Victor Wembanyama feared his career was over. That’s what Rudy Gobert, the four-time Defensive Player of the Year, revealed in a recent conversation with ESPN, and coming from someone who has spent over a decade anchoring NBA defenses, the weight of that admission carries real gravity. Few players understand the burden of being a team’s last line of protection quite like Gobert does. Which is exactly why his perspective on Wembanyama’s health scare cuts deeper than a routine teammate endorsement.

In February 2025, doctors discovered deep vein thrombosis in Wembanyama’s right shoulder after he returned to San Antonio following the All-Star Game in San Francisco. The diagnosis forced him to miss the remainder of the 2024–25 season, ending what had been a remarkable second year in the league. The diagnosis shook him, and Gobert believes the setback also sharpened Wembanyama’s focus.

“Very scary thing. At some point, he wasn’t sure if he was going to play basketball again.”

That fear, it turns out, is rooted in something very real, and recent history provides a sobering reminder of just how serious DVT can be for an NBA player. Chris Bosh spent 13 seasons building a Hall of Fame résumé, racking up 11 All-Star appearances and two NBA titles before his body forced him out of the game.

In 2015, doctors discovered dangerous blood clots in his lungs. Then, barely a year later, another clot appeared in his calf. That second diagnosis changed everything. By February 9, 2016, the Miami Heat star had unknowingly played the final game of his career at just 31 years old.

The situation haunted Bosh because the threat stretched far beyond basketball. The NBA eventually ruled the condition career-ending, citing the risks associated with high-level competition. Meanwhile, the Heat center struggled through one of the darkest chapters of his life, watching a championship-driven career vanish midseason. Years later, Bosh still speaks openly about how painful and emotionally draining that stretch became behind closed doors.

“It was very tough. It was the death of my career, to be honest,” he said.

That backdrop makes Wembanyama’s recovery all the more remarkable, and his third season all the more improbable. After finishing 13th in the West with a 34-48 record the year before, the Spurs stormed to 62 wins, built the NBA’s third-best defense, and watched Wembanyama claim his first Defensive Player of the Year award unanimously.

Many around the league now believe he could be at the start of a long, dominant run in that category.

Strikingly, a Spurs assistant had shown Wembanyama film of Gobert during the offseason, nudging him to emulate certain defensive habits. Wembanyama reportedly pushed back, telling the coach he was already better than Gobert – a claim that, after this season, is increasingly difficult to argue with.

That transformation didn’t happen by accident. According to medical experts, Wembanyama’s recovery from DVT is nothing less than a miracle.

Victor Wembanyama’s rise from DVT

Sidelined since February 2025, he spent eight months away from the game before walking back onto the court last October to roaring cheers. The medical clearance to play was itself the biggest victory, arriving long before the opening tip.

He attacked his recovery with discipline, training at the Shaolin Temple in China, mixing meditation with martial arts, then working with Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin Garnett to sharpen his footwork and defensive instincts, returning with a calmer, more mature presence that showed throughout the 2025–26 season.

As a result, his return carried a calmer and more mature energy. That showed on the floor throughout the 2025-26 season. Across 64 games, he averaged 25.0 points, 11.5 rebounds, and 3.1 assists. He carried the San Antonio Spurs banner loud and proud throughout the season.

Now, with the series tied at 2-2, Game 5 looms as a turning point in this Western Conference showdown, and both Gobert and Wembanyama know that whoever blinks first may be doing so in the shadow of what they’ve spent a decade building together.