Sports
The 'humbling experience' of trying to shoot over Victor Wembanyama
Pat Connaughton knows what an open shot feels like. As a nine-year veteran of the league, he’s taken hundreds of them, developing a sense for space and when there’s enough of it.
In early January, when Connaughton’s Milwaukee Bucks played the San Antonio Spurs, Connaughton got that familiar feeling again. With about eight minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, Giannis Antetokounmpo drew a double team and found Brook Lopez alone on the right wing. San Antonio’s Julian Champagnie, Connaughton’s defender, scrambled to cover him.
As Lopez caught Antetokounmpo’s pass, the Spurs player responsible for covering Champagnie’s rotation was 27 feet away, one foot in the paint and the other on the floor’s other side. Connaughton knew the swing-swing pass from Lopez would come and he usually only needs two or three feet of separation from a defender to get off his shot. In other words, Connaughton was open. The ball left his hands two seconds later.
Then, it suddenly died in the air.
“I wouldn’t have shot it if I thought he was going to be able to get it,” Connaughton said later.
Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 rookie phenom who had made the rotation from the corner, met the ball 12 feet and seven inches into the air.
“Every second counts when you’re playing against him, right? So the swing-swings have to be quicker, and when you think you’ve got enough space, you really don’t,” Connaughton said. “We talked about it after the game, it was impressive stuff.”
Wembanyama isn’t just breaking basketball, but the very perception of openness — of basketball physics — within the NBA. He has blocked seven 3s this season, far from the league’s lead, but what stands out is the manner in which he has disrupted the inevitability defenders used to feel.
“Have I had guys tell me this?” Wembanyama said when asked about his long closeouts. “Yeah, all the time. Sometimes during the game, sometimes after. But it happens.”
The NBA’s modern era is the result of an evolved understanding and war over space. There’s always been more of it out past the 3-point line than inside, but over the last decade, teams and players have started using that territory exponentially more than before. It’s been long enough since the beginning of Stephen Curry’s rise for player development and norms to adapt to the game’s massive upheaval.
Yet while players have extended the horizontal plane to create space, the vertical one has remained constant. At this level, every player knows what an open shot looks and feels like.
At least they did before Wembanyama.
“He’s taking that space back, for sure,” Spurs teammate Tre Jones said.
Phoenix Suns guard Grayson Allen, the league’s 3-point percentage leader, fell victim to Wembanyama in the season’s opening week. He felt like Wembanyama was between him and another defender, not fully committed to guarding him. But Wembanyama reached Allen’s shot anyway, something that has only happened one other time in Allen’s 421 attempts from behind the arc this season.
“He’s one of probably two guys in the NBA that can block it from where he was,” Allen said.
Allen’s right. Connaughton’s jumper was labeled “wide open,” which the league’s tracking metrics use to identify shots taken when the nearest defender is more than six feet away. Wembanyama is one of just two players — the other is Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert — who have blocked three such shots this season, said the Synergy Sports product designer who provided tracking data for this story, Todd Whitehead.
“Part of my job is to figure out what those labels should be,” Whitehead said. “So to have Wemby come and throw a wrench into what I’m trying to do, making something happen that seems like it’s physically impossible — it doesn’t really frustrate me, but it makes the data point seem like (it’s) wrong because he’s so unusual.”
According to Synergy data, 86 percent of the 3-pointers that Wembanyama has contested fall into that “wide open” label, one of the “worst” rates in the league. In other words, when opposing players take shots, he’s rarely considered “close” enough to them to affect them. But the league is shooting slightly less than 36 percent on “wide open” 3s that he has contested, noticeably lower than the 39.2 percent league average. In other words, a “wide open” 3 isn’t wide open when Wembanyama contests it.
Teams are, of course, aware of Wembanyama. Before the Dallas Mavericks faced San Antonio in the 2023-24 season opener, assistant coach God Shammgod strapped padded extensions to his arms in an amusing attempt to simulate the impossibly long-limbed French defender.
It’s official: Mavs are prepping for the Spurs, specifically 7-4 rookie Victor Wembanyama, with God Shammgod playing the role of Wemby. “Wemby! Wemby” he hollered while going out to defend Irving with his artificial Wemby length. pic.twitter.com/cKmgnP0M1n
— Brad Townsend (@townbrad) October 21, 2023
And yet on the team’s opening possession, the first official shot attempted against Wembanyama came from Kyrie Irving, who pulled up for a 17-foot midrange jumper that was promptly blocked by the San Antonio debutant.
“I don’t mind that,” Irving said later, amused he was the first official victim of a Wembanyama block. “The right side of history.”
And that lesson, at least, stuck with Irving for the remainder of the game and consecutive matchups against the Spurs this season. Last month, he had a signature highlight finish over the lengthy big man.
What Irving learned in October was what Wembanyama’s teammates realized even sooner. Jones, the Spurs’ starting point guard, got a crash course in one of the team’s first open gym runs long before the season began. “I felt like I had an open look,” he said. “When we’re open, we pretty much know it.”
Dominick Barlow, the Spurs’ backup center, described the feeling of shooting near Wembanyama as a “humbling experience.”
“We’ve taken hundreds and thousands of open shots in our lives,” he said.
Barlow and Jones face an odd phenomenon: They try not to overadjust to Wembanyama’s presence, because being his teammate means they won’t have to face him in an actual game. Still, Wembanyama is an unavoidable presence in their minds whenever he’s wearing the other color of their scrimmage jerseys.
“The red light in your head goes off,” Jones said. “You definitely have the awareness when he’s around and know where he is at all times.”
Opponents aren’t so lucky. Irving said he passed up a shot similar to the blocked pull-up jumper later in the game to instead find a shooter nowhere near Wembanyama. Allen said he might just back up further. Connaughton thinks it might even require him to shoot differently.
“You got to take the Steph Curry moon ball,” he said.
Wembanyama’s shot blocking mostly happens at the rim, but these are the league’s best shooters all conveying a similar fear. Like many of the league’s best rim protectors, Wembanyama doesn’t only block shots, but also deters opponents from even attempting them. Yet Wembanyama is also doing the same thing on 3-point shots.
“When you get out there with him,” Irving said, “you’re a little bit more aware of his positioning.”
Over the past decade, as offensive players took up more and more of the floor’s space and used it to their advantage, defenders haven’t had much recourse. Jump shots have always held air superiority, using the space far above defenders’ reaches to avoid them.
But Wembanyama hasn’t only entered the league; he’s also launched himself to literal heights previously unreachable. And now, he’s at least one player fighting back.
“(He’s defying physics) as I did understand them,” Connaughton said. “Now I’m recalibrating.”
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(Photos: Mark Blinch, Ronald Cortes / Getty Images. Illustration by John Bradford / The Athletic)
Sports
Knicks miraculously overcome 29-point deficit to take commanding 3-1 lead in NBA Finals over Spurs
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NEW YORK – The New York Knicks do not die.
After trailing by as many as 29, the Knicks had yet another comeback — this one perhaps the greatest of all-time, to steal a 107-106 win over the San Antonio Spurs and take a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals.
The winning moment came at the fingertip of OG Anunoby, whose tip-in off a missed Jalen Brunson three-pointer put Madison Square Garden in an absolute frenzy.
But it sure was a grind to get to that point.
New York Knicks PG Jalen Brunson shoots over San Antonio Spurs PG De’aaron Fox in Game 3 of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden. (Vincent Carchietta/Imagn Images)
Karl-Anthony Towns was hit with two fouls in just the first 62 seconds of the game, one which the Knicks faithful were not happy with. And while there was plenty of ball left after that, the game changed from that moment.
The refs certainly did not help the case, but the Spurs opened the game on a 41-20 run, mostly while Towns was off the floor. Combine that with the team knocking down 54% of its three-pointers in the first half, and you have a 76-49 Spurs lead at halftime, and they got up to a 29-point lead.
But we’ve learned to never count out New York. As they cut the deficit to 15 to close out the third quarter, the crowd that was dying to pounce was finally alive. A slow start to the fourth put San Antonio up 20, but the Knicks went on a 13-2 run to cut it to just nine with a little less than seven minutes to go. And then it was seven with 5:15 to go.
Members of the New York Knicks celebrate their 107-106 victory against the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4 of the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York on June 10, 2026. (Dustin Satloff/Getty Images)
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And then it was four with 4:32 to go.
Then one with two minutes.
And then the lead with just 90 seconds left.
Pandemonium.
The Spurs hit two free throws to regain the lead with 30.3 seconds left. Yet again — it’s the Knicks.
New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson reacts after making a three-point basket against the San Antonio Spurs during the fourth quarter of Game Four in the 2026 NBA Finals at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York on June 10, 2026. (Al Bello/Getty Images)
Then came what head coach Mike Brown dubbed the greatest play in the history of Knicks basketball.
San Antonio was unable to get a shot off the inbound, and Madison Square Garden was the loudest it may have ever been, as the greatest comeback in NBA Finals history was complete.
After the game, head coach Mike Brown dubbed Anunoby’s tip-in the biggest play in the history of Knicks basketball.
The Knicks outscored the Spurs 58-30.
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MEXICO CITY — The Mexican national team will kick off the 2026 World Cup against South Africa on Thursday with the weight of entertaining 83,000 at iconic Azteca Stadium and soccer fans around the globe.
The match at the venue known as Mexico City Stadium during the World Cup will kick off at noon PDT and air on Fox and Telemundo.
Once the ball starts rolling, the stadium’s altitude — 7,216 feet above sea level — will be one of the biggest assets for the Mexican lineup led by coach Javier Aguirre.
It will be Mexico’s eighth opening match in a World Cup, and El Tri carries a historical burden. It has never won a tournament opener, with a record of 0-5-2, including a 1-1 draw against South Africa in the opening match of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg.
Mexico coach Javier Aguirre directs his players during a friendly against Australia on May 30 at the Rose Bowl.
(Kyusung Gong / Ap Photo/kyusung Gong)
Aguirre will likely deploy the 4-3-3 formation he used during Mexico’s final warm-up match against Serbia.
“We’re ready; we’ve been working for 22 months,” said Aguirre, 67, who took the reins of the national team on Aug. 1, 2024, following Jaime Lozano’s failure at that year’s Copa América, when Mexico was knocked out in the group stage.
Since his arrival, Aguirre has led the team to its first Concacaf Nations League title and the Gold Cup. Mexico enters the tournament on an eight-game unbeaten streak, though several of those results came against lower tier opponents and at home. The two most encouraging highlights of that streak were the draws against Belgium and Portugal.
“If my teams are known for anything, it’s for their character,” Aguirre said. “My team is just like me.”
The starting goalkeeper position remains a topic of debate, but it appears Aguirre has already made his decision. Guillermo Ochoa, who will be playing in his sixth World Cup with Mexico, is considered by many to be the ideal experienced goalkeeper to use during the opener, when nerves are sure to be high. However, Raúl Rangel has been the starting goalkeeper during Mexico’s past three warm-up matches, playing the full 90 minutes each time.
Rangel, who was 10 years old when Mexico tied South Africa in the opening match of the 2010 World Cup and who fondly remembers El Tri’s victory over France that tournament, is confident between the posts.
Mexico could turn to veteran goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa to calm nerves during the World Cup opener on Thursday.
(Ronaldo Bolanos/Los Angeles Times)
“We’re in great shape; we proved it against Portugal and Belgium, two teams that are among the world’s elite,” said Rangel, who noted that Ochoa has instilled a sense of calm in the team.
“I do believe we can be champions. We have to start keeping that in mind and believe that it’s possible. Not everyone can boast that they played in a World Cup on home soil.”
The Mexican team’s lack of elite club experience, however, is obvious and could be a problem. El Tri has few players in top-tier leagues and lacks game-changers on the wings, as Diego Lainez, Uriel Antuna and Hirving Lozano were left off the final roster. Offensive output is a cause for concern. In tight matches, goals have come mainly from defenders, with César Montes and Johan Vásquez being the primary threats on set pieces.
The commitment to youth appears to be a key factor in Aguirre’s approach to building the roster. Mexican American Brian Gutiérrez brings freshness and dynamism to the midfield, alongside Erik Lira’s energy. As an option off the bench, Aguirre could turn to 17-year-old Gilberto Mora, the youngest player in the tournament, who is sure to draw cheers from the crowd.
For his part, South Africa’s 74-year-old head coach, Hugo Broos, knows the Azteca Stadium well, having marked Maradona during the 1986 World Cup semifinals. To acclimate his players to the altitude, he held training camp in Pachuca, at an elevation of 7,979 feet.
“This game is special. I’ve played in European championships, but there’s nothing like a World Cup. And we’re going to play at the Azteca Stadium — it’s incredible that this is going to happen,” Broos said.
South Africa coach Hugo Broo talks with Nigeria’s players during a World Cup qualifying match against Nigeria in Bloemfontein, South Africa, on Sept. 9.
(Themba Hadebe / Associated Press)
He expects to be challenged by Mexico.
“They’re a very well-rounded team, with great mobility and teamwork,” Broos said of El Tri. “You can tell they want to be world champions.”
South Africa will pose a real threat with Mbekezeli Mokoena driving the midfield and the speed of Oswin Appollis and Relebohile Mofokeng on the wings. The team’s main weakness lies in finishing, as Lyle Foster is their only striker, and if he doesn’t perform well, the South African side will suffer.
“We can’t say we don’t have a chance against Mexico, because that’s not true,” said Broos about his team, which is ranked 60th in FIFA rankings and will tangle with a Mexican squad ranked No. 14.
Pregame entertainment will kick off at 10:30 a.m. PDT with performances by Shakira, Burna Boy, Maná, J Balvin, and Alejandro Fernández. As a new ceremonial feature, all 26 players from each team — starters and substitutes — will participate in the ceremony by lining up around the tournament’s central emblem on the field, rather than in the traditional pregame formation.
The match is expected to be played in the rain. Protests are expected around the stadium throughout the day, including demonstrations by the teachers’ union and groups representing the families of missing persons.
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The 2026 FIFA World Cup is almost here, and fans stateside are starting to feel the excitement.
For the next month, some of the best soccer players and teams the world has to offer will duke it out on North American soil for the right to hoist the World Cup.
The U.S. Men’s National Team in particular is an exciting young soccer squad that is looking to make some noise on their home turf, and their road to the knockout stage couldn’t have been much easier (with all due respect to their fellow group members).
Folarin Balogun #20 of United States celebrates with teammates after scoring during the second half of the international friendly match between United States and Senegal at Bank of America Stadium on May 31, 2026 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Cory Knowlton/ISI Photos/ISI Photos via Getty Images)
The Stars and Stripes will begin their quest for a World Cup on Friday, June 12, at 9 p.m. Eastern against Paraguay in Los Angeles.
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The Paraguayans will be making their return to the World Cup stage for the first time since 2010, and have been giant killers throughout their qualifying rounds, taking down the likes of South American heavyweights Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.
Next on the docket, the U.S. will face off against Australia on Friday, June 19, at 3 p.m. Eastern in Seattle.
The Socceroos will try their best to muck it up and play a very defensive brand of soccer against America, while also boasting a great goalkeeper in Matthew Ryan.
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Tyler Adams of the United States looks on before the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Round of 16 match between the Netherlands and the United States at Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on Dec. 3, 2022. (Maddie Meyer/FIFA/Getty Images)
Goals will be at a premium for anyone who plays Australia in this tournament.
To conclude group play, the United States will play Turkey on Thursday, June 25, at 10 p.m. Eastern back in Los Angeles.
Fresh off a quarterfinals appearance in Euro 2024, this is a very talented Turkey who may not have the star power of a France or Brazil, but will be a very dangerous out for anyone in the World Cup.
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Team USA fans celebrate with a flag during the soccer game between the United States and Panama at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Ga., on June 27, 2024. (David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire)
Though the subject of who moves on may already be decided when Türkiye and the United States square off, these are the two heavyweights of Group D and should make for an exciting conclusion to group play.
All three games will be streaming on Fox Sports and Fox One, with both the Australia and Paraguay matchups available on Fox (blackout restrictions may apply).
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Additionally, the U.S.-Paraguay matchup will be available for free on Tubi.
Happy World Cup, everyone, and go, go USA!
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