OKLAHOMA CITY — The longest night of Victor Wembanyama’s NBA career was over. His postgame media responsibilities were done, and he had just seen his father and a few other people in a quiet hallway near the San Antonio Spurs locker room.He didn’t walk back to the room. He got a ride — in a wheeled office chair, pushed by a Spurs staffer.“Save some steps,” Wembanyama said.Hey, after the night he had, energy was probably in short supply anyway.A 41-point, 24-rebound playoff game. Only a few people in the history of basketball had done that — Wilt Chamberlain eight times, Hakeem Olajuwon twice, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar once, Charles Barkley once.Add Wembanyama to that list now, after his latest masterpiece — in a career-high 49 minutes — carried the Spurs to a 122-115 double-overtime win over the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Monday night.“The best player in the (expletive) world,” Spurs guard Stephon Castle announced for all the world to hear in a postgame interview on NBC.Officially, no, that’s not the case. The best player in the NBA world right now is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the player who got his second consecutive Most Valuable Player award in a pregame ceremony with Wembanyama looking on. It was an award Wembanyama wanted — and still wants. Seeing Gilgeous-Alexander raise that trophy, oh, it had an effect on the 7-foot-4 French star.“He’s competitive. If you’re a competitor and you see another competitor get rewarded with what you want. … If that’s motivation, we all get motivated by different things,” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “As a competitive person, that would be my approach and perspective.”Did it matter?“I’ve still got a lot to learn,” Wembanyama said. “And I want to get that trophy many times in my career.”Are you the best player?Popular R …
