Victor Wembanyama played one of the worst playoff games of his career on Monday night. He went 4-of-15, 0-of-5 from three, and scored a series-low 20 points as the Spurs lost Game 5 by 13 to the Thunder.
Then he walked past the media scrum and went straight to the team bus. No comment. No availability. Nothing.
On Tuesday, the NBA announced its discipline. A warning. No fine. Adam Silver decided the most media-friendly player in the league deserved one free pass.
That is a soft call, and it sets a bad precedent.
The Rule Is the Rule
Jimmy Butler got fined $25,000 in 2023 for skipping media after a playoff loss. Dillon Brooks got the same. Russell Westbrook has been fined multiple times over his career. The standard punishment for ducking the press in the playoffs is exactly that, a fine in the $25,000 to $50,000 range.
The league’s explanation was that Wembanyama is a first-time offender. He won the league’s media-friendly player award this year from the Professional Basketball Writers Association. So they cut him a break.
That is the problem. The rule is supposed to apply to everyone the same way. The whole point of fining Jimmy Butler is that the league did not care how he usually handled media. He skipped the obligation in the playoffs, and the bill came due.
This Cuts Both Ways
Wemby has been a model citizen for two years. He learned English faster than most rookies learn the playbook. He does the All-Star media days, the international press, the kids’ Q&As. By every reasonable measure he has been one of the most accessible superstars the league has had since Kevin Durant came up.
So the impulse to give him grace is understandable. He had a bad game. He is 22. He is carrying a young Spurs team in a conference final. The pressure he is under is heavier than what most NBA stars carry at his age.
But the league’s job is to enforce the rule, not negotiate it. If Wemby gets a free pass, the next guy who skips media after a bad game has a legitimate complaint. The standard is the standard.
The Verdict
Adam Silver blew this one. A $10,000 fine would have been the right number. Small enough to recognize the context. Real enough to keep the rule honest. Instead, the league sent a message that superstars get a different version of the rulebook than everyone else.
Wemby’s a great kid. The Spurs are going to need to win Game 6 or Game 7 in Oklahoma City to keep playing. None of that changes the fact that the league had a chance to be consistent and chose not to be.
Next time someone walks past the media, they will point right at this one.
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.
