Victor Wembanyama Is Proving NBA MVP Voters Dead Wrong

The NBA presented Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with his second NBA MVP trophy Monday night. His Oklahoma City Thunder were hosting Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs for Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.

The back-to-back winner of the league's most prestigious individual award was appropriately honored in front of his home fans.

And then, he was absolutely dominated by the actual most valuable basketball player in the world.

No, the final score doesn't full back up that description. The Spurs won by single digits, 122-115, and it took them two overtimes to get there. But domination goes beyond the scoreboard.

Wemby dominated the broadcast. Whenever he was on the floor, it was hard to focus on anyone or anything else. He dominated social media. X was flooded with posts on his alien origins, a general astonishment at his combination of size, skill and eye-popping highlights.

The reaction hit its fever pitch with under 30 seconds to go in the first overtime, with San Antonio down three. In about as pressure-packed a moment as a 22-year-old basketball player can face, Wemby casually jogged past halfcourt, caught a kickback from Stephon Castle at the logo, pulled from 30 feet and connected.

As that shot hit the bottom of the net (heck, maybe even as he pulled up—because it's one of those plays that almost felt inevitable), a few things became or were confirmed as all-but-undeniable.

We've never seen a player like this before.

The NBA doesn't really need to worry about the "face of the league" post-LeBron James and Stephen Curry.

And, regardless of what the MVP voters just decided about the 2025-26 campaign, Wembanyama is the most valuable basketball player. In the world.

Against one of the best defenses of all time, and on that defense's home court, Wemby went for 41 points on 14-of-25 shooting, grabbed nine offensive rebounds, and handed out three assists.

There was no answer. And he really didn't give OKC as complex a test as he's given other opponents throughout this campaign. Some nights, Wembanyama will show off quite a bit more of the guard and wing skills he possesses. On Monday, he only took two threes. And most of his twos felt like assertions of dominance.

Regardless of who the Thunder decided to throw at him, most of Wemby's possessions wound up looking like the much older brother bullying his hapless sibling on the Nerf hoop.

Meanwhile, SGA had 24 points on 7-of-23 shooting, turned the ball over four times (compared to Wemby's three) and was a Thunder-worst minus-15 for the game.

One game obviously doesn't settle a debate. And even great players are allowed bad nights. But the contrast between the winner of the MVP and the player who actually fits the definition of "most valuable player" has rarely been more stark.

We haven't even mentioned Wembanyama's defense, but he's already at the "defense unto himself" level that Rudy Gobert hit a few years ago. Wemby is the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year winner ever. That kind of impact, and a very rudimentary offensive game, made Gobert a multi-time All-Star and All-NBA selection.

Wemby combines 100th percentile defensive impact with 98th percentile offense (according to Dunks and Threes' estimated plus-minus).

And voters don't (or at least shouldn't) factor this into their calculus when determining who was the most valuable player in a given season, but age is obviously a consideration in the more abstract conversation.

It's almost unfathomable that Wemby is 22. Assuming he stays healthy, what we're witnessing right now could be the worst version of Wemby that we'll see between now and 2036.

He's younger than Sacramento Kings rookie Maxime Raynaud, and there's already an argument that he's one of the three or four best (or at least most impactful) offensive players, while also being the undisputed best defender.

There almost certainly can't be a single high-level executive in an NBA front office who would trade Wemby for anything right now. He looks like a surefire ticket to contention for at least the next decade.

And all of that is true simply because of his completely unprecedented combination of size and skill.

But what truly sets Wemby apart, and what might have him on a GOAT-like trajectory, is his mentality.

In a hostile environment, against a team that's been a statistical juggernaut for two seasons—and against a Thunder squad that has figured out how to game the officials and the rulebook as much as any team we've ever seen—an individual player essentially willed his team through all of it.

Wemby's competitive spirit and desire to get better, at least to the degree he possesses them, are unique traits, even among the one percenters.

His hunger for victory can almost be felt through the screen. All those sidequests for self-improvement from last offseason (like time spent at a Shaolin temple, with NASA engineers and with NBA legends) were undertaken as opportunities for real growth.

We keep hearing some variation of "we've never seen this before," and the mentality is perhaps the biggest reason why.

Wemby's height helps, but it didn't guarantee what we're seeing now.

That comes from something deep within his soul.

And that's helping Wemby prove, to everyone, that he doesn't need a trophy to be the world's most valuable basketball player.