Victor Wembanyama named a 2025 NBA All-Star reserve
Wemby makes his first All-Star game in year 2 of his career.
Victor Wembanyama has been nominated as an All Star reserve for the first time in his NBA career. While starters were selected by the fans, players and media, the reserves are selected by the coaches. Wemby came in fourth in starter votes for front court players in the Western Conference behind Nikola Jokic, LeBron James and Kevin Durant. He is the first Spurs to make the All-Star game since Dejounte Murray in 2022.
Making his 1st #NBAAllStar appearance… Victor Wembanyama of the @spurs.
Drafted as the 1st overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft out of France, @wemby is averaging 24.4 PPG, 10.8 RPG and 3.9 BPG for Spurs this season. pic.twitter.com/r82kU6i93I
— #NBAAllStar (@NBAAllStar) January 30, 2025
In only his second season, Wemby is averaging 24.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists, a league-leading 3.9 blocks and 1.1 steals and is widely considered the favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year, which would put him in some extremely rare company. He will also participate in the Rising Stars Challenge along with Spurs rookie Stephon Castle, who will also participate in the Slam Dunk Contest, so the Spurs will be well represented.
As a reminder, the All-Star game is taking on a new format this year, matching the Rising Stars mini-tournament format, where four teams will face each other. The 24 All Stars will be drafted into three teams of eight, and the fourth team will be the winner of Rising Stars. The teams will play in a mini-tournament format. Team A will face Team B in the first semifinal, and Team C will play Team D in the second semifinal. The first teams to 40 points wins, and the two winners will then face each other in the finale, where the first to 25 points is the champion.
This of course presents an interesting proposition for Wemby: assuming he makes the All Star game as a reserve, what happens if his team advances from the Rising Stars Challenge? (My assumption is he would join his All Star team, and someone from another Rising Stars team would be selected to take his place, but we’ll have to wait and find out if that situation even presents itself.)
All Star Weekend will take place at the Chase Center in San Francisco from Friday, Feb. 14 through through Sunday, Feb. 16. The All Star Game will take place on Sunday at 7:00 PM CT on TNT. Congrats, Wemby!