Jeff Teague says Victor Wembanyama has not yet passed Kevin Durant, pushing back on the growing noise around the San Antonio Spurs star after a dominant postseason run. Teague made the comment on his Club 520 podcast and said the masses should pump the brakes on the hype.
The point lands because Wembanyama is doing almost everything at a level that would make a veteran look finished. In his debut postseason campaign, he is averaging 22.4 points, 11.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 3.8 blocks, 53.8 percent shooting from the field, 36.4 percent from deep and 85.5 percent from the foul line. Those numbers follow a regular season in which he averaged 25 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 3.1 blocks, shot 51.2 percent from the field, 34.9 percent from three and 82.7 percent at the line.
What has driven the latest wave of praise is what Wembanyama has done against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference Finals. He is averaging a series-best 29.3 points, 15 rebounds and three blocks while shooting 42.9 percent from deep. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is shooting 28.6 percent from deep on the same number of attempts against the Spurs, which helps explain why Wembanyama has become the most discussed player in the series.
That is the context behind Teague’s pushback. Wembanyama is already being framed as an emerging face of the NBA, and he has also put in time working with Houston Rockets legend Hakeem Olajuwon. But the Durant comparison shows how quickly the conversation around him has moved from promise to legacy, even though Teague believes that step has not been earned yet.
The friction in this debate is simple: the numbers are extraordinary, but the standard is still Kevin Durant, a two-time MVP whose body of work is far deeper than one postseason run. Wembanyama is forcing that comparison sooner than most players ever would, and that alone says how fast his rise has become. Teague’s point is not that the Spurs center is ordinary. It is that greatness in the NBA is still measured by more than a flash of dominance, even when the flash looks this bright.
