Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama clinches eligibility for NBA MVP, other postseason awards

SAN ANTONIO — Victor Wembanyama has now qualified for postseason NBA awards after returning from a left rib contusion for Friday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks.

The Spurs’ 7-foot-4 superstar was at risk of falling a game short of the 65-game minimum when he suffered a rib injury colliding with Paul George in the second quarter of Monday’s win over the Philadelphia 76ers. He sat out Wednesday’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers but planned to return Friday if his pregame warmup went smoothly. Wembanyama managed to cross the 20-minute threshold required for the game to count for eligibility and checked out at the next whistle.

While this game marks Wembanyama’s 64th regular-season contest, his appearance in the NBA Cup final counts for award eligibility even if it doesn’t appear in his official season statistics.

Wembanyama is the consensus favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, is expected to make first-team All-NBA and is one of the top contenders for the MVP award. He has campaigned for the MVP, most notably when he debated The Athletic over why he should win MVP over Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

“My first one would be that defense is 50 percent of the game and that is undervalued, so far, in the MVP race,” Wembanyama said when asked for his three campaign talking points. “I believe I’m the most impactful player defensively in the league. Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season and we dominated them three times with their real team and four times with the, you know, more rotation players. My third argument would be that offense impact is not just points.”

However, in The Athletic’s anonymous NBA player poll, 39 percent of polled players voted for Gilgeous-Alexander to win the award, whereas only 5 percent voted for Wembanyama. A straw poll of 100 media members by ESPN’s Tim Bontemps found that Gilgeous-Alexander had a sizable lead in MVP voting over Wembanyama, receiving 88 of 100 first-place votes.

The Spurs’ third-year center was averaging 24.8 points, 11.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 3.1 blocks per game entering Friday.