Victor Wembanyama hints he’ll REFUSE $251m Spurs contract offer as he breaks silence on NBA future
Victor Wembanyama has pledged his future to the San Antonio Spurs and told fans he will do ‘whatever it takes’ to win an NBA Championship with the team.
The Frenchman took to social media on Friday to speak out on swirling rumors across the NBA that Wembanyama will turn down the $251m deal he is eligible for and sign one worth less money to allow his team greater freedom to spend in a rebuild.
‘Spurs family, I’m here to say,’ he wrote on X, adding a black heart to the words: ‘Whatever it takes.’
Had Wembanyama put pen-to-paper on the five-year deal it would have had incentives to take the overall value up to around $300m, making it the biggest in the history of the Spurs.
Wembanyama’s team came agonizingly close to championship glory last season, losing the Finals 4-1 to the New York Knicks.
The 7-foot-4 star became the villain of the series in the eyes of the New York fans, who repeatedly targeted him both on the court and away from it during the five games.
Victor Wembanyama could sign a deal worth less than the $251m he’s eligible for at the Spurs
Wembanyama starred for San Antonio as they made it all the way to the NBA Finals
Fans even threw an egg at him as he returned to his Manhattan hotel after Game 4, with it narrowly missing him before security rushed him inside at the Ritz-Carlton in NoMad, Manhattan.
Wembanyama, 22, appeared to relish status as the enemy. He was even taunting his Knicks rivals, at one stage pointing at Mitchell Robinson and calling out ‘I’m in your head’ when the center was called for a flagrant foul against him in that fourth game.
After losing the series on his home court, Wembanyama made no secret of how much it hurt him.
‘It’s painful but I am not running away from it,’ he told reporters. ‘I’m not satisfied with not winning. This is the biggest lesson of my life. As a team, there’s no better experience than what we just lived.’
He did cause controversy by saying his Spurs team ‘dominated’ for most of the series even though they lost in five. But he had a point – his Spurs team blew double-digit leads in every game of the series.
‘The margin for error is very thin,’ he added. ‘Our domination stints are absolute. We absolutely dominated for most of the series.
‘But our errors, our mistakes are punished so hard that we can’t have ups and downs like this so much, you know? The ups are OK. The downs are the reason we lost.’
Yet despite emerging as a divisive figure during a series with glory on the line, Wembanyama’s impact on the Spurs has been nothing short of transformational since they drafted him with the first pick back in 2023.
Wembanyama seemingly relished being the villain in the NBA Finals vs New York Knicks
Looking ahead to 2026, the Spurs have plenty of optimism for improvement outside of Wembanyama.
Rookie Dylan Harper, only 20, played beyond his years in his first NBA campaign while Stephon Castle, 21, also grew in 2025.
The Spurs went 62-20 across the course of the regular season, finishing second in the Western Conference to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
