Devin Vassell sends loud and clear message to negative Spurs fans

If you’ve read any of my stuff before, you know that I am of the opinion that the Spurs are going to be pretty bad this year. Fun to watch, yes— there’s a ton of young talent on the team, with storylines surrounding each up and coming player. I think the guys will also play hard for Coach Pop. However, competing in games doesn’t equal W’s; of late, it’s been a pretty common selection among NBA media to take the under on San Antonio’s 22.5 wins number.

With that said, throwing the “tanking” mindset in the faces of those guys that will be playing their butts off every night is not okay. It’s the opposite of okay, actually. As an avid fantasy football player, some of my least favorite humans are the people who “@” players on Twitter after disappointing performances. “Only 8 points?? Come on man, my team in my $5 work league really could’ve used more tonight,” says the biggest loser on earth.

Right in the same universe are people who complain about/celebrate losses (depending on where their team sits in the standings/draft lottery) directly to players on social media. You should have your account banned if you’re one of those people. I completely understand talking about that stuff on your personal feed, and do much of the same myself— as both a Spurs and Texans fan, I start talking about the following year’s draft before the season even starts.

But getting the guys playing for your favorite team involved by tagging them or by replying to their posts is uncalled for. Playing the sport that you love to watch is their job, and it’s a job that they’ve been good at for their entire lives. More than that, they likely haven’t lost a whole lot in their lives up to this point. Seeing a fan who stopped playing basketball after they were cut from the 7th grade B team celebrate a loss like a win has to drive players crazy. 

On Tuesday, Devin Vassell decided that he’d had enough. During an Instagram Live (linked below), Vassell’s comment section was flooded with fans talking about Victor Wembanyama. Devin, probably miffed that people weren’t pumped about the start of the regular season, responded “ talking about this Victor dude… We hoopin’ this year. Y’all gonna see.” Air Alamo’s Josh Paredes clipped that part of the video (warning: explicit language):

Like I said, I’m right there with the Spurs fans who are excited about the prospects in next year’s draft. What I’m not going to do, though, is talk about that in a place where I know that one of our guys is going to see it. Vassell is entering his third year, primed for a breakout season. If you’re going to get up in his mentions, maybe talk about that instead! Also, San Antonio’s game on Wednesday is against the LaMelo Ball-less Hornets, one of the only winnable games in the foreseeable future.

So why are we talking about losing, again?