Charles Barkley feels bad for Victor Wembanyama, after news broke Thursday that the young star will miss the rest of the season because of a medical condition.
But don’t dare tell Barkley the San Antonio Spurs superstar is the “face of the NBA.”
On Inside the NBA Thursday night, discussion quickly turned to Wembanyama, who has been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis, a form of a blood clot, in his right shoulder.
“I saw some guys on another network the other day talking about (Wembanyama being) the ‘face of the league.’ I was so annoyed,” Barkley said.
That term has been used a lot with Wembanyama, the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. A New York Times headline in January said, “Victor Wembanyama Prepares to Become ‘Genuine’ Face of the NBA.” The Sports Business Journal headlined a story last month, “Wembanyama embraces becoming face of NBA ahead of Paris games.” A Washington Times headline Tuesday reported, “Rising star Wembanyama on track to become new global face of NBA.”
While many people are using that term, Barkley seemed to imply Wemby has yet to earn the lofty title.
“You don’t give anybody the ‘face of the league,'” Barkley said. “When Magic Johnson and Larry Bird came in, they’re like, ‘We’re the new sheriffs in town.’ Shaq [O’Neal] took it, Kobe [Bryant] took it, Lebron [James] took it, Steph [Curry] took it.”
“That’s one of the problems we get with players not wanting to play in the All-Star Game. We’ve given them so much; they don’t have no respect for the history. You don’t give anybody the ‘face of the game.’ You take it.”
“You don’t anoint them,” host Ernie Johnson said.
Charles Barkley: “I saw some guys on another network the other day talking about face of the league. I was so annoyed… We’ve given them so much; they don’t have no respect for the history… You don’t give anybody the face of the game; you take it.”pic.twitter.com/Lz6CiEIz59
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 21, 2025
O’Neal seemed to agree with Barkley that Wemby hasn’t earned that distinction yet, and blamed the media for using the term.
“They, whoever they will be, they will try to put somebody as the face of the league … but Chuck makes a great point,” O’Neal said. “You have to go take it. While they’re saying (Wemby), Ja Morant is thinking something different, Luka (Dončić’s) thinking something different, a lot of the young guys are saying, ‘OK, you’re going to make him the face of the league?'”
“Ant-Man’s thinking something different,” Kenny Smith said, alluding to Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards.
It’s funny Smith would mention Edwards. During All-Star Media Day, a reporter asked Edwards if he viewed himself as a top candidate to become the new “face of the league.”
“Not really,” Edwards replied.
When asked why not, Edwards replied, “That’s what they’ve got Wemby for.”
