{"id":273626,"date":"2025-11-05T19:29:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/273626\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T19:29:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T19:29:10","slug":"nbc-flexes-victor-wembanyama-into-primetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/273626\/","title":{"rendered":"NBC flexes Victor Wembanyama into primetime"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Last week, Tracy McGrady called for the NBA and NBC to feature Victor Wembanyama more prominently on national television.<\/p>\n<p>It took all of one week for the league and McGrady\u2019s bosses to listen to <a href=\"https:\/\/awfulannouncing.com\/nba\/tracy-mcgrady-victor-wembanyama-weekly-national-tv-games.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the 7-time All-Star\u2019s suggestion<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday night, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/pressbox\/press-releases\/flex-game-victor-wembanyama-and-san-antonio-spurs-host-ja-morant-and-memphis-grizzlies-on-coast-2-coast-tuesday-nov-18-exclusively-on-nbc-and-peacock-at-8-p-m-et\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NBC announced<\/a> that it is flexing the Nov. 18 matchup between Wembanyama\u2019s San Antonio Spurs and the Memphis Grizzlies into its Coast 2 Coast Tuesday window. As a result, the Western Conference showdown will air exclusively on NBC and Peacock, with the previously announced primetime game between the Detroit Pistons and Atlanta Hawks now set to air in their local markets.<\/p>\n<p>Tip-off in San Antonio is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. The Portland Trail Blazers will host the Phoenix Suns in the second part of NBC\u2019s Nov. 18 doubleheader.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Flex game! Victor Wembanyama and San Antonio Spurs host Ja Morant and Memphis Grizzlies on Coast 2 Coast Tuesday, Nov. 18, exclusively on NBC and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/peacock?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@peacock<\/a> at 8 p.m. ET<\/p>\n<p>More: <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/lWnQAGpxl6\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/lWnQAGpxl6<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 NBC Sports PR (@NBCSportsPR) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NBCSportsPR\/status\/1985898085315158501?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">November 5, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>While a game between the Spurs and Grizzlies might not have initially seemed like a fit for national television, it isn\u2019t hard to figure out NBC\u2019s line of thinking here. In fact, the first two words in the network\u2019s press release are \u201cVictor Wembanyama,\u201d whose emergence has served as one of the NBA\u2019s primary storylines through the first two weeks of the regular season.<\/p>\n<p>Widely considered to be a generational prospect, the 7-foot-4 Frenchman earned Rookie of the Year honors in 2024 before seeing his sophomore season in San Antonio derailed by injuries. Through the first six games of the 2025-26 campaign, Wembanyama has proven as good as advertised, averaging 26.7 points, 13.7 rebounds and 4.7 blocks while leading the Spurs to a 5-1 record.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the hype surrounding their star big man\u2019s third year in San Antonio, the Spurs entered this season with 22 nationally televised games \u2014 the 11th-most in the league. But with additional flexibility built into the NBA\u2019s new media rights deal, it was only a matter of time until the league\u2019s partners used that ability to shine a brighter spotlight on Wembanyama, just McGrady called for them to do last week.<\/p>\n<p>\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, Tracy McGrady called for the NBA and NBC to feature Victor Wembanyama more prominently on national&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,51986,2116,92,32090],"class_list":{"0":"post-273626","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-nba-on-nbc","10":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","11":"tag-tv","12":"tag-victor-wembanyama"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}