Wembanyama, Chris Paul speak up after hilarious Skills Challenge disqualification

Who gets disqualified from the NBA Skills Competition? Apparently, the San Antonio Spurs do. Victor Wembanyama and Chris Paul were first up in Saturday night's first event on All-Star Weekend, and the fans were ready to see something special. An Alien and one of this generation's greatest point guards were going to give us a show—until they weren't.

When Wemby started chucking the balls, everyone simultaneously realized what was taking place. At first I laughed, assuming they found some sort of loophole in the rules. When they were disqualified, my laughter turned to frustration. Both players have shown a high basketball IQ, but now the decision looked like anything but smart.

The truth lies somewhere in the middle based on their statements afterward. Paul and Wemby claim they cleared their strategy with league officials before the competition. But after you put blame and feelings aside, rational minds should only be left with one thought: it shouldn't matter.

CP3 and Wemby shouldn't be rewarded for their strategy

This is a classic "multiple things can be true at once" type of scenario. But when you take the spirit of competition into consideration, we all should be able to admit that their approach was wrong. Funny enough, everyone thought Chris Paul was the culprit of this master plan, but Wembanyama was the catalyst.

Now, the "controversy" begins. If the officials told Wembanyama and Chris Paul that they could use their strategy, disqualifying them is wrong. At the very least, the league should have made them go again with a proper explanation of the rules. At the same time, I can't bring myself to feel too sorry for the guys for trying to find a way around truly competing.

Last year, Paolo Banchero and Anthony Edwards were Wemby's teammates in the Skills Competition. Vic was noticeably upset at the loss they suffered because the other guys were clowning around the whole time. They didn't take it seriously, and that showed up in the event. The Alien is a competitor and wants to win everything, so that was understandable.

When CP3 was announced as his partner in this year's contest, I assumed it was because he wanted to go get a truly skilled veteran whom he could rely on to take the event seriously. Watching them try to manipulate the rules to get the win instead of just showcasing their skills as elite athletes isn't what fans should have been treated to.

At the end of the day, it's just the Skills Competition. It's probably the least interesting event of the weekend. The only thing that made it compelling was believing Vic and Paul would take it seriously. So much for that. At least Stephon Castle has been making Spurs fans proud.