Surprising Wembanyama update confirms the Alien has no brakes

It feels like a lifetime since fans have received any significant Victor Wembanyama news, but that's changed now. French reporter Maxime Aubin has been in San Antonio covering the Alien since he crashed-landed two summers ago, and he shared the latest on the 7'4" phenomenon on social media today.

The first bit of news was nothing unexpected. Wembanyama was always expected to get surgery eventually. It's good that it's happened, and now he can just spend time recovering. If only that was the end of the report. Wemby's drive to play for his home country hasn't lessened one iota based on Aubin's news that the Spurs' franchise player is aiming to play in the Eurobasket Tournament.

Wembanyama continues to show he's exactly who he says he is

Vic loves basketball. There's no way around that fact. People don't dedicate the amount of time and energy to living their lives in extreme discipline if they don't absolutely adore what they're doing it all for. That's a good thing for San Antonio because it means that his motivations are sincere and stem from the right place.

The last time Wembanyama suited up for France was just last summer in the Paris Olympics. He had a few uneven performances on the offensive end through most of the games but still led their team in most categories and showed up when it counted most in the Gold Medal Game against Team USA. He had 26 points and seven rebounds.

It's been five weeks since a diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) sidelined Wembanyama for the season. The expected recovery time for this condition is at least a few months, according to medical experts, and the Eurobasket Tournament is set to begin on August 27. That lands outside of a six-month recovery window. The event will last until September 14.

Wemby is young and a physical specimen, so I'm betting on him recovering a little quicker than most people. He's never failed to impress us with the things he's capable of, so why should we expect him to go against the grain now?

The tournament's late start date gives the big man a great chance to be ready to go, and with him in the mix, France will have as good of a chance as anyone to succeed.

The rules are the same as the Olympic tournament, so each team will be placed into groups. Each team will play each other team in their group at least once, and at the end, the teams who fared well in Group Play will move on to the Knockout Stage, where single-game elimination rules take hold.

France is in the same group as Slovenia, so if Luka Doncic plays, Vic gets to play LA's new star much sooner than anticipated. That's just one of several interesting matchups Wembanyama will have if he ends up ready to go.