Victor Wembanyama made headlines when he publicly laid out a three-point case for why he deserves the NBA’s MVP award. The media’s response was largely positive, and that is precisely what bothered Nick Wright. The Fox Sports commentator did not take issue with Wembanyama’s argument itself, but with the double standard he believes it exposed.
Nick Wright Says Media Would Roast Any Other Player for Doing What Victor Wembanyama Did
The moment that sparked the debate came after the San Antonio Spurs’ dominant 136-111 win over the Miami Heat, when Wembanyama volunteered to make his case for the Michael Jordan Trophy.
He pointed to defense being 50 percent of the game, the Spurs’ near-sweep of the Oklahoma City Thunder, and his offensive impact beyond scoring as his three pillars. The response around the league was largely admiring.
Wright was not buying the warmth. Appearing on the Dan Le Batard Show, he called out what he saw as a glaring inconsistency in how the media applies its standards.
“Most in the media hate stuff like that… Typically, a 22-year-old who’s never won anything, explaining to everyone how he’s the best player and not why his team is the best, but why he is the best. Typically, the media scolds that.
Not with this guy, who, since he’s come into the league, has been telling us how the Spurs play basketball the right way. There are characteristics of Wemby’s overwhelming arrogance that most of the media tend to scold in athletes, but with the 22-year-old French kid, everybody applauds it,” Wright said.
Nick Wright thinks it’s interesting the media isn’t criticizing Wemby for campaigning his MVP case when they usually always do when a player talks that way about himself:
“Most in the media hate stuff like that… Typically a 22 year old who’s never won anything explaining to… pic.twitter.com/HwShYlv2wU
— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) March 26, 2026
His point was not that Wembanyama was wrong to advocate for himself. Rather, that same behavior from virtually any other player would have been met with criticism rather than celebration. Wright finds the selective outrage telling and worth calling out.
Draymond Green offered a different perspective on the same situation. The Golden State Warriors forward said he both “hated” and “absolutely loved” Wembanyama’s self-promotion, reserving his real frustration for what the moment revealed about the game’s coverage.
“I hated that he had to do that for it to be said. All of a sudden, you turn on the TV, and everybody is like, ‘Actually, maybe Wemby is the MVP,'” Green said via Anthony Slater. He then praised Wembanyama for being smart enough to recognize that silence would have left his case unheard. “You don’t help them see it, damnit they can’t see.”
Wemby’s Case for MVP and What the Numbers Say
Whether the media treatment is fair or not, Wembanyama’s credentials are difficult to dismiss. He is averaging 24.3 points on 50.4 percent shooting, 11.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and a league-leading 3.0 blocks per game, anchoring a Spurs team that sits at 55-18, second in the Western Conference with nine games remaining.
San Antonio has gone 4-1 against the first-place Thunder this season, and the Spurs have a +16.6 net rating with Wembanyama on the floor.
ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins went further than most in his assessment, arguing that Wembanyama’s competitive edge is reshaping the league’s culture entirely.
“Victor Wembanyama is the best thing that has happened to the NBA since Moby Dick was a fu***’ goldfish,” Perkins said. He also added that Wembanyama has injected a competitive intensity into the league that has been missing.
Wright has separately argued that Wembanyama does not yet rank among the league’s elite offensive players. So, whether that view holds up against Wembanyama’s overall impact, defensive dominance included, remains the central question in one of the most compelling MVP races in recent memory.
