{"id":863450,"date":"2026-08-21T17:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863450\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T17:50:12","slug":"3-time-nba-mvp-praises-victor-wembanyama","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/863450\/","title":{"rendered":"3-Time NBA MVP Praises Victor Wembanyama"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\"2026\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tGetty\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Spurs Proposed to Land $27 Million Lakers Free Agent Rui Hachimura<\/p>\n

Victor Wembanyama<\/a> has long been regarded as a generational talent for his physical tools, work ethic, and uncanny abilities. Now, a three-time NBA<\/a> MVP and former NBA champion has been singing praises for Wembanyama.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Talking after Serbia\u2019s 90-87 friendly win over Wembanyama\u2019s France, Nikola Jokic<\/a> praised the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> superstar, saying that he is one of the next great stars in the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nikola Jokic Praises Victor Wembanyama
\n\"San<\/p>\n

GettyDENVER, COLORADO \u2013 JANUARY 03: Victor Wembanyama #1 of the San Antonio Spurs is guarded by Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets<\/a> in the fourth quarter at Ball Arena on January 03, 2025 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cHe definitely has an opportunity to be the most unique basketball player we have ever seen; it depends on how hard he is going to work, how he is going to fit, how he is going to find his spots and so on, but he definitely can be the best, the most unique one ever,\u201d Jokic said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Jokic also raved about how special Wembanyama is as a player, before denying that there is a rivalry between them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s definitely special, because of how unique he is, as a player and as a person. I don\u2019t see it as a rivalry,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In their matchup with their respective national teams, the Serbian Jokic outperformed the French giant Wembanyama. Jokic had 20 points, 9 rebounds, and 8 assists in 29 minutes, while Wembanyama put up 10 points and 6 turnovers.<\/p>\n

Wembanyama was named France\u2019s team captain starting last month, succeeding Rudy Gobert<\/a>, a longtime member of Les Bleus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nikola Jokic And Victor Wembanyama Head-to-Head Matchups
\n\"BASKET-SRB-FRA-FRIENDLY\"<\/p>\n

GettyFrance\u2019s #32 Victor Wembanyama (L) and Serbia\u2019s #15 Nikola Jokic react during the friendly basketball match between Serbia and France, at the Belgrade Arena, in Belgrade, on August 20, 2026. (Photo by Andrej ISAKOVIC \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Through their seven head-to-head regular-season meetings in the NBA, Jokic holds a 5-2 record over Wembanyama, with both big men putting up historic, monster numbers during their matchups.<\/p>\n

Jokic averaged 37.3 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 9.1 assists per game in games against Wembanyama.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

His best performance came in December 2025 during an overtime thriller where he exploded for 46 points, 10 rebounds, and 9 assists, while most recently, in April 2026, he dropped 40 points and 13 assists to edge out the Spurs in another overtime classic.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Wembanyama averaged 26.4 points, 15.1 rebounds, and 4.5 blocks per game in their encounters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The young French center secured his most famous victory against Denver during his rookie season in April 2024, recording 34 points and 12 rebounds in a one-point win, just days after nearly recording a quadruple-double against Jokic with 23 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists, and 9 blocks.<\/p>\n

Jokic, however, only reached the first round of the playoffs after losing to the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>. Meanwhile, Wembanyama broke out in this year\u2019s playoffs, dethroning the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> before losing to the eventual NBA champions New York Knicks<\/a> in the NBA Finals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wembanyama has an up-and-coming supporting cast to accompany him on his rise, such as De\u2019Aaron Fox, Stephon Castle, Dylan Harper<\/a>, Harrison Barnes, Tobias Harris<\/a>, Carter Bryant, among others.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wembanyama and Jokic are expected to face one another once more not just on the international stage but also on the brightest stages of the NBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\tRob Andrew Lo<\/a> Rob Andrew Lo is a writer at Heavy Sports and is covering the NBA. He has covered local, collegiate, professional and international sports in various sites. He was the sports editor of The Varsitarian, the official student publication of University of Santo Tomas, and a sports, entertainment, and lifestyle writer for Rappler.
\n
\nA Journalism graduate from the University of Santo Tomas, he has built his voice across both collegiate and international platforms, previously contributing NBA coverage to Fansided and Sportskeeda.
\n More about Rob Andrew Lo<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Spurs Proposed to Land $27 Million Lakers Free Agent Rui Hachimura Victor Wembanyama has long been regarded…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-863450","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}