Fans see Spurs' Victor Wembanyama exceed expectations. What they don't see is his work off the court

PARIS (AP) — For all the glowing things said in Paris the past few days about San Antonio phenom Victor Wembanyama, Hall of Famer Tony Parker probably summed matters up more succinctly than anyone.

Asked what the 7-foot-4 Wembanyama can become, Parker didn't hesitate.

“He can be whatever he wants,” said Parker, part of four of San Antonio's five championship teams. “He can be the best. He can be the best player in the NBA.”

Many can see why Parker believes that. It goes beyond the numbers. Parker gets to see what fans can't see, that being how much work Wembanyama puts in behind the scenes.

These are Wembanyama's stats so far this season: 24.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.9 blocks and 3.7 assists per game. The last player to finish a season with those numbers was Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a half-century ago.

Now throw in 3-point shooting, which didn't exist 50 years ago, and Wembanyama — who just turned 21 — is putting up stats this season like nobody else in the history of basketball. Unprecedented numbers.

But what should thrill San Antonio fans and be on the radar of fans in every other NBA city: Wembanyama is his own biggest critic and says he will get better.

“I’m not there yet,” Wembanyama said. “I’m still working on it.”

When he entered the league, the big question was about whether his slim frame would be overpowered by heavier NBA defenders. He knows still has to get stronger but based on what he was listed at originally and where he is now — 209 to 235 — that's a 26-pound bulk-up already.

And no, he's not getting overpowered. Quite the contrary.

The sky evidently is not even the limit for Wembanyama, who came into the league as the most highly touted prospect since LeBron James and has exceeded probably even the loftiest expectations. He'll almost certainly be picked as an All-Star for the first time later this week. He's the Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner. He'll get MVP votes. All this, in just his second season.

And he is still learning.

“We see something, every day, new on the court that he’s building,” Spurs CEO R.C. Buford said. “I’ve watched him since he was 15 years old and what’s been fascinating is how important that it is to him to continue to grow as a player. And now we’re getting to see it every day.”

Wembanyama can make a steal at one end of the floor, then crossover dribble past a defender and let 3-pointers fly from the logo. His passes are pinpoint. He's the best shot-blocker in the league. He'll reverse-pivot, Eurostep, spin toward the baseline, spin away from the baseline, right-hand, left-hand, whatever it takes to get a shot off.

The Spurs signed Chris Paul — in his 20th NBA season — to be someone that Wembanyama could learn from. And that is indeed happening; Paul and Wembanyama say they talk constantly about matters both on- and off-the-court, the wise sage on one end, the young star on the other.

Thing is, Paul is learning from Wembanyama as well.

Conventional basketball wisdom says the 6-foot point guard would be quarterbacking the pick-and-roll with the towering center. Not anymore. Paul has found himself at times to be the one setting the pick and doing the rolling, something he can't really remember doing before now. Such is the advantage of having a 7-foot-4 teammate with guard skills.

“Vic is so unique,” Paul said. “I think everybody just expects him to dunk because he’s tall and that is not him by any means. He can dribble, he can pass, he can shoot. He does a little bit of everything. And that’s why it’s been so fun to play with Vic.”

Another example: Paul is one of the best thieves in NBA history, someone about to pass Jason Kidd for No. 2 on the league's all-time steals list. It's what Paul does. He goes for steals. Wembanyama has tried to get him to think differently.

“I just don’t know how to not go for steals,” Paul said. "To play with Vic now, guys will dribble into the lane and I’ll reach and get a foul and Vic will just tap me on the shoulder and remind me that he’s back there. His awareness on both ends of the court offensively and defensively is something that you just don’t see all the time.”

After splitting their two games in Paris against Indiana, San Antonio is 20-23 on the season. The Spurs are on the outside looking into the Western Conference playoff picture, but the play-in tournament — and maybe even a top-six seed — are far from out of reach. They're in the mix.

It's a far cry from where they've been in recent years, and it all reminds Buford of how lucky the Spurs are to have Wembanyama.

“Even as a kid, he’s had the attention, the cameras, the microphones, the spotlight on him,” said Mitch Johnson, the acting Spurs coach while Gregg Popovich recovers from a November stroke. “He’s very clear about what he wants and where he wants this to go. He’s very grounded in that.”

Back in May 2019, a few weeks before that year's NBA draft, Buford was on a scouting trip in France and planning to see a prospect named Sekou Doumbouya. Someone then proposed a different idea. That was the start of Wembanyama's journey to San Antonio.

The story, as Buford tells it, goes like this: Claudio Crippa, an international scout for the Spurs, proposed going to see a youth game before checking out Doumbouya. Buford saw Wembanyama play for the first time that day. And the seeds for the Spurs' new master plan were immediately planted.

“We came to watch Victor, and that had a big influence on the way that our leadership and our front office developed a strategy to rebuild our program," Buford said. "The lottery luck (and) the hoop gods were very good to us. But the vision of a prospect like that was clearly impactful in the strategy of our rebuild.”

The strategy included trading DeMar DeRozan in 2021, Derrick White and Dejounte Murray in 2022, then Jakob Poeltl in 2023. Those were not trades that resulted in immediate team improvement. The Spurs suffered through four consecutive losing seasons before getting their biggest win in almost a decade — the May 2023 NBA draft lottery, when the ping-pong ball combination of 14, 5, 8 and 2 gave them the right to pick No. 1 overall.

They're not a playoff team yet and there is no timeline for Popovich's return. But in Wembanyama's second season, the Spurs have legitimate hope of getting to the postseason. And the vision that became so clear to Buford on that day in 2019 is a reality.

“He shows phenomenal maturity for a player that age, not to mention all his skills," Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said. “I mean, he’s a four-level scorer. And defensively, if he’s not defensive player of the year this year I know I’ll be surprised. He’s averaging four blocks a game. So, what a player.”

AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, top, celebrates with forward Keldon Johnson (0) during the second half of a Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, right, and teammates celebrate during the second half of a Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers in Paris, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) and Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith (23) get tangled up as they go for a loose ball during the second half of a Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game in Paris, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) claps following a Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers in Paris, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) brings the ball up court under pressure from Indiana Pacers center Thomas Bryant (3) during the second half of a Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game in Paris, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) talks with guard Chris Paul (3) during the second half of a Paris Games 2025 NBA basketball game against the Indiana Pacers in Paris, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike Friday, leaving an estimated 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home.

Groups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, carrying signs that said “Locomotive Engineers on Strike” and “NJ Transit: Millions for Penthouse Views Nothing for Train Crews.” Passing drivers honked their horns.

The walkout comes after the latest round of negotiations on Thursday didn’t produce an agreement. It is the state’s first transit strike in more than 40 years and comes a month after union members overwhelmingly rejected a labor agreement with management.

“We presented them the last proposal; they rejected it and walked away with two hours left on the clock," said Tom Haas, general chairman of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen.

NJ Transit CEO Kris Kolluri described the situation as a “pause in the conversations.”

“I certainly expect to pick back up these conversations as soon as possible,” he said late Thursday during a joint news conference with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. “If they’re willing to meet tonight, I’ll meet them again tonight. If they want to meet tomorrow morning, I’ll do it again. Because I think this is an imminently workable problem. The question is, do they have the willingness to come to a solution.”

Murphy said it was important to “reach a final deal that is both fair to employees and at the same time affordable to New Jersey’s commuters and taxpayers.”

"Again, we cannot ignore the agency’s fiscal realities,” Murphy said.

The announcement came after 15 hours of nonstop contract talks, according to the union.

NJ Transit — the nation’s third-largest transit system — operates buses and rail in the state, providing nearly 1 million weekday trips, including into New York City. The walkout halts all NJ Transit commuter trains, which provide heavily used public transit routes between New York City’s Penn Station on one side of the Hudson River and communities in northern New Jersey on the other, as well as the Newark airport, which has grappled with unrelated delays of its own recently.

The agency had announced contingency plans in recent days, saying it planned to increase bus service, but warned riders that the buses would only add “very limited” capacity to existing New York commuter bus routes in close proximity to rail stations and would not start running until Monday. The agency also will contract with private carriers to operate bus service from key regional park-and-ride locations during weekday peak periods.

However, the agency noted that the buses would not be able to handle close to the same number of passengers — only about 20% of current rail customers — so it urged people who could work from home to do so.

Even the threat of it had already caused travel disruptions. Amid the uncertainty, the transit agency canceled train and bus service for Shakira concerts Thursday and Friday at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The parties met Monday with a federal mediation board in Washington to discuss the matter, and a mediator was present during Thursday’s talks. Kolluri said Thursday night that the mediation board has suggested a Sunday morning meeting to resume talks.

Wages have been the main sticking point of the negotiations between the agency and the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen that wants to see its members earn wages comparable to other passenger railroads in the area. The union says its members earn an average salary of $113,000 a year and says an agreement could be reached if agency CEO Kris Kolluri agrees to an average yearly salary of $170,000.

NJ Transit leadership, though, disputes the union’s data, saying the engineers have average total earnings of $135,000 annually, with the highest earners exceeding $200,000.

Kolluri and Murphy said Thursday night that the problem isn’t so much whether both sides can agree to a wage increase, but whether they can do so under terms that wouldn’t then trigger other unions to demand similar increases and create a financially unfeasible situation for NJ Transit.

Congress has the power to intervene and block the strike and force the union to accept a deal, but lawmakers have not shown a willingness to do that this time like they did in 2022 to prevent a national freight railroad strike.

The union has seen steady attrition in its ranks at NJ Transit as more of its members leave to take better-paying jobs at other railroads. The number of NJ Transit engineers has shrunk from 500 several months ago to about 450 today.

Associated Press reporters Hallie Golden in Seattle and Josh Funk in Omaha, Nebraska, contributed to this report.

An NJ Transit train pulls into the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

An electronic display advises commuters of potential NJ Transit service disruptions at the Secaucus Junction station in Secaucus, N.J., Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)

Union members from the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen form a picket line outside the NJ Transit Headquarters on Friday, May 16, 2025 in Newark, New Jersey. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah)