By calling out the NBA’s longstanding myth, Victor Wembanyama made his MVP push harder to ignore. The San Antonio Spurs‘ big man has come into his own, handling matters off the court with the same boldness that defines his game. Days after publicly backing his MVP credentials, he doubled down by dismantling an age-old belief surrounding the NBA defense.

Following a dominant win over the Bucks, Wembanyama was ready to bust a few myths at the post-game press conference. “Before I was in the NBA, like you know, when you’re in the NBA, about like, nobody defends anymore, or like there’s no defense in the NBA, I heard that a lot before coming here, but it’s just not true,” said the 7 ‘5 giant. That’s something every DPOY winner, especially Draymond Green, would agree with.

And Wembanyama backed up his claim with specific examples from his experience. “The players are just that good. And I was surprised by the dedication of, like, the whole staff when I got here. Because I’ve heard that from other franchises. Franchises that win, franchises that didn’t win, and we weren’t winning a lot at the time. It’s the same, I mean, people are dedicated. And people actually do guard in the NBA. They do lots of scouting, defense scouting reports.”

In that 127–95 blowout in Milwaukee, he quietly put up 23 points and 15 boards while manning the back line of a defense that held the Bucks to 43.7% shooting and only 28 paint points.

Three seasons of defensive dominance, and Wemby still hasn’t won a DPOY — which really just tells you how loaded the competition has been. But this season feels different. Wemby now leads the DPOY race with barely 30 days left in the regular season, and the award feels like his to lose.

And that’s not the only race he’s leading. The Frenchman is also the frontrunner for MVP. At the press conference, he laid out three clear arguments: his 4-1 record against SGA’s OKC squad, his impact beyond scoring on offense, and his defensive dominance. But in busting the defense myth, he quietly added a fourth, maybe without even realizing it.

That 4–1 record against Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder matters because SGA is one of his primary MVP rivals, and Oklahoma City has spent most of the year sitting atop the West. Wembanyama hasn’t just traded shots with an MVP peer; he has consistently tilted those matchups in San Antonio’s favor.

When he talks about “impact beyond scoring,” he is pointing to the way he bends defenses as a playmaker. Drawing a second defender at the nail, then hitting cutters like Stephon Castle for layups and dunks, the same two-man chemistry that showed up in Milwaukee.

His “defensive dominance” is not a slogan so much as a nightly pattern: possessions where he erases drives at the rim, blows up pick-and-rolls with his length, and forces offenses to abandon their first and second options.

Think about it. By rejecting the “no defense in the NBA” narrative, Wembanyama strengthened his own MVP case by highlighting the elite defense he consistently scores against. He is averaging a commendable 24.2 ppg against elite defenses — only 14 players in the entire league have matched this season. That’s not just good. That’s MVP-level good.

Draymond Green backs Wembanyama’s cause

First of all, Victor Wembanyama isn’t the first person to break the myth. In fact, Draymond Green expressed his displeasure that it took so long for this narrative to come into the mainstream. The former DPOY didn’t wait for Wemby to break the defense myth first — he’d already been beating that drum.

So when Wembanyama stood up at the podium and said, “Defense is 50% of the game,” Green was all ears. After the Nets win, he didn’t hold back. “Wemby said, ‘Defense is 50% of the game,’ and it was like, oh, no one realized that?” Green said. “No one realized that 50% of the game we play is on that end of the floor?” 

Dray’s outcry highlighted a broader misconception. Not just about defense, but about how the sport is covered and consumed. The game has always been played on both ends. People are just now paying attention. With Wembanyama leading the charge on both ends of the floor, the league has officially entered a brand new era.

And with Wemby topping both the MVP and DPOY races, the Spurs’ potential postseason performance is now a must-watch test of this new era’s true arrival.