The qualifying games for the 2027 World Cup have given many NBA stars a chance to reconnect with national-team basketball. Embedded in the middle of the regular-season schedule, the FIBA windows often must exist on the margins of the league, but the dates this August have allowed the world’s biggest figures to once again lead their country. For, though, only a few days.
Victor Wembanyama has been one of the many players who has spent time with his national teammates, though this has generated a mix of feelings. The center has shown himself delighted to reconnect with teammates he has known for so long, but also disappointed to learn that the next games of this phase will be played while he is already entrenched in another battle thousands of miles away.
«It’s very frustrating. I didn’t expect it to be this hard, but being back with these teammates whom I have known for so long has been an incredible sensation,» he said in statements to L’Equipe. «Now it’s going to feel very strange not to be with them».
Nevertheless, the Frenchman did not delay in making his full commitment to the Spurs clear and in expressing his eagerness to start the new NBA season: «That doesn’t change the fact that I’m excited to return to San Antonio. There’s no better place to work».
An Inevitable Drawback?
Although in Europe domestic leagues have been adjusting their calendars to the FIBA windows so they can coexist with them, this one appears to be an almost impossible task for the NBA, whose vast number of games and compressed schedule make it unviable for stars to leave to compete in these matchups. Moreover, perhaps even with the eagerly anticipated reduction in games, it might not be feasible for club basketball and the national team game to coexist without overlapping, as happens in other sports.
But France and Wembanyama are not exactly the biggest victims. With crushing victories over Slovenia and France, in which Victor contributed by averaging 20 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2 blocks, the French are already close to qualifying for the World Cup, which they can probably seal without excessive difficulty even without their NBA players.
