"Can't whine, cry, beg your way to a championship": Victor Wembanyama gets harsh reality check by 3x champ for "unethical" remarks on OKC

Victor Wembanyama’s “ethical basketball” comments a week ago, after the San Antonio Spurs beat the OKC Thunder 111-109 in the NBA Cup, continue to reverberate. Wemby sat out for a month due to a calf injury before returning to help his team pull off an upset. Many thought Wembanyama’s comments were not-so-subtle shots at the Thunder, who have been accused of flopping.

On Friday, three-time NBA champ Udonis Haslem, now an analyst for Amazon Prime, tossed in his thoughts about what Wembanyama said:

"You can't whine your way, cry your way, beg your way to a championship. I'm not sure he's talking about OKC (Thunder), but I don't want to hear none of that about OKC. Stop it!”

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In the postgame conference after beating the Thunder, Victor Wembanyama said that he played because he wanted to be part of something “beautiful.” He added that the Spurs play “pure and ethical basketball.”

The Thunder, particularly Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, received a ton of flak during their run to the 2025 championship. Many have called their style “unethical basketball.” During one play in the Spurs-Thunder game, SGA seemingly kicked out his foot to draw a foul from Dylan Harper. Some sections of the T-Mobile Arena lustily booed the superstar point guard following the replays on the big screen.

Although Victor Wembanyama did not mention the Thunder, Udonis Haslem doesn’t want to hear such talk about the defending NBA champs.

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Victor Wembanyama gave more context to his “ethical basketball” comments

Victor Wembanyama’s postgame comments received much attention before the Spurs faced the New York Knicks for the championship on Tuesday. Wemby gave more context to that comment:

“In modern basketball, we see a lot of brands of basketball that don't offer much variety in dangers they propose to the opponents. Lots of isolation ball and, sometimes, kind of forced basketball. “We try to propose a brand of basketball that can be described as more old school sometimes, the Spurs way as well. So it's tactically more correct basketball, in my opinion.”

Victor Wembanyama’s Spurs and the Thunder are setting up what might be a rivalry for possibly the next decade. After what Wemby said, fans are even more interested in seeing the two teams battle again.

The Spurs and the Thunder will meet again in three nights and on Christmas Day.

Edited by Michael Macasero