Frustrating stat proves Wembanyama gets blatantly disrespected by NBA refs

Spurs fans have been yelling at their TV screens all season long because refs have seemingly swallowed their whistles when it comes to Victor Wembanyama. The young Frenchman gets beat up nearly every time he takes a trip to the paint, and despite being the largest man on the court, the zebras struggle to see what's taking place right in front of them.

There's been a downward shift in the trend of foul calls throughout the league, so it isn't completely out of left field. The NBA had gotten a little soft, so they've course-corrected by instructing refs to let the players play through contact a bit more. That's fine, and even preferable for the health of the game, but they haven't eradicated fouls entirely.

The discrepancy in free throw attempts for Wemby and the other high-usage players is egregious, and this stat highlights that.

The Spurs are constantly hurt by missed calls on Wembanyama

Wemby averages 3.4 turnovers per game, and sure, some of them are his fault. He tends to over-dribble at times and needs to stop bringing the ball low when smaller defenders are around, but other times, he loses the ball from blatant contact.

The most recent example of an egregious non-whistle was in the Clippers game. He turned the ball over due to an obvious foul; he was pushed in the back by Ivica Zubac, sending him careening to the floor, causing Wemby to get up and charge LA's big man. No whistle. It was a frustrating night for the sophomore star. He even admitted to believing he does not receive a fair whistle after the game.

There are 23 players in the league who average 18 or more field goal attempts per game. Wembanyama is one of them, yet he's 50th in free throws attempted per game (4.1). You may assume it's because Vic shoots so many threes, but Luka Doncic, Jayson Tatum, and Tyrese Maxey all shoot more than the Alien, and they're all top 20 in FTA.

When you look deeper at the numbers, it actually gets worse. In January, Wembanyama only averaged 8.4 3s per game—he averaged higher numbers in November (10.4) and December (9.5)—but only shot 2.9 free throws a night. That's an egregiously low number.

In the two games played in February so far, Wemby has only attempted 5.5 threes per game and averaged 7.5 free throws. But it's way too small of a sample size to say anything has truly changed. Playing with De'Aaron Fox could lead to more opportunities inside simply by following the speedy guard when he attacks the paint, ready to catch a pass or clean up a missed attempt.

As long as it leads to wins, it doesn't really matter how many threes the sophomore star takes. The Spurs have won several games on the back of his three-point shooting this year. His free-throw attempts, on the other hand, need to go up. But that's a referee issue, so someone should show them these numbers because they're ridiculous.