On Wednesday evening, the San Antonio Spurs moved to 1-0 on the young 2025-26 season with a dominant road win over the divisional rival Dallas Mavericks. It was one of the best games of Victor Wembanyama's career, as the former number one overall pick scored 40 points to go along with 15 rebounds and three blocks.
After the game, the Inside the NBA crew, making its debut appearance on the ESPN network, spoke on how they would go about hypothetically attempting to guard the French phenom.
“You can't guard Wemby out there on the 3-point line,” said Charles Barkley.
“I'm not known for defense, you know what I'm known for? Eating french fries and French toast,” quipped co-host Shaquille O'Neal.
O'Neal has never been shy about claiming his superiority over current NBA players, and although this remark was clearly in a joking tone, there's probably a small part of him that believes it.
A hot start for the Spurs
Essentially everything went right for the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday, from Wembanyama's play, to the continued progression of last year's Rookie of the Year winner Stephon Castle, to the performance from this year's number two overall draft pick Dylan Harper.
Not in the lineup for the Spurs on Wednesday was point guard De'Aaron Fox, whom the team acquired at the trade deadline a season ago. It will be very interesting to see how the coaching staff chooses to integrate Fox into the fold once he's healthy, considering how good both younger guards looked in the game against Dallas.
Still, the star of the show of the night on Wednesday was Wembanyama, who made perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate Anthony Davis look like a negative on that end of the floor with his performance. While Wembanyama's playmaking and facilitating still may not be quite at a level high enough to make the Spurs legit contenders, every other aspect of his game looks nearly unstoppable, including on defense, where he made multiple highlight-reel blocks.
The Spurs will next take the court on Friday evening on the road against the New Orleans Pelicans.
