Wembanyama's Injury Highlights Absurdity of 65-Game Minimum For Awards

Wemby and the Spurs have gone to extraordinary lengths to keep him healthy, but he's one of many who could miss out on the awards he deserves because of the NBA's dumbest rule.

Apr 4, 2026; Denver, Colorado, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) during the second half against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images | Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

SAN ANTONIO - In a spectacular third season, Victor Wembanyama is a lock for Defensive Player of the Year and First Team All-NBA. The 22-year-old superstar is likely to finish second in MVP voting, a well-earned acknowledgement of the Alien's meteoric rise.

That is, of course, as long as the banged-up Wembanyama can play at least 20 minutes in one of the Spurs' three remaining regular season games.

If it sounds absurd, that's because it is.

Wembanyama and the Spurs have gone to extraordinary lengths to meet the league's arbitrary and widely-detested 65-game minimum for regular-season awards. He's one of the best examples of how this rule, which was designed to limit "load management" and ensure that stars play as much as possible, is a counterproductive farce incompatible with the demands of the modern NBA.

In the middle of November the Spurs played a pair of grueling games against Steph Curry and the Warriors. Wemby notched a 31-point triple double in the first loss and played the final 15 minutes of the next one, an NBA Cup game that San Antonio lost at the buzzer. Curry scored 95 points in 48 hours, and Wembanyama did his best to match him and even stop him.

Nov 12, 2025; San Antonio, Texas, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) shoots in front of San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) in the second half at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

Consider the strain on the 7-foot-5 Wembanyama's body in the situations where he had to guard the greatest shooter of all time in space. He's one of the shiftiest perimeter players ever, and some of Wemby's most impressive defensive plays are when he shows his own mobility and quickness against a perimeter player like that.

Wembanyama missed the next dozen games with a left calf strain, leaving him with just five games of wiggle room and almost three quarters of the season to go. Many wrote him off as an award contender at that point. He and the Spurs managed his return with his health as the primary motivator, but the 65-game rule and its intricacies absolutely had an impact.

"There are a lot of variables that are in the mix, that's one of them," Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said earlier in the year. "His long-term health and making sure we keep that kid from himself in terms of his competitiveness... All the other stuff, I think it's real. I just don't know where it all falls. That's why we continuously have these conversations, and we don't put anything in stone."

When Wembanyama did make his return, it was against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA Cup semifinal in Las Vegas. He came off the bench with 22 points and 9 rebounds in 21 minutes to help the Spurs win. He came off the bench again in the final against the Knicks, a game that does not count toward regular-season stats but does count toward the 65-game minimum, giving him an additional game to play with.

It should be noted here that a player needs to be on the floor for at least 20 minutes for the game to count, in most circumstances. Wembanyama only played 17 minutes in the next game, but that one counted because players are each allowed two "near-miss" games of between 15 and 20 minutes. You're following, right? Doesn't this all make perfect, intuitive sense?

Wembanyama came off the bench for about a month, playing between 21 and 28 minutes as the team carefully managed his return. During that month he hyperextended his left knee in a win over the Knicks. As he limped off the court he told the crowd he was alright, and afterward he told the press he felt good.

Dec 31, 2025; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) on the floor after an injury in the second half against the New York Knicks at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images | Daniel Dunn-Imagn Images

"I was confident, I was this close to coming back in the game, but they had to hold me back," Wembanyama said with a smile. "I expect to be back next game, I don't know what they expect."

He wound up missing the next two, meaning that he could only miss four more of his team's remaining 49 games if he wanted to remain eligible. In that stretch he's been incredibly durable, missing just one contest in March and one in April due to a sore right ankle.

Part of the reason for the durability is that the Spurs have been very conscious about keeping Wembanyama out of harm's way. The defense has been built meticulously around keeping him near the basket. It keeps him in the area where he's most impactful, but it also limits his exposure to situations where he has to use explosive lateral movement defending perimeter players in open space.

He doesn't usually line up for rebounds on free throws, even though he'd grab a bunch. If the Spurs ran a million pick and rolls per game where he set a screen and dove to the basket, he'd probably finish a lot of shots but he'd also probably get tangled and perhaps mangled. He and the team have done a ton of little things to keep him fresh and healthy, not just for awards but for a run at the title.

Wembanyama looked on track to meet the 65-game minimum, needing to play in just two of the remaining four regular-season games to secure all the hardware he so clearly deserves. Then, he got fouled by Paul George and went down grabbing his left side and shoulder. He went back to the locker room, and came back and finished the first half before exiting the game with what the team called a bruised left rib. He played 16 minutes, so the game qualifies toward the minimum as his second of two near-miss games.

Apr 6, 2026; San Antonio, Texas, USA; San Antonio Spurs forward Victor Wembanyama (1) grabs his left shoulder during the first half against the Philadelphia 76ers at Frost Bank Center. Mandatory Credit: Scott Wachter-Imagn Images | Scott Wachter-Imagn Images

San Antonio has three regular-season games remaining, and it looks like none of them will have a real impact for a Spurs team that's all but locked into the second seed in the West. In a sane and just basketball world, Wembanyama would be able to rest up for his first playoff run secure in the knowledge that he had done enough to secure the hardware that he deserves.

Now, everyone has to sweat it out and see if he puts on a padded vest and plays 20 minutes. It would be a Popovichian middle finger to send him out there and have him stand at halfcourt looking at his watch in a meaningless game.

These awards are important because they're directly tied to earning potential. To sign a rookie supermax extension like the one Wembanyama very much deserves, the player needs to hit on at least one of these awards. DPOY or All-NBA next year would qualify him for the bump, but only MVP would lock it in automatically this season.

For a player like Wembanyama, these awards have an even deeper significance. Everyone heard him give his three-point case when asked why he should be MVP this year. Asked a few days later by Scott Van Pelt why it matters to him, Wemby made it clear that he wants to build a legacy of greatness and this is a part of that.

"I do care deeply about it, and I think that all the greats that are in the Hall of Fame, or that are in our mind the best of all time, they have fought and grabbed everything they could grab early on in their career," Wembanyama said. "If I want to make my spot among the greats, I gotta try to not miss any occasion. I have to put my name up there."

It's cool that Wembanyama cares this much and is open about his pursuit of greatness. He's the kind of person who would want to be out there competing in most situations regardless of the league's rule.

"In my opinion, Victor has the longest list of things he wants to do that are important probably in the history of basketball. And they all are important to me as well," Mitch Johnson said last month. "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 we prioritize and put on 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."

In supporting Wembanyama's pursuit of greatness, the Spurs have to both encourage his ruthless competitiveness and also protect his long-term health. While striking that balance, they also have to jump through a series of idiotic hoops set up by the league. If Wembanyama misses out on eligibility by 20 minutes due to a series of legitimate injuries, he would be one of many examples this season of why the NBA needs to end this very stupid chapter.

Cade Cunningham was an MVP candidate before suffering a collapsed lung with 61 games played. Anthony Edwards won't qualify, and Nikola Jokić and Kawhi Leonard are right on the cusp. All of these players would likely receive votes for First Team All-NBA, even if they "only" played 63.

Luka Doncic was making his own late-season MVP case with a spectacular month of scoring, and now he's expected to miss the remainder of the regular season with a hamstring strain at 64 games. He's hoping to get an exemption for missing two games so he could be on another continent for the birth of his daughter.

It's dumb that the NBA trusts voters to decide on these awards, but doesn't trust them enough to decide whether or not a guy has played enough to deserve it. The 65-game minimum was never about the voters, though. It was always about controlling the players and giving them a concrete reason to play through it when their body was telling them they needed a night off, even though the schedule hasn't caught up to a game that keeps getting faster.

The pace and space of modern basketball means the athletes put their bodies through tremendous strain for our entertainment, much more so than the players of yesteryear, and they're still expected to go out there and play three games in four nights with travel. Instead of celebrating their undeniable achievements the league is punishing them for suffering legitimate injuries and incentivizing them to risk catastrophic ones.

The calculus that got the league into this mess is that it's bad business to have star players missing games due to injury. The rule they put in place to combat that (and the players for some reason agreed to in the last round of collective bargaining) seems to have had the opposite effect. We've seen what happens to players who rush back from injuries, especially leg muscle strains, in the playoffs in recent years. Now there's a new and completely artificial rule encouraging players to put their health at risk.

Thankfully, Wembanyama's latest injury doesn't sound like cause for long-term concern. Unfortunately, it's something that could force him to miss out on awards for the third season in a row when he is clearly deserving, thanks to the NBA's dumbest rule.