It is increasingly rare in the NBA (and professional sports as a whole) for a star athlete to sit down for an extended, on-the-record interview. While athletes have found other means of communicating with fans, such interviews can offer rare, less-filtered glimpses into what the player is going through both on and off the court.
Few players in any sport can say they've had a more eventful last few years than Victor Wembanyama. The San Antonio Spurs star reached his first NBA Finals last season and, in the process became a villain to fans across the world rooting for the New York Knicks to end their 53-year championship drought. He ultimately fell short in that matchup, but is now ascending to his seemingly inevitable place as the future face of the NBA. With the 2026-27 season only just beginning, Wembanyama sat down with CBS News' "60 Minutes" to discuss his career thus far. Here are five highlights:
Why he's staying away from gambling money
Sponsorships are a standard component of the superstar experience. Wembanyama has been intentionally choosy about who and what he has aligned himself with. In the past, he has made it clear that he would never work with a soda company, for instance, because he does not want to promote unhealthy products. In Sunday's interview, he took aim at athletes promoting different vices.
"I think as an NBA player, and if you're amongst the stars of this league, you really make your career whatever you want to make it," he said. "Of course, you're always going to do your best on the court, the best that you can. But on the side, you can choose to be the influencer, you can choose to be the philanthropist, you can choose to be the guy who's gonna promote gambling and alcohol. You can choose whatever you want."
When asked what choice he has made, Wembanyama reiterated that health is his guiding principle. "I think my choice isn't final because I'm still growing as a person," he said. "But I want to promote healthy things, and by healthy, I don't just mean the food, but healthy habits, things that make people's lives better. And in the future, things that also make society better."
Learning from the villain narrative
The public perception of Wembanyama changed quite a bit over the course of a single postseason. He was one of the league's breakout stars last season, and his consistent success over the widely disliked Oklahoma City Thunder earned him quite a bit of admiration from casual fans. However, his hard fouls, first in the second round against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and then later, of course, against the Knicks, turned him into a villain overnight. While Wembanyama claimed he wasn't paying attention to that noise during the Finals, he did learn from it after the fact.
"It showed my limits more than anything else," Wembanyama said. "Going out there, you need to play basketball, you don't need to beat the shit out of people. If you want to win at least." Had the Finals lasted beyond five games, he might have learned the lesson in more convincing fashion.
In Game 5, Wembanyama committed a foul on Jalen Brunson that many argued was flagrant after the fact, but because the Knicks ended the series then and there, the NBA was not forced to review it. Wembanyama was just one flagrant foul point away from a suspension for a hypothetical Game 6 at Madison Square Garden. Now, Wembanyama wants to make sure he doesn't put himself in that situation again.
Victor Wembanyama on 60 Minutes: Spurs star explains why 'villain' label didn't bother him during NBA Finals Robby Kalland
Why he believes in going barefoot
Shoes are perhaps the single most important piece of equipment in a basketball player's arsenal, yet whenever possible, Wembanyama prefers not to wear them. "I try to walk barefoot as much as I can, and wear minimalistic shoes," he explained. For him, it's a matter of health.
"Because big men have always had feet problems," Wembanyama said, alluding to the NBA's lengthy history of injury-prone centers. "I also find more and more that feet are responsible for so much more that goes on. It's funny because I was just talking to a rookie. I went to practice barefoot and he sees me walk in without shoes and he goes, 'I did not know you could just not wear shoes.'"
Wembanyama believes that "if you've got good foot strength, which brings a good foot posture, everything else can level up the right way. Knee, hip, back and everything." Thus far, his methods seem to be working. His longest absence in the NBA came as the result of a blood clot in his shoulder, and while he has dealt with some of the same lower body injuries that many players are enduring in the pace-and-space era, he managed to maintain awards eligibility in both his first and third seasons. He has not yet missed a game this year.
Life in the U.S. can feel shallow
Wembanyama has lived in the United States for more than three years now, yet he acknowledges how atypical his American existence has been. "When they ask me what it's like to live in the U.S., my answer is always, well, I don't know. I don't live a normal life in the U.S.," he said. "I live the life of an athlete, a rich person, the life of somebody that's gonna have everything taken care of no matter what I do, really. It's not the life of a regular American. It's the best country to be an athlete in."
That atypical experience has given him a unique perspective on life in the United States, and he sees both pros and cons compared to what he grew up with in France. "Good is how it feels like you're never judged for being ambitious," he argued. "Bad, I would say, I think the social interactions are more shallow here. Not as in-depth as they are in other countries."
Wembanyama is hardly the first foreign-born star to thrive in the NBA, but he's on pace to outshine all those who came before him. The NBA has obviously had plenty of international MVPs and champions, but it has never had a foreign face. Eventually, Wembanyama is expected to stand alone atop the sport, once the old guard of legends like LeBron James and Stephen Curry retire. That puts him in a somewhat unique position to attempt to influence the way stars conduct themselves moving forward. He is already seemingly attempting to do that in the way he chooses sponsors, and only time will tell how much more of his perspective will trickle down to his NBA contemporaries.
What he learned from Gregg Popovich
Wembanyama has never been shy about how excited he was to land with the Spurs. He called it "a winner's franchise," and cited both the team's history with French players and the presence of "the greatest coach of all time" as draws even before San Antonio won the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery. While that coach, Gregg Popovich, has since retired after suffering a stroke, Wembanyama got to start his career with Popovich on the sideline, and he explained that his greatest lesson was "about humility."
"He often said something when we were in film: after a win, you're rarely as good as you thought you were. And after a loss, you're rarely as bad as you thought you were," Wembanyama said.
That is a lesson that will have to persist this season, as the Spurs attempt to pick up the pieces following their Finals loss to New York. San Antonio blew double-digit leads in all four of its losses in that series, and the film will inevitably showcase many of the ways in which they were deficient against the Knicks. But the Spurs got to the Finals in the first place, well ahead of schedule, and while they should internalize what didn't work, they should hold onto what did.
It certainly seems as though they've done that this season, winning four straight after losing their first two games of the season. The Spurs are currently the championship favorite following a rash of injuries to the Thunder, and maintaining an even keel across the season will be essential in ensuring that they maintain that favored status.
