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Victor Wembanyama Needed Only Six Seconds to Make Good on Promise to Try in All-Star Game

Liam McKeone|
Victor Wembanyama was at 110% effort from the opening tip of Sunday’s All-Star festivities.
Victor Wembanyama was at 110% effort from the opening tip of Sunday’s All-Star festivities. | NBA

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San Antonio Spurs

Much of the discussion around this year’s NBA All-Star Game has been critical and focused on the lack of effort shown on the court by the stars selected to participate in the annual showcase. It’s been that way for a few years now. But Victor Wembanyama has made it very clear that he considers it a personal mission to inspire more effort from his teammates and competitors, a sentiment he reinforced on Saturday ahead of the ASG.

“Exclamation point plays, playing in a solid manner and sharing the ball with energy,” the Spurs superstar said when asked how he planned to inspire that competitiveness. “If you share that energy, people feel like they have a responsibility to share it back to you.”

As it turned out, Wembanyama needed only six seconds of game time to make good on his promise to set the tone and give his full effort in the All-Star Game.

Wembanyama was on the court first to begin the night with Team World taking on Team Stars. He lined up for tip-off against Anthony Edwards. The tall Frenchman immediately took advantage of that size mismatch and tapped the ball forward to Jamal Murray. The moment he hit the ground after that, Wembanyama sprinted down the court and executed a deep seal on Cade Cunningham in the paint. Murray tossed him the ball and Wemby instantly elevated to slam home the game’s first points. All in all, it took six seconds.

A deep paint seal in the first six seconds of the All-Star Game. You read that correctly.

It’s unclear when we last saw anybody sprinting right off the tip of the All-Star Game. Or, for that matter, the last time we saw a deep seal in the ASG. But that was Wemby’s promise. He’s not playing to goof off. He saw a mismatch with Cunningham and wasted zero time in putting himself in the right position to capitalize.

It will then not come as a surprise that Wembnayama was just getting started. He scored the first seven points of the game for Team World and pulled off the first highlight block from an All-Star Game in several years. He was spotted by the NBC broadcast urging Pascal Siakam to get back on defense. Then the opening contest of the night went to overtime, and when Wemby’s Team World lost on a game-winning three, he was visibly displeased despite finishing with 14 points, six rebounds, and three blocks.

Edwards was asked about the increased intensity to begin this year’s All-Star Game after he helped Team Stars to a win. He wasted no time in crediting Wembanyama for leading the way.

“I ain’t gonna lie. Wemby set the tone. He came out playing hard. It’s hard not to match that," the Wolves guard said.

The first game of the new NBA All-Star Game was a very good one and Wembanyama deserves no small part of the credit. He said he was going to go all-out, and he did from the very first seconds.

Victor Wembanyama’s All-Star Game highlights

As promised, Wembanyama gave it his all during the 2026 NBA All-star Game and his highlight reel showed it.

In the opening game of the night, the Spurs star dropped 14 points to go with six rebounds and three blocks, including one excellent spike of Cade Cunningham’s layup attempt off the backboard.

However, Wemby seemed quite frustrated that his team wound up losing. Thus, "The Alien" decided to try even harder in the second game that Team World played against Team Stripes. He came out firing and scored 19 points on 6-for-8 shooting to go with two rebounds, doing everything possible to withstand an absolute onslaught from Kawhi Leonard on the opposing side.

Ultimately, it was not enough. Leonard hit a go-ahead three-point shot to give Team Stripes the edge over Team World, and Wemby’s night was over. But he no doubt made a difference out there.

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Liam McKeone
LIAM MCKEONE

Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.

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