Victor Wembanyama said no to gambling money. In today’s NBA, that feels radical
Victor Wembanyama said no to gambling money. In today’s NBA, that feels radical
Owen Lewis Fri, October 2, 2026 at 12:15 PM UTC
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Victor Wembanyama reacts during the Spurs’ Game 1 matchup against the Knicks in the 2026 NBA finals at Frost Bank Center.Photograph: Gregory Shamus/Getty ImagesAs LeBron James and other NBA stars wholeheartedly embrace the murk of betting and prediction markets, the San Antonio Spurs’ 22-year-old cornerstone has drawn a refreshing line
If the song from LeBron James’s agonizing Polymarket ad is as stuck in your head as mine thanks to the commercial playing during every YouTube video and HBO show (all I wanted to do was rewatch The Leftovers), let Victor Wembanyama be your antidote. At the Spurs’ practice on Thursday, San Antonio Express-News columnist Mike Finger asked Wembanyama if he would ever partner with a sports betting firm. It couldn’t have been easier for the 22-year-old to say yes. The NBA displays ads for both FanDuel and DraftKings, in addition to hawking betting odds on its broadcasts. Until the streaming service met its end a few months ago, plenty of NBA games streamed exclusively on FanDuel Sports Network. Then there are Wembanyama’s legendary peers: James is the new face of Polymarket; Kevin Durant reads FanDuel odds and invests in Kalshi; Giannis Antetokounmpo is a Kalshi shareholder.
“Absolutely not,” Wembanyama said instead. “I will never do that. Honestly, I think it’s very sad to see some players promote it. Everybody does whatever they want, but without me.”
Related: ‘It’s sad seeing players promote it’: Wembanyama says he will never endorse gambling companies
Standards are so back. It shouldn’t feel miraculous that a star of Wembanyama’s stature is taking the position that players should not cash checks from predatory companies that incentivize athletes to dabble in insider trading, but in 2026, we’ll take any anti-sellout ally we can find. This one may prove particularly valuable. Given his age and fame, Wembanyama should be around as a beacon to cut through the murk of betting for some time to come. How refreshing that, as rightwing terror reigns, the NBA’s best and biggest young star is a politically outspoken leftist.
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It’s not a stylish time to turn down buckets of money. Thanks to some combination of a disintegrating economy, a president and political party so craven and corrupt that scandal-worthy behavior often doesn’t register, and a significant overlap among the wealthy and the morally bankrupt, shame died a bloody death somewhere in the last decade. Most basketball podcasts keep themselves afloat with gambling companies’ life rings. No reputational damage seems to last. James’s Polymarket partnership was immediately and emphatically unpopular, but apparently not enough for anybody at the Philadelphia 76ers’ media day to ask him about it.
So Wembanyama’s emphatic rejection of a sports betting partnership stands out. Had he simply said, “Sure, who knows what the future brings,” few would have batted an eye. But not only did he refuse the possibility, he also left behind a receipt. I will never do that. For Wembanyama, any eventual embrace of gambling will be met with fans’ usual criticism – and his own words echoed back at him.
What’s perhaps most refreshing about Wembanyama is – so far, at least; athletes tend to become more and more PR-friendly as they age – his willingness to ruffle feathers. Asked about the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by ICE agents in January, Wembanyama said, “Yeah, PR has tried, but I’m not going to sit here and give some politically correct [answer]. Every day I wake up and see the news, and I’m horrified. I think it’s crazy that some people might make it seem like or sound like the murder of civilians is acceptable.” It’s similarly outrageous that the aggressive integration of sports betting and prediction markets into society has been successful. It’s not normal or ideal for professional sports leagues to be in bed with gambling firms, or for companies that allow people to trade money on every event imaginable to exist at all. A healthy NBA is one where the star poised to dominate the league for the next decade is willing to express sentiment along those lines out loud.
There is one cynical way to look at Wembanyama’s response. He’s coming off a run of bad press on the court. After a brilliant playoff run through three rounds, he had a disastrous NBA finals. He threw a pass off a teammate’s back in the decisive moments of one game, missed two free throws towards the end of another (in which the Spurs failed to consolidate a 29-point lead into victory). He showed flashes of violence in the playoffs, earning an ejection by elbowing Naz Reid in the neck, and at times succumbed to the same brand of foul-baiting he’d criticized in other players months earlier. As the Spurs crashed out, Wemby had never been less popular. Decrying the omnipresence of sports betting, which fans almost universally abhor, gets the Spurs’ big man back in their good graces. But it’s hard to say his swing in fortune is undeserved. Fun as it is to watch, what happens during a professional basketball game is rarely more than a metaphor for society. A clear appraisal of the real world is more representative of virtue.
Source: “AOL Sports”
