Pop Rules Victor Wembanyama Out vs. Chicago Bulls on Saturday: Uneasy Tension on Mandate Remains

There was the potential for things to get really interesting. The Spurs just handily defeated the Charlotte Hornets tonight and Victor looked great while playing only 20 minutes.

Adding to that, Spurs insider and color analyst, Sean Elliott, said that Victor could easily play in Saturday’s contest against the Chicago Bulls.

So a very interest scenario presented itself because Pop playing Victor on Saturday would be basically admitting Victor’s arbitrary mandatory minutes restriction (along with no back-to-backs) was, well, arbitrary.

Or made up out of thin air. Or completely unnecessary.

Along those lines.

Of course, Victor could play no problem and I’m sure he’s dying to, but in Pop’s post game press conference after the Hornets game, he ruled Wemby out. (video is timestamped)

Pop also pre-ruled out Victor for an upcoming back-to-back on the Spurs next road trip.

Victor’s Minutes Restriction

The absurdity of Victor’s minutes restriction and not being able to play back-to-back continues. As does the Spurs decreased chances of being able to win without their franchise player.

I’ve written about this at length.

In my Wemby Watch for the Hornets game, I passed along Sean Elliott’s strong stance, fresh off the telecast. Sean brought up Victor’s lack of playing time at multiple points during the second half and wondered aloud about him playing real minutes.

I’ve also written on how the most famous sports doctor in the world, Brian Sutterer MD, called the minutes restriction paranoid and said there was no precedent for it.

A few days prior I basically said the same thing, that the minutes restriction made absolutely no sense.

And even before the ankle injury became a thing, I wrote continually about how Gregg Popovich was obsessively and compulsively looking for ways to shave Victor’s minutes.

At 100%, Victor as a 19 year old rookie, was only averaging 30 minutes per game.

So the OCD and the limiting of minutes is nothing new. Rather, it’s been an ongoing point of tension all season long.

And the tension reached a high point when Victor actually defied Pop in the Memphis game and subbed himself in which was quite a big moment.

But Pop did some nifty psychological maneuvering and incredibly got Victor to go along with not playing.

Still, I think we’re going to see tension boil over again if Pop continues to apply the same level of rigidity.

The tension remains high for now as Victor is out for Saturday’s game against the Bulls.