Masters and Apprentices: Inside the Spurs' Family of Young Stars and Present Legends

Victor Wembanyama and the rest of this young Spurs team hasn't been in the playoffs before, but from Popovich on down they have a family full of Basketball Gods to lean on for advice and support.

Dec 23, 2023; Dallas, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich speaks with San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama (1) before the game against the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images | Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Images

SAN ANTONIO -- When Victor Wembanyama stepped off the Spurs' flight from Minneapolis with the most mixed bag possible new experiences to process, El Jefe met him on the tarmac for a conversation.

Wembanyama dominated Game 3 to recover home-court advantage in their series against the Timberwolves, but threw an elbow and got tossed early from Game 4 as the Spurs fell to even the series and set up a pivotal Game 5 at home.

This is uncharted territory for the 22-year-old superstar and the vast majority of his talented young teammates. Luckily for them all, San Antonio is home to a large, supportive, present family of Spurs legends. They have plenty off basketball skills and battle-tested wisdom to share, and they show up regularly for the next generation in meaningful ways on and off the court.

The head of this family, of course, is Gregg Popovich. The legendary leader of this franchise for the last 30 years or so has directed a dynasty worth of success and helped build foundation for the next one.

By the time the alien landed in San Antonio, Popovich had won five NBA championships and more games than any coach ever, not to mention Olympic Gold. The on-court accomplishments are prodigious, as are the seemingly endless stories about his treatment of others, his commitment to building a family structure in the organization, and a steadfast belief that there are more important things than basketball.

In video from KENS 5, Wembanyama stood with the godfather on the runway, his first NBA coach. Maybe the greatest prospect ever stood with his arms behind his back facing his mentor, maybe the greatest coach of all time. It's not clear what was said, and they'd probably never tell. What is clear, though, is what it meant for Popovich to meet him there.

"He maybe wanted to make a statement or make his talking even more impactful by being there," Wembanyama said. "He gives feedback and talks to us regularly, throughout a series, throughout games. As always, when he speaks, everybody listens."

When Coach Pop speaks everyone on the Spurs listens 🙌

(📸 KENS5) pic.twitter.com/lWxb8KTWVk

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) May 13, 2026

A Rookie Among Royalty

By the time Victor Wembanyama became eligible for the NBA Draft in 2023, the San Antonio Spurs were four years removed from their last playoff appearance and even longer into a rebuild bottomed out at just the right time.

His star rose as the team gradually traded their present for the future until they held as many combinations of ping-pong balls as possible when it came time to draft the best prospect since LeBron. They planned it out to create the best environment possible to nurture a growing mega star, and maximized their chances to land the star of all stars.

But all that matters on lottery day is what the Basketball Gods decide. Perhaps they believed the best home for Wembanyama would be somewhere they have a lot of active representatives, somewhere that gives him the best chance to join there ranks and be the best he can be.

The Frenchman already had a working relationship with Spurs legends Tony Parker and Boris Diaw who made the team so popular in his home country. Based on Wembanyama's reaction when he learned he'd be a Spur, it seems he knew that San Antonio was the best place for him to thrive.

When the city reacted in that same moment with pure joy, they honked their horns knowing that soon enough, they'd be honking into May and June.

SPURS WIN
SPURS WIN
PANDEMONIUM
BIENVENUE A SAN ANTONIO VICTOR WEMBANYAMA pic.twitter.com/demSoxfTfn

— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) May 17, 2023

As soon as Wembanyama came to the Alamo City, he went to one of those legendary Popovich dinners featuring some of the greatest players the sport has ever seen. Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Manu Ginobili, and Sean Elliott welcomed the 7-foot-5 teenager, who exhibits some of the best traits of all of them.

It was immediately obvious how beautiful it could be if Wembanyama learned any amount of playmaking from Manu, or defensive discipline from the Admiral, or fundamentals from the Big Fundamental himself. For example, here's a daydream from over seven months before the ping-pong balls bounced San Antonio's way:

I can’t stop thinking about Tim Duncan teaching Wembanyama to use his hands like suction cups instead of fly swatters pic.twitter.com/YG1GmmxKad

— Tom Petrini (@RealTomPetrini) October 5, 2022

Sometimes daydreams come true, and Victor Wembanyama became a Spur after all. Now in his third year, he became the first ever unanimous Defensive Player of the Year. One of his most impressive nuances on that end of the floor is his ability to either snatch an opponent's shot out of the sky or slap it off the backboard to himself to maintain control of the ball and spark a fast break. Sometimes he'll finish that break with a dunk that looks like David, or a move that looks like Manu, or a shot that looks like Sean.

Wembanyama also has plenty of mentors outside of the organization, from Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin Garnett to Jamal Crawford and Shaolin monks. He's on the hero's journey, seeking out as much wisdom as possible before taking on the task ahead of him.

Popovich's Protégé

In seeking out knowledge, Wembanyama could not have had a better coach than Popovich as a rookie. It's an incredible part of basketball history that will only become more remarkable the more time passes.

The joyful experience of watching those two share the court, Wembanyama bent at the hip to take in Popovich's words, was cut short when Pop suffered a stroke a few games into Wemby's second season.

The patriarch of the Spurs family built an organizational culture around the stuff that's bigger than basketball, and his own health scare is about as serious as that can get. Because this team reflects the humanistic values he instilled, Popovich has been surrounded by support from loved ones for his entire recovery.

According to Jared Weiss of The Athletic, Tim Duncan has been at the team's sparkling new practice facility every day with Popovich as he works through his rehab.

“It’s the reason why, with Pop’s stroke rehabilitation, Tim’s in the gym with him every day, and that’s not because Pop is telling him to be there,”former GM and current CEO of Spurs Sports & Entertainment RC Buford told The Athletic. “It’s because Tim feels the emotional connection to want to be there in the ways that Pop was there for him. Anytime people are in town, they’ll be in there.”

That's more beautiful and more meaningful than anything that could happen on a basketball court for this team. But the team still needed to play basketball, and for a coach to take the reins of a franchise suddenly destabilized by a medical emergency to a beloved leader.

The team named Mitch Johnson as the interim head coach, and we didn't know it for a while, but Popovich's career as a coach had come to an end in a rather difficult way.

May 10, 2021; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich talks with assistant coaches Mitch Johnson, Becky Hammon, and Will Hardy in the first half against the Milwaukee Bucks at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Johnson finished out the year, though many in the fanbase and the NBA world speculated that the Spurs might look for one of the many distinguished, sturdy branches on Popovich's legendary coaching tree to bridge into the next generation. There could have been a few candidates who cut their teeth with Pop and went on to win elsewhere, but the Spurs stuck with Johnson. As his first full season at the helm continues, it's easy to see why.

Mic'd up for the first game of the regular season, Johnson went viral when he called on his team to 'Embrace the mundane," which is about as good a three-word ethos as one could ever come up with for his relentless brand of Spurs basketball.

"Our brand of basketball, what we're trying to demand of these guys, there is nowhere to conserve energy," Johnson said before breaking down the way he wants this young, fast, athletic, versatile team to play for 48 minutes.

"The way we want to play, obviously defensively, and have pressure and presence on the basketball and fly around, and the way we want to gang rebound, and then transition that into playing fast offensively where almost anybody can bring up the ball, and we want kick aheads and everybody to flatten the court, we want to keep pace, and then we want to crash and rebound offensively, and now you've got to get back defensively," Johnson said.

Apr 4, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) listens to head coach Mitch Johnson in the fourth quarter against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

The rim-pressuring talent and emphasis on pace and space has the Spurs taking and making more 3-point shots than ever before, the offense a juggernaut that shocked many as the third-best in the NBA this season. On defense, Wembanyama establishes a no-fly zone in the paint as his teammates fly around and switch everything on the perimeter, leaving no weak spots.

"It's taxing, and so I think to say the least we're aware of that, which means we need to trust our depth and play bodies, and need everyone to be able to step up and understand that that brand of basketball may not always look the same based on the five guys on the court, but that consistent theme of the principles that we are not negotiating on should be true as often as possible," he said.

The Spurs may not have a ton of playoff experience, but they do have a stable of young, bouncy, fast, talented, extremely-competitive hoopers.

"It can be," Johnson said when asked if the youth is an asset for the style of play he's pushing for.

"Experience used in the best form is really valuable. So is youth and athleticism," Johnson said. "If you flip those, and people don't use experience in the best form then it's kind of a hollow word, it may not have the return that people think of it. If the youth and athleticism isn't connected, or doesn't have some maturity in decisionmaking or execution, then it's probably not gonna find the right side of the outcome it's looking for. I think our youth and athleticism can be a big strength, but it can't be just that."

In Game 5 against the Timberwolves, Johnson played nine guys real minutes while the Timberwolves only trusted seven. Some of his youngest players brought their athleticism, plus the lessons learned from their many mentors.

Grown Up Game 5

In the second quarter of Game 4 in Minneapolis, with a chance to put the Timberwolves on the brink of elimination in an extremely-physical series, Wembanyama swung an elbow and struck Naz Reid to earn the first ejection of his career. Hitting the showers before halftime hurt his team in the five-point loss, and in Game 5 he came out determined to right the wrong.

Wembanyama scored 16 points in the first six minutes, finishing the first half with 21 points and 11 rebounds. He set a ton of screens to help collapse the defense and operated on the perimeter with the ball in his hands. The crowd came in as amped as he was after the ejection, and he took them up a notch with each dazzling basket.

As impressive as Wembanyama's highlight reel was, even more impressive was his refusal to allow the elevated emotions and physicality of the game to cause him to lose his temper. On one play Jaden McDaniels, Ayo Dosunmu, and Anthony Edwards all tried to get under his skin as he ran back down the court. On another play McDaniels fouled him and helped him to the floor, and rather than react, Wemby remained seated and clapped it up.

"I felt like rage baiting would have been one of their strategies," Wembanyama said afterward.

Everybody’s smiling but it didn’t seem all that friendly pic.twitter.com/U621k71uSE

— Silver & Black Coffee Hour (@SlvrBlkCoffeeHr) May 13, 2026

Wembanyama didn't go for the bait; he went for the kill.

He was helped by a collection of young teammates who played with a level of poise and precision that makes it hard to believe just how young they are.

In just his second year, Stephon Castle has already become a top player on a title contender. He came into the league as a top-tier defender who had some room to grow as a shooter and playmaker. Rather than using their other lottery pick to bring in another young guard to compete with him, they traded that pick and sent Castle and the rest of the roster to Chris Paul's School for the Young and Gifted.

Now Castle is adept at running point, reading defenses, knocking down 3s, and forcing officials to call fouls. He does all that on one end while clamping up a variety of difficult assignments on the other. He finished Game 5 with points on 8-11 shooting, and crammed on Anthony Edwards and said something to him whilst hanging from the rim.

RAAAAAAAAAAHHH pic.twitter.com/Z4Yp37DE6x https://t.co/2zF9MML6mU

— Silver & Black Coffee Hour (@SlvrBlkCoffeeHr) May 13, 2026

San Antonio lucked into the second pick of this last draft and landed Dylan Harper, the most polished and complete guard prospect in recent memory. He's a 6-foot-6 lefty with a smooth handle and innate ability to get to the rim and finish. His jumper is coming along nicely, and he has the size and speed to defend multiple positions. His mother is a wonderful coach, his brother an NBA player as well, and his father a five-time champion.

"You're not playing like a rookie," Tracy McGrady told Harper on NBC after the game, asking where the confidence and swag that he plays with comes from.

"I think being in the gym all the time, I think that's where my confidence comes from. The swag, I was kinda just born with it to be honest," he said with a toothy smile.

T-MAC: Tell us where you get that swag and confidence from.

HARPER: I think being in the gym all the time is where my confidence comes from.

The swag I was kinda just born with it to be honest.

😮‍💨😮‍💨😮‍💨#GoSpursGo #PorVida pic.twitter.com/O9pzq3RQd5

— Wemby Alien Era (@WembyAlienEra) May 13, 2026

The star rookie shot an astonishing 63.5% in the restricted area this season, and hit 48% of his 3-pointers after the All-Star Break. His movements and decisionmaking make it seem impossible that he's only 20. Speaking of 20, Ginobili shouted Harper out after a completely ridiculous play that reminded many of Manu.

Harper drove in transition and crossed the ball over behind his back from his left hand to his right against Ayo Dosunmu, who did a good job of cutting off that approach. As the defender made his move, Harper already read it and immediately snatched it back, leaving Dosunmu in the lurch and the ball in his dominant hand with momentum toward the rim. It didn't end well for the rim, or Dosunmu, and Harper had something to say to his vanquished foes before turning to get back on defense.

Left-to-right to right-to-left behind-the-back move finished with a dunk. Absolutely beautiful! 🫶 https://t.co/tY6VxFhgbj

— Manu Ginobili (@manuginobili) May 13, 2026

Harper's vet at his position is De'Aaron Fox, who came to San Antonio in hopes of winning titles with Wemby. Instead of feeling threatened by the talented youngsters on this team, Fox spent all season giving them the space to learn and grow and blossom while still being an All-Star who can take over the game at a moment's notice.

Apr 26, 2026; Portland, Oregon, USA; San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle (5) embraces guard De'aaron Fox (4) during the second half in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers during game four of the first round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs at Moda Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images | Troy Wayrynen-Imagn Images

Harper jokingly and affectionately called the 28-year-old Fox 'Unc' earlier in the playoffs, which Fox jokingly and affectionately pushed back on. If he is unc, he's got to be the fastest unc to ever step on a basketball court. He stormed out of the gate in Game 5 right alongside Wembanyama, pushing to play after his ankle got banged up in Game 4.

A team with all of that star power needs complimentary role players, and the Spurs were able to develop several of them in the years where wins were hard to come by.

Keldon Johnson had missed the playoffs in each of his first six seasons in the NBA. After each disappointment, he had guys like Popovich, Duncan, and Manu to talk to. His vet Patty Mills taught him plenty about coffee, and towel waving, and changing the game off the bench.

Mar 19, 2021; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) and guard Patty Mills (8) celebrate after Mills hit a three pointer during the fourth quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. Mandatory Credit: Ken Blaze-Imagn Images | Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

With espresso on board and Wagon Wheel blaring, the Sixth Man of the Year revved up his Spurs teammates in the tunnel the way he always does. Johnson played the best playoff game of his career, logging 21 points and a tremendous block over the top of 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert. He got downhill, shoved his big body past people, and played the way he's been refining for his whole career.

"As simple as it sounds, it just felt like he was being himself," Mitch Johnson said of Keldon. "He wasn't trying to do something or trying to be anything. He's played with energy, and as he's shown in his career and most specifically this year, when he plays with that type of energy the basketball finds him, he's in the middle of plays, he's in gang rebound situations where there's multiple people, and he's a catalyst for that energy and that physicality and that dynamic of our team when we need it."

As his coach spoke about the heart and soul of this Spurs team, Keldon proved that he's also the lungs as he screamed from the top of them in the locker room loud enough to hear in the background of his coach's praise.

Mar 9, 2022; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich talks with San Antonio Spurs forward Keldon Johnson (3) in the second half at the AT&T Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Another player who rose from the down years and learned more thanks to increased experience is Devin Vassell, who was drafted as a 3-and-D guy and developed into one of the best tough-shot makers in the league out of necessity. Now when the play breaks down, he's a safety blanket who can almost always snake to a spot in soft underbelly of the defense and put up a quality shot. This series he's been doing that while also guarding the heck out of Anthony Edwards.

Vassell said before Game 5 that the Spurs needed 'upset' Victor Wembanyama in this game. While Wemby clearly wanted to atone for taking himself out of the previous contest, Mitch Johnson used another word to describe him afterward.

"One word I'd like to use is mature," Johnson said. "I think there's a lot that happened in the last 48 hours, in the last game, I think how that young man came out tonight and played, in a variety of ways and in a variety of situations, not just in terms of his production, was extremely mature."

Steph Castle agreed.

"I feel like we got the Vic that you've seen all year. I think his maturity level was off the charts, he played smart, didn't really foul much, took the shots that were there for him. When he's playing like that, playing aggressive with everything that he brings for us defensively, I feel like we're pretty hard to beat. Where his mindset has been at the last 48 hours, I know he wanted to finish Game 4, but not letting that get to him and come out and play like that is a big reason why we won."

May 12, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) reacts after scoring a three point basket during the first half of game five of the second round of the 2026 NBA Playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

San Antonio dominated 126-97 behind Wembanyama's 27 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 blocks. The Spurs lost when he lost his composure in Game 4, and they won by a ton thanks to the most mature performance of his career in the pivotal Game 5.

Wemby is the kind of person who tends to follow any mistake he makes with redemption in the first opportunity to seek it. If he shoots poorly, it's likely he'll be hot the next game. On two separate occasions this season he got dunked on by an opponent and immediately sought a revenge poster on the next possession. It's entirely in character that the first game after the first time he really lost his cool and got ejected, he came out with a seemingly paradoxical combination of competitive fire and cool control.

Watching from the stands were Spurs legends such as Sean Elliott and RC Buford. David Robinson sat with Antonio Daniels in the same box as Manu Ginobili. Tim Duncan waved to the crowd, eliciting loud applause. Though he wasn't shown on the jumbotron, Gregg Popovich watched from the semi-privacy of his suite as Wemby put together one of the best games of his professional career.

Spurs legends are in the building for Game 5 👏 pic.twitter.com/6CkcPTuWfc

— NBA (@NBA) May 13, 2026

When Wembanyama himself was asked if he thought 'upset' or 'mature' was a better word to describe his performance, the 22-year-old thought for a moment and determined it was a false dichotomy.

"They ain't mutually exclusive," he said. "I'm going for both."

Wembanyama's latest pearl is a reminder that wisdom and youth can go together, the same as emotion and control, size and skill, athleticism and intelligence. He's all of that wrapped into one.

The one thing Wembanyama and this San Antonio team still lacks is experience, but they get more of it in every single playoff game. And if they ever have a question, they can ask any of the many Basketball Gods in their Spurs Family.