Victor Wembanyama’s story in the NBA is a progressive one, as the French star added another historic chapter to his already growing legend.
The 20-year-old starred on Thursday night as the San Antonio Spurs beat the Jazz 106-88 at Delta Center in Utah to record their second win of the 2024-25 season.
Wembanyama had an impressive night, scoring 25 points along with nine rebounds, seven assists, five blocks, and five steals in 33 minutes to post the first 5×5 stat line of the season and his second in the NBA, having recorded figures of at least five in five separate categories.
The 2024 Rookie of the Year joined an exclusive list that includes Nigeria-born Basketball Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon and former Jazz and Brooklyn Nets forward Andrei Kirilenko as the only players to have achieved such feat more than once in the NBA.
Wembanyama got his second 5×5 game in just his 76th career game in the NBA, while Olajuwon did it six times in 1,238 games, while Kirilenko achieved the feat three times in 797 games.
“It tells me I need to get my standards up when I don’t get 5x5s because I am able to help my team in all those areas,” he said. “It should be a consistent thing. As I have said before, it is something we must have, something I must have more often to help my team.”
𝟓𝐱𝟓
Victor tonight: 25 PTS, 9 REB, 7 AST, 5 STL, 5 BLK pic.twitter.com/cOx1y60CO1
— San Antonio Spurs (@spurs) November 1, 2024
The Olympic silver medallist dressed in a No-face costume for Halloween, paying reverence to the “Spirited Away” character, Kaonashi, as he strutted into the Delta Center.
Little did anyone know his face would end up being everywhere as he did a bit of everything. He shot 45% from the field, 31% on 3-pointers, was perfect from the free throw line (3-for-3) and ended the game with the highest plus/minus in a single game in the NBA this season with +43.
“It was actually part of a big conversation and had to make a selection of our favourite, you know, scary characters and…So it’s from a movie,”Wembanyam said when asked about the inspiration behind his costume.
Wembanyama is averaging 18.2 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks this season, while shooting 42% from the floor across the five games he’s played this season.
San Antonio will host the Minnesota Timberwolves next on Saturday before hitting the road to play the Los Angeles Clippers and the Houston Rockets.
