, De’Aaron Fox, and Stephon Castle. San Antonio might be dangerous a lot sooner than people expected.
Knicks fans can joke all they want. The truth is that Wembanyama took less to win. Brunson took less to win. That is what actual franchise players do, and both teams are better for it.
The Spurs and Knicks might be the two most stable long-term franchises in the NBA right now, and both of them have a star who made money bend to team-building instead of the other way around. That is a real trend.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
