Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is only one flagrant away from a one-game suspension, meaning any further incidents could have drastic implications on the NBA Finals.
From his perspective, Victor is only doing what is necessary to keep his team alive, but not everyone views his methods as entirely clean. In fact, according to Draymond Green, he fits the mold of most European-born players as being dirty competitors.
“I don’t know why anyone would be jumping on a screen like that,” said Draymond Green on his podcast. “Victor Wembanyama is a great player, but he’s a European player. I’ve been on record saying European players are dirty, and everyone’s like ‘Draymond, you shouldn’t say that’ but Draymond will f*ck you up. But I’m not dirty. It’s a completely different thing, and I don’t think anyone that I played against will tell you ‘Man he’s dirty,’ but no, I ain’t dirty, that’s a different thing, and I will mess you up though. Victor Wembanyama is a European player; they are a bit dirty. I don’t know for sure that he was trying to take him out, but I know Europeans do things a little differently on the basketball court.”
Wembanyama is known to get rough and physical on defense, and his passion can often come across as excessive force. Nevertheless, his record is squeaky clean compared to Draymond’s. Besides a history of falling out with his own teammates (including Kevin Durant and Jordan Poole), Green has gotten himself suspended multiple times, including during the 2016 Finals.
When it comes to dirty plays, Draymond is not innocent, as his history includes erratic groin kicks and dangerous mid-game ankle trips. Yet, for Green, none of it crosses the line. In his mind, it’s Wembanyama’s actions that deserve to be punished. In the Finals, Green has noticed questionable plays from Victor amid rising frustrations.
“I will say he’s been shown a lot of grace,” said Green. “He probably should be suspended at some point or have been already. But I agree with the grace.”
Whatever Green has been seeing from Wemby, it’s likely that personal bias plays a heavy role here. From Rudy Robert to Jusuf Nurkic, Draymond has beefed with many European bigs over the years, and Victor is just the latest.
As for the “dirty player” accusations, it’s ironic for someone with Draymond’s history to make such a claim. As one of the most controversial and polarizing “enforcers” of the modern game, many critics would argue that Draymond’s antics often crossed the line. To this day, his reputation has never fully recovered.
Victor, meanwhile, is still young enough to win people over. At just 22, he can still change the narrative, and that’s what he’ll be looking to do in this series against a red-hot Knicks team. After putting up 24 points, 13 rebounds, one assist, zero steals, and three blocks on 36.0% shooting in Game 4, we know Victor will show up to play with his season on the line, but whether or not he can keep his cool remains to be seen. He’s on a short leash already, and one more mistake could doom the Spurs’ season.
