On Monday, Victor Wembanyama set his sights on MVP and DPOY accolades. “My goal is to make sure there is no debate at the end of the season.” Then, upon asking, the San Antonio Spurs star stated his three campaign points, which some members of the media termed as arrogance. But rival Draymond Green doesn’t think so and came to the rescue of the 22-year-old center.

While the Warriors had their hard-fought win over the Nets, there was one question around Wemby’s putting everyone on notice. Green was genuinely upset, not with the French star but with the perceived nature of basketball in today’s era. “I hated it! I absolutely loved it. And the reason I hated it is that until Wemby said defense is 50% of the game, like, no one realized that 50% of the game we play is on that end of the floor. But we got this guy defending entire teams. And no one took it into account. I want to give him so much credit for such a profound statement.

I love the way he was approaching it. And the reality is, I said I hate it. But I’m just telling you, man, in these awards, if you don’t talk, people can’t see. So the reality is, if you don’t come out and speak for yourself, it don’t work. And I tip my cap to Wemby for being willing to sit up there on that platform and say, this is why. Not hide from the question.”

Green, a former DPOY, knows what it takes to win an individual award. Before winning the DPOY trophy in 2017, Dray finished second in the race for it in consecutive seasons. But never had multiple seasons of winning DPOY like Kawhi Leonard and Rudy Gobert. So, the Warriors superstar is happy that Victor Wembanyama is campaigning for himself.

On Monday, he had three points, “My first one would be that defense is 50% of the game, which is undervalued in the race because I believe I’m the most impactful player defensively,” said Wemby. “The second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season, and we dominated them three times against their real team. My third argument would be that offensive impact is not just points.”

All three points have their merits, which is why fans and veterans like Draymond Green can get behind these statements. But few media members aren’t fond of this. Even sports broadcasting personality Nick Wright hinted at this on the Dan Le Batard show.

Victor Wembanyama’s speech gets criticized by a veteran broadcaster

“I would assume. Well, listen, if he wins the championship this year, that is a conversation to be had,” Wright began. ” I think you, Dan, historically would like from your athletes, most in the media hate stuff like that. There are a lot of characteristics of Wemby’s overwhelming arrogance that I tend to like in athletes. Most of the media tends to scold athletes.” The assessment is not wrong, as Skip Bayless was quick to shut down Wemby’s own hype pitch.

“This young man to me because he has been campaigning several times for several weeks,” Bayless said on the Gil’s Arena podcast. “Is getting dangerously full of himself a little prematurely. That he’s starting to believe he is the Alien, that he does already own this league.” The reason why Skip had a problem was because of the overall record of 84-90 in Victor Wembanya’s career.

Another argument was Wemby has had 0 playoff experience to build his MVP campaign so early. While the past records are not in the French center’s favor, the current season records say otherwise. He has led the Spurs in the postseason for the first time since the 2018-19 season. And already accumulated his 16th 5-block performance this season. Moreover, San Antonio is only two games behind the champions OKC Thunder.

Not to forget, how they swept the champions in the regular season series. So, Wemby clearly did not do wrong by campaigning for himself. While some media personalities hated it, the fans are right behind the French superstar.