Victor Wembanyama’s ode to the old school

TEXAS – Victor Wembanyama, it seemed, had issued a decree. One veiled in gratitude and sealed with sarcasm.

“I’m just glad to be part of something that’s growing to be so beautiful,” he said. “Pure and ethical basketball.”

This rang as if from a herald, with the panache of a proposed law. Especially because it came after

a win on Dec 23 over the Oklahoma City Thunder

– the new face of manipulation of the National Basketball Association (NBA), given their position as dominant defending champions – Wembanyama seemed to revel in the sweet victory of a hero over a villain. As if the future face of basketball threw down a challenge to the next generation of superstars.

Cut the shenanigans.

See, the San Antonio Spurs’ big man did not invent the term. Ethical basketball as a talking point was born in an ideological battle that has been waged online for years now, conceived by the flopping era and the NBA’s freedom-of-movement edict. What was once niche – Reggie Miller extending his leg on three-pointers, and Michael Jordan getting phantom whistles – seemed to grow into an epidemic of players falling as if touch fouls were sniper fire.

Fair play

So the concept of ethical basketball praised players such as Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant for not intentionally feasting at the free-throw line. And, simultaneously, it chided players such as James Harden and Joel Embiid for unabashedly manipulating the rules as a steady diet.

Ethical basketball is an ode to a straight-up version of the game that most people grew up playing – when it was not about milking loopholes, banking on coercion or hoping for help from ambiguous rules. It is shooting to make instead of aiming to draw a foul. It is playing defence instead of hoping for a pass-and-crash charge. It is finding honour in not needing any of that.

For some, finding an edge is part of the game and its own version of genius. Even Curry acknowledged the skill of drawing fouls. He sees it with Jimmy Butler now, and he played with Corey Maggette as a rookie. Curry’s career has been bookended by professional foul-drawers.

The rip-through. The subtle leg kick. The ability to exaggerate contact on the fly. The expertise in manipulating leverage, getting defenders off-balance and punishing them for being out of position. It is as meticulous and crafty as dribbling through traffic. The way Harden negotiated the NBA’s gather-step rules could be considered either artistic or unbecoming.

It sounded as if Wembanyama planted his flag on the side of the latter, choosing the era when footwork did not require expertise in the game of Twister because travelling was an easy call. As if he grew up in France playing the “no blood, no foul” rules of blacktop (street basketball), and calling a charge provoked a flagrant reaction.

Curry, fresh off a weightlifting session after a home win against the Phoenix Suns, took a moment to process the idea of Wembanyama potentially leading the new era into a basketball purity vow. Then he gave a succinct reaction: “I love it.”

Wembanyama, when asked to explain further ahead of the NBA Cup final on Dec 16, clarified his meaning.

Concept not new

“In modern basketball,” he said, “we see a lot of brands of basketball that don’t offer much variety in the dangers they pose to the opponents. Lots of isolation ball and, sometimes, kind of forced basketball. And we try to propose a brand of basketball that can be described as more old-school sometimes – the Spurs’ way as well. So it’s tactically more correct basketball, in my opinion.”

Admittedly, his explanation did not scream revolutionary. His follow-up sounded much more like a mid-Major coach throwing shade at Amateur Athletic Union hoops than an activist of ethical basketball.

But if he did not mean to pick a side, he should have. It is the one he is already on.

After the game on Dec 21, Wembanyama had averaged 5.0 free throws per game for his career. That ranked 35th among all players from the start of the 2023-24 season until now – just six spots ahead of Curry.

Only eight players have averaged seven or more free throws in that span: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Embiid, Luka Doncic, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Paolo Banchero, Zion Williamson, Butler and Trae Young.

But the problem is not just getting free throws. Throughout the history of the NBA, getting to the free-throw line has been a central part of being a great scorer.

Of the top 30 scorers in NBA history, by total points, only two have averaged at least four shots for every free throw: Curry (4.13) and Alex English (4.09). Only six others have averaged at least three shots per free throw: Ray Allen (3.9), John Havlicek (3.6), Vince Carter (3.5), Kevin Garnett (3.4), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (3.0) and Elvin Hayes (3.0).

Most of the league’s best scorers fall somewhere near 2.5 shots per free throw. The best scorers will get to the free-throw line. That’s basketball.

The issue is bigger than drawing fouls. It is the aesthetic. It is the popularisation of the underhandedness. Some of the largest men in the world, and some of the best athletes, snap their heads back after the slightest graze to the chin.

It is the same player being allowed to push off but getting the whistle when he is pushed. It is the flailing and flopping – and the constant complaining when neither yields returns – while some real contact gets deemed as marginal.

It is this great league having games morph into legal proceedings, with officials approaching the scorer’s table like lawyers approaching the bench.

The Thunder’s role in all of this is discussed behind the scenes, more as a reality to deal with than as a complaint. Oklahoma City’s suffocating defence is athletic, long, physical and aggressive. It seems to operate with the understanding that the referees cannot call every foul. The players do not intentionally foul, as much as they simply do not mind fouling. That is the nature of swarms.

Maybe observers, and even some coaches, find it unpleasantly ironic for a squad with that defensive bent to also feature one of the NBA leaders in free-throw attempts.

To be clear, the criticism aimed at Oklahoma City is just a natural part of their dominance. The Thunder do not win because of the margins, even if they play them well. They win because of excellence. They play with championship confidence, which produced another level that makes them seem invincible. Thus, they have become prime targets. It happens to all great teams.

But it also points to a larger truth about ethical basketball. It is required to win big.

Winning honourably

People often refer to basketball gods and playing the right way. It purports this idea that the karma of basketball catches up with the people who hustle their way through. The truth: Winning at the championship level is so hard that gimmicks are not enough. Living by those schemes works only to a certain point.

When the game is on the line, when the stakes reach higher levels, victory demands purity. The best in the world will not be thwarted by tricks. Shots must be made. Fouls must be earned. Defence must be stingy. Pressure must be handled. Teams must be worthy.

Wembanyama is just shy of 22 years old, but remember what he went through at the Paris Olympics in 2024, what he witnessed and experienced.

Ethical basketball is what beat him in the final against the United States, what added fuel to his fire to be the best in the world.

That is what he stands on, even if he will not say it blatantly. Yet.
NYTIMES