Victor Wembanyama Is Staying With The Spurs On A Deal Worth Over A Quarter-Billion Dollars

Since entering the league, Victor Wembanyama has been the talk of the NBA. A 7'4″ freak athlete who can score almost at will, averages 3.5 blocks a game, and shoots the three pretty well? Fans often refer to Wemby as an alien, because…well, we've never seen a specimen quite like this.

Wembanyama was guaranteed to be the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, and the San Antonio Spurs were the team lucky enough to select him. Now, fresh off a trip to the NBA Finals, the club is keeping their superstar around for the long haul.

The Spurs and Wembanyama agreed to a five-year max rookie-scale contract extension worth $252 million. That's over a quarter-billion dollars for a player who's only played three seasons in the NBA. Granted, those have been three highly impressive seasons, but it's still wild how far NBA contracts have come. LeBron James's first contract extension was worth $20 million a year. Michael Jordan made about $93.8 million over his entire NBA career. Wemby will top that in two seasons of this new deal.

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Perhaps equally as wild is that Wembanyama actually gave up $50 million to sign this new deal. He was eligible to sign a 30% supermax that would have been worth about $303 million. Instead, he opted against any escalators. That makes this deal the third-largest rookie extension in NBA history. Detroit's Cade Cunningham and Cleveland's Evan Mobley are both on five-year, $269 million contracts.

Wembanyama shared the news on social media: "Spurs family, I'm here to stay. Whatever it takes."

Last season, Wembanyama averaged career bests in points (25.0) and rebounds (11.5) as the Spurs won the Western Conference against their rival, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and reached the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. However, the Spurs lost that series in five games, despite having double-digit leads in all five contests.

It was the first time the young Spurs core, led by Wembanyama, Stephon Castle, and Dylan Harper, reached the postseason. Julian Champagnie, Devin Vassell, Keldon Johnson, and Carter Bryant were also all making their first postseason appearances. And De'Aaron Fox, a veteran presence acquired from the Sacramento Kings the previous season, had only played in one playoff series before last year.

Wembanyama and the Spurs both know how difficult it can be to keep a young team together. When players are on rookie contracts, there's more salary cap flexibility, but those deals don't last forever. By saving about $10 million per season in cap space over the next five seasons, Wembanyama is putting winning above maximizing his potential earnings.

Of course, he's still signing a contract worth north of a quarter-billion dollars. And he's quickly becoming one of the best players in the league and will likely be the face of the NBA for the next decade or more. The off-court earnings he'll make will trounce the $50 million he's giving up in this deal.

Wembanyama has already accomplished plenty in his relatively brief NBA career thus far. He's hoping to add a few more trophies to the mantle before too long.