Nonchalant Wembanyama is Not, and That's Cool

The word 'nonchalant' means indifferent, careless, cool.

It borrows from French the verb chaloir, which means to care. According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, chaloir comes from the Latin calere, which means to be hot or warm.

'Nonchalant' is what's known as an unpaired word or an orphaned negative, 'overwhelmed' being another example. It means that the combination of suffix and root forms a word, but the root itself has no commonly used English word.

'Chalant' isn't a word, but if it was we'd use it to describe Victor Wembanyama and the fiery passion with which he openly cares about his pursuit of greatness.

Modern media training has made nonchalance the standard for superstar athletes, at least when it comes to making statements to the press. Rings culture and social media made it so admitting that you care about anything other than a title is seen as cocky or unfocused. Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of public opinion, especially if you fail to achieve whatever goal you spoke about.

You're supposed to pretend that regular-season awards like MVP and Defensive Player of the Year don't even cross your mind. If asked, you're supposed to tell an obvious lie like, "I don't even pay attention to that outside noise and it doesn't matter to me, we're all 100% focused on winning a championship."

Boring.

Victor Wembanyama doesn't do that. When a reporter asks him a question, he never responds with sanitized PR nothingness. He thinks about it for a moment and then answers with his true opinion on whatever the question was, eloquently, and often in his second language.

This is what happened Monday night in Miami after he led San Antonio to a blowout win. Jared Weiss of the New York Times had been discussing the MVP race with Wemby and Keldon Johnson in the locker room, and in the public media scrum asked Wembanyama to make his case with three main points. Many others would have demurred, but Wemby answered thoughtfully.

"I think right now, it is still reasonable that there is a debate," he said. "I want to make sure, my goal is to make sure there's no debate anymore at the end of the season."

It's not like he started brashly campaigning for himself out of nowhere. He was asked a question and clasped his hands for a few moments before sharing how he feels about the thing we're all talking about. It's genuine, and refreshing.

"My first one would be that defense is 50% of the game, and that is undervalued so far in the MVP race, because I believe I'm the most impactful player, defensively, in the league," Wembanyama said. "Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season, and we dominated them three times with their real team and the fourth time more rotation players. My third argument would be that (my) offensive impact is not just points."

Wemby kept his case pretty short, but each of his three contentions make a lot of sense. He didn't bring up the data to support his case, but there's plenty of it out there. When he laid out the bullet points he reframed the conversation around the MVP award, at least for the next day. He even had Stephen A Smith saying that Wembanyama is his pick for MVP now, because he found the case that Wemby himself laid out to be quite convincing.

Stephen A. Smith goes off about why Victor Wembanyama has convinced him he's the MVP pic.twitter.com/96UV7XGdB9
— Josh Paredes (@Josh810) March 24, 2026

The sentiment of 'he's not wrong' seems to be prevailing well beyond First Take. Even if Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is more likely to take home the hardware when the regular season ends, there are plenty of fans, media members, and some voters who may now be convinced that Wembanyama is more valuable, right now, in just his third year in the NBA.

Recently SGA broke a record set by Wilt Chamberlain for most consecutive games with 20+ points. The next game, he was shooting poorly and stuck under 10 until late. With his Thunder up double digits, he scored 10 points in the final six minutes and subbed out immediately after hitting the 20-point mark.

Asked on the court if he knew that his streak was in jeopardy as he chucked shots in a game that was just about decided, he claimed he had no idea. So many people rolled their eyes at the same time that the earth briefly tilted off its axis. To be fair, he would have been crushed if he admitted to stat padding, even if everyone can understand on a human level wanting to keep that streak going.

There are some NBA legends whose nonchalance is part of their legend, because it feels true to who they are. Nikola Jokic really loves his horses. Michael Jordan truly cares more about his NASCAR team right now than anything basketball related. Tim Duncan pre-recorded a video of himself waving at fans and didn't show up to an event honoring NBA legends. Gregg Popovich meant it when he said there are things in life that matter more than basketball, like where are we all going for dinner?

Victor Wembanyama is not like that, though. He's a worldly young man with interests beyond the basketball court, but being the best player on it is his main focus. He isn't afraid to admit it. When asked earlier in the season who he thought the best player in the world is, he gave another answer full of honesty and confidence.

"I think Jokic is the best offensive player. I don't think he's the best player... It's between Giannis and Shai," he said. "When I come back on the court, I think it will be me.”

This is the guy who had the basketball world saying that he saved the All-Star Game simply by caring about it. It should come as no surprise that he also cares about winning DPOY, and MVP, and a title, and many other things.

This is the guy who was moved to tears after leading a 25-point comeback on the second game of a back-to-back. While many mocked him for crying after a regular-season win, many more thought it was a beautiful, human moment, and that having a superstar who isn't afraid to care deeply about his craft is wonderful for the Spurs and for the NBA as a whole.

No matter what any of these guys say or do, they'll be criticized by some corner of the sports media world. Show emotion because you care? "What a try hard." Play it cool? "Fake humble nonchalant gimmick." One of the great things about Wembanyama is that he cares very much about winning every single thing that he can, and he cares very little about people on the outside criticizing him for that.

"In my opinion, Victor has the longest list of things that he wants to do, probably the history basketball, they all are important to me as well," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. "There's a lot that goes into that, and at times we have to make tough decisions, because on that long list there are still things that we prioritize and put at the top of the list. But that guy, I think, is going to challenge us, as long as we're all here to continue to match that desire to keep checking those things off that list."

Wembanyama's size is impressive, and his skill is enormous, but his mindset is perhaps the biggest reason that he has a chance to be the greatest of all time. We should all be grateful that he shares that mind with us all, freely and honestly.