Victor Wembanyama on Amen Thompson’s block: ‘I would have dunked,’ and why France is still on his mind

Victor Wembanyama had one answer for what he would change about the last play of Friday’s loss in Austin. With the San Antonio Spurs down 112-110 in the final seconds, De’Aaron Fox found him on the block against Amen Thompson, and Wembanyama went up with a layup. Thompson, about nine inches shorter, blocked it, and the Houston Rockets won 114-110 after Fred VanVleet’s two free throws.

Asked afterward if he would have done anything differently, Wembanyama said yes. Asked what, he said: “I would have dunked.” Asked whether he had ever had that kind of shot blocked before, he said: “Not like this.”

It was a better night than his first. Wembanyama had 25 points on 9-of-21 shooting, 13 rebounds and two blocks, three nights after he went 1-of-13 from the field in the opening loss to Oklahoma City, the worst shooting game of his career. San Antonio is still 0-2, and Wembanyama said giving up offensive rebounds was one of the costly mistakes he meant. Thompson had three of Houston’s eight.

“We need to stop getting down double digits,” he said. “And we made some mistakes that were very costly. This is our problem.”

‘It doesn’t explain the poor performances’

A French reporter also asked Wembanyama, in French, whether part of his mind was still at home with what is happening in France, and whether that might explain Tuesday’s game. He took a moment before answering.

“I can still concentrate, but yes, my head is there,” he said. “There’s definitely a lot going on in our lives. But that doesn’t explain my poor performances at all.” Asked if he had more fun than on Tuesday, he said he did, but that a win would do a lot of good.

Wembanyama’s answer in French, posted by the WembyAlienEra fan account on X.

The question has followed him since the preseason. High school students in France have been protesting for weeks over school conditions, crowded schedules and teacher shortages. After a preseason game against Atlanta on October 8, Wembanyama said he backed them. “I was in high school in Nanterre, which was already a stronghold of the blockades back then,” he said in French. “These are systemic inequalities, problems so deep. I’m glad high school students and young people in general are making themselves heard, because I hear them and I support them, and I hope the people at the very top will do the same.”

On the eve of a nationwide protest in France on October 17, he posted an image of a rabbit pointing at a watch on X, with no caption. Eric Ciotti, the mayor of Nice and leader of the right-wing Union des droites, read it as a call to join the protests, which saw violence and looting in some cities. He wrote that French celebrities like Wembanyama who backed “the riots of October 17” bear a historic responsibility and “must be condemned.”

‘It’s my future of the game’

Wembanyama also spent more time with his back to the basket on Friday, including a second-quarter hook over a defender after backing him down. Asked about his comfort creating shots that way, he said: “My level of comfort is growing, and that’s the point. I want to make it grow. It’s my future of the game, for sure.”

The Spurs play at the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET, which is 3 a.m. Sunday in Cairo, on the second night of a back-to-back. Dallas will be without Cooper Flagg, who has a mild left shoulder sprain.