Pop Psychology: How the Spurs Coach Got Victor Wembanyama on Board with Not Playing
Victor Wembanyama is very intelligent and he’s acquiring information and advancing rapidly; in Victor’s eyes, progress can’t come fast enough.
In just 35 NBA games, Victor’s leveling up is quite impressive. The biggest difference I can see is in his demeanor and how he carries himself on the court; he knows he’s the alpha and that he must lead the team.
The one thing he’s missing the most is experience, something he was relying upon Coach Gregg Popovich for. Ironically, it’s dealing with the cagey coach that has introduced a most unexpected dynamic to his rookie season.
Victor is learning, but it’s coming at the steep price of his playing time and success.
There are two things that should be absolutes:
- The Spurs try to win basketball games.
- Victor plays basketball.
I didn’t expect these items to be points of contention headed into the season, but, 35 games in, here we are:
- The Spurs (Pop) are trying to lose basketball games.
- Victor barely gets to play basketball.
Dam: Pressure, Cracks, Break
Pop’s suppression of Victor’s playing time along with the Spurs continual losing / open tanking has been building up pressure all season long.
This is diametrically opposed to Victor’s being and existence. Victor is ultra competitive, hates to lose, wants to win, and wants to play basketball.
So something was bound to give and we saw the first water pour through the dam cracks when Victor bypassed Pop’s mandatory minutes restriction and checked himself into the Memphis Grizzlies game.
This was complete defiance and a usurping of power by Victor. And I have to imagine that shortly afterwards Pop pulled Victor aside for a chat that may as well have been a summit.
Pop, 74, knows Victor is a much more powerful force than he so he couldn’t make a play straight up the middle or he’d be ousted. Rather, Pop relied upon his savvy to pull the ol’ Sasquahanna shuffle on Victor re-piece together his authority and control.
So what basket of lemons was Victor sold on in that fateful chat?
We can get a really good fly on the wall replay from Victor’s answer in his post game conference after the Cavs game:
“My hunger is bigger than ever to win and to compete but now I’ve learned to get over that frustration of minutes restriction. It’s how it is, my body needs time to adapt to the load and to this long season. Once it’s ready, it’s go time, but it’s no need to be frustrated. I keep my long-term goals in mind.”
Pop’s quote via Express-News reporter Tom Orsborn gets at the same thing.
A Sports Illustrated article offers a few more helpful quotes:
“Of course, I want to play,” Wembanyama said. “But I know the wise option is to listen to the staff … We can’t get mistaken on this.”
“When I brought him out, he totally understood,” Popovich added. “He didn’t like it, but he understood … I am glad he didn’t like it.”
“It’s really special,” Wembanyama said of playing under Popovich back during Summer League. “I feel like he thinks this is going to be a special time, too. I could follow him with my eyes closed.”
I wouldn’t do that, Victor.
Follow Pop with your eyes closed?
The guy who is losing games on purpose, arbitrarily limiting you to 25 minutes per game, and throwing away your rookie season?
The guy who is the source of your continual frustration?
The guy who picked up the mic during a game and told fans to stop booing?
That’s the guy you want to follow with your eyes closed?
But we do have to give the NBA’s all-time winningest coach some credit — he rose to the occasion and got Wemby good in their talk. Let’s work with the horse’s mouth quotes from Pop and Victor and see what we’ve got here.
“Now I’ve learned to get over that frustration of minutes restriction.”
Our first song is a hit. Learned means someone else (Pop) told him to “get over” his frustration. Get over is interesting wording because Pop is notorious for preaching that players need to get over themselves.
Pop rips the band-aid right off with this one. He’s got to set the tone and re-establish chain of command along with marching orders.
Later, he’ll soften the blow with bubble gum compliments and justifications that seemingly make logical sense.
“My body needs time to adapt to the load and to this long season.”
The magician’s sword, sleight of hand. Remember before how the minutes limitation focus was on Victor’s ankle, but here we see a new narrative emerge. Presumably Victor feels 100% so the goal posts have moved into something more intangible and indefinite: the load of the long season.
“Once it’s ready, it’s go time, but it’s no need to be frustrated. I keep my long-term goals in mind.”
Ah, here we have the ol’ dream deferred. So once the Spurs have tanked this season and maxed out their percentage chances of landing a #1 pick, then Victor can play.
In the meantime, stop being frustrated, stupid. Look into the future, not at what I’m doing now.
“Definitely he is frustrated with the minutes’ restriction, but he’s also intelligent enough to understand long-term is what we are interested in,”
Acknowledgement of frustration to calm the frustrated party. Just like when you call customer service and they repeat back to you what you just said along with some unnecessary verbiage.
“I hear that you’re having issues with cancelling your payment. No worries, I’m here to help you with the information you need.”
And then we have the deft, qualified compliment. Victor is intelligent but bedded within that intelligence is he must understand that the ambiguous long-term goal is what is most important.
Also, let’s toss in the element of rationalization floatie into the pool. Framing the minutes restriction as part of the reason behind the long-term strategy gives us an always helpful reason why.
More on this one in a moment.
“But I know the wise option is to listen to the staff … We can’t get mistaken on this.”
Oh look at this, Victor has been presented with the “wise option.” This is the only option that’s suitable for someone of Victor’s intelligence.
And, no, “we” must not be mistaken on this. That doesn’t really sound like a we, does it Victor?
In fact, it sounds like Pop has already predetermined that a mistake can only come on Victor’s end. It’s almost as if Pop is saying, your only choice is what I tell you to do.
“He didn’t like it, but he understood … I am glad he didn’t like it.”
This is starting to fancy; now we’re getting stripes on the purple belt.
“I am glad he didn’t like it.”
We’re officially in flavor country; Pop reached up to the top shelf for this one. Here we have Pop expertly walking on the tightrope of validation, skillfully balancing you’re wrong but you’re right to be wrong.
Kinda super crafty.
And the vacillation between sledge hammer to Victor’s rookie season aspirations and ninja tiptoeing in the crowded China shop is a mild marvel.
“I feel like he thinks this is going to be a special time, too. I could follow him with my eyes closed.”
One can only imagine how thick Pop layered the taffy on the dessert plate that fateful evening. I bet a lot of to-the-moon compliments were paid right after he shut down Victor’s hopes, dreams, and intuition.
He somehow got a fully frustrated and uber competitive Victor to go along with fading gently into the quiet, anti-competitive night.
That deserves some type of reverse psychology award.
Psychological Tactics Exhibited
Okay fine, I don’t technically have a degree in psychology.
In fact, I probably fell for a bait and switch last week at the car dealership when I came in for a tire change and walked out with a new Saburu.
Probably.
But, we do see some intense psychological bag work from Pop.
Check out the scorching hot false dichotomy action.
Did you notice how it’s either Victor plays with a minutes restriction or he isn’t looking out for his long-term future?
It’s binary. Either Victor plays 24 minutes a game or he’s ditching his NBA career — pick one Victor.
But, wait, a new horse is coming around the bend. This horse is named, You Can Play Now and Still Have a Future, Too.
Hmmm. It doesn’t sound like Pop brought this horse up in his right pretty speech (Hutz, Lionel). Even though his mandatory minutes restriction is completely made up out of thin air.
I don’t even need to play doctor on this one. Brian Sutterer MD already called Pop’s bluff.
Speaking of doctors, we also see Pop employ a trifecta of tactics by leveraging the Spurs medical staff: appeal to authority, shifting responsibility, and avoiding conflict.
In this confluence of persuasion techniques, Pop accomplishes multiple nifty moves:
- He pretends to take the decision out of his hands and move it to a medical authority; Pop’s just following doctor’s orders so you can’t blame him.
- He’s touting the authority and expertise of the Spurs medical team and holding it over Victor’s intuition that he should be playing basketball. You’re not a doctor, Victor, but this fine group of lab coats is and they all agree that you shouldn’t play basketball.
- He’s preserving some layer of friendly ground between he and Victor; a contentious relationship won’t work so Pop has sourced the mandatory you-can’t-play-basketball edict to the unnamed medical-type people.
To complement the medial staff smoothing over, we have the crafty mind games spilling out from this banger:
“He didn’t like it, but he understood … I am glad he didn’t like it.”
Here we have validation and acknowledgement as well as demonstration of understanding so that Victor at least knows Pop understands and respects his position. And there’s also that ultra tricky “glad he didn’t like it” at the end which acts as Pop, in a way, approving of Victor’s opposition. And, in this backwards blessing, we’ve come full circle, and Pop’s authority is somewhat restored.
Another for good measure:
“But I know the wise option is to listen to the staff … We can’t get mistaken on this.”
We’ve already talked about the doctor angle so let’s focus on the mistaken part. This invokes a fear of negative consequences.
In this strategy, the advocate hypes up the fear of making a mistake or negative consequences. Basically, don’t color outside of the lines of those two binary options I gave you earlier or you could get hurt.
And overarching it all is: this is for your own good.
A government classic.
Do what I say or vote for me because I know what’s best for you (and it’s definitely not for what I’m angling after).
Interests Aligned?
This won’t be a static, ongoing manipulation.
Eventually the Spurs will lock in a top 3 worst record and Pop will allow them to win again.
And as early as once their 14% lottery probability is assured or as late as the start of next season, then it will be “go time” and Victor’s body will finally be ready to adapt to the load of a long season.
For now, Victor and Pop’s interests remain misaligned.
Pop is losing on purpose and he needs Victor to stay seated so he can commence tanking without telling the players to play less hard.
By the way, did anybody else notice how quickly the reins were jerked after the Spurs started out 3–2?
That wasn’t a part of the plan.
And Victor disobeying orders definitely wasn’t either.
So Pop had to loosen up his tie, crack his head both ways, and have a little talk with Victor.
Epilogue
Pop bids Victor adieu and retreats into his office, half collapsing of relief onto his president’s chair.
He roughly jostles his already loose tie until he can wiggle it over his head and toss it to a corner of the office. With formality officially over, he reaches to the bottom desk drawer and grabs a tumbler and a medium-sized bottle of WhistlePig small batch rye.
A strong pour commences and then the brown liquid is jettisoned down the hatch.
He can finally exhale.
He went all-in and the kid bought his bluff.
That was a close one.
