Explainer: Wemby's Award Eligibility after Rib Injury vs Sixers

Wemby needs to play at least 20 minutes in one of the Spurs' final three games to qualify for end-of-season awards.

Monday, the San Antonio Spurs won their 60th game of the season, holding on in the second half to defeat the Philadelphia 76ers by 13 points, with MVP candidate Victor Wembanyama being ruled out after halftime.

At the 10:47 mark of the second quarter, Paul George collided with Wemby near halfcourt, and Victor sustained an injury on what looked like his side and shoulder area. He could be seen going back to the locker room after the injury, and the team didn’t provide an update on his status for the game.

Then, after a couple of minutes, he returned to the bench and checked back into the game at the 5:33 mark of the second quarter. He played the next four minutes, but appeared to be wincing at times and holding his side. With 44 seconds left before halftime, he exited the game again and went to the locker room.

When the team returned for the third quarter, Wemby wasn’t on the bench, and Luke Kornet was now starting at center. A few minutes later, the team officially announced Victor wouldn’t return to the game with a left rib contusion.

After the game, Spurs Head Coach Mitch Johnson didn’t have an update on Wemby’s condition:

“Nothing. That’s not even placating anything. I’m not sure. I know he came back and he just didn’t finish, so at halftime, I was told he wasn’t coming back and I, honest to God, haven’t heard anything else to this point.”

“I think it would be a positive that he felt he could come back and he played the last four or five minutes of the half, so that’s a positive from my perspective, but I have nothing.”

As Coach Johnson said, it’s probably a good sign Victor was able to play a few more minutes before he had to leave the game just before halftime.

With Wemby dealing with different injuries this season, he’s right on the cusp of meeting end-of-season award eligibility, where he’s a Top-2 candidate for MVP, a lock for Defensive Player of the Year if he qualifies, and is set to make an All-NBA and All-Defensive first team.

He just needs to meet the criteria for that to happen. A player needs to play in at least 65 games to qualify for the awards. By logging 15:40 minutes against Philadelphia before getting injured, Wemby got game 64 logged on his game log.

With the Spurs playing in the NBA Cup Championship in December, even though the stats didn’t count for that game, it added an extra game played for every Spurs and Knicks player who participated.

Regarding the other games, players must play at least 20 minutes for a game to count toward postseason awards. However, there’s a two-game exception where a player can log 15 to less than 20 minutes for that game to count.

Wemby used one of those exception games back on December 18 against the Washington Wizards, playing only 17 minutes. His second exception came on Monday, when he logged 16 minutes before getting injured.

Where does this leave him? With three games remaining this week in the regular season, he needs to play AT LEAST 20 minutes in one of those final three games.

The Spurs have three home games left, with Portland on Wednesday, Dallas on Friday, and Denver on Sunday.

We’ll now wait to see if the team provides any updates on his condition heading into Wednesday’s game.