Victor Wembanyama travels with Spurs to back De’Aaron Fox

SACRAMENTO — The San Antonio Spurs boarded the team flight Thursday bound for Sacramento and were pleasantly surprised to see teammate Victor Wembanyama onboard.

Ruled out for the season in February due to deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder, Wembanyama accompanied the team on its trip to Sacramento to support new teammate De’Aaron Fox, who returns to Sacramento to face the Kings on Friday for the first time since they traded him to the Spurs as part of a transaction involving three teams, multiple players and draft picks.

“What he’s going through is definitely tough,” Fox said at Friday’s shootaround. “For us, we just want him to be healthy. We want him to be healthy enough to be able to get on a plane to be able to support us as a team. That’s what he wants to do anyway.”

Team doctors deemed it safe for Wembanyama to fly, a team official said, due to the specific type of blood-thinning medication he’s currently taking to treat the blood clot in his right shoulder. The official said that Wembanyama isn’t expected to make every trip, as some important steps in his treatment plan could take place during times the Spurs are on the road.

“Some of the stuff that has already been discussed [regarding Wembanyama’s treatment], we’ll probably keep it in-house for now,” San Antonio acting head coach Mitch Johnson said. “Everything is as we said initially. No long-term effects on his health and basketball activities.”

Fiddling with his iPhone, Wembanyama sat on the bench while his teammates conducted shootaround at the Golden 1 Center.

The team announced Wembanyama’s condition after the 21-year-old returned to San Antonio on the heels of the NBA All-Star Game in San Francisco. Prior to returning home, Wembanyama had taken a brief trip to Wyoming to unwind, according to a source.

The Spurs remain optimistic Wembanyama will make a full recovery by the start of next season.

But at this point, Wembanyama is on strict orders from the team to not even touch a basketball.

Source: espn.com