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Victor Wembanyama’s season-ending injury is throwing the NBA Defensive Player of the Year race into a tizzy.
Before the Spurs’ second-year superstar was shut down with a blood clot in his right shoulder, the award was all but his.
BetMGM Sportsbook had Wembanyama, who will fall short of the NBA’s 65-game award minimum with just 46 games played, as a massive -2000 favorite before the news on Thursday.
Now, the award race is completely up in the air.
Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr, who won it two years ago, is now the favorite at –130.
As recently as Thursday morning, Jackson was +2500.
The Cavaliers’ Evan Mobley jumped to +110 from +3000 to become the second-favorite on BetMGM’s odds board.
Wembanyama, who had been a heavy favorite since odds were released before the season began last summer, attracted an overwhelming amount of betting attention at BetMGM.
The French sensation garnered a 36.7 percent of bets and 32.7 percent of handle at the sportsbook — both of which were easily the highest among the field.
The 21-year-old, 7-foot-3 center showed flashes of why he was previously heralded as one of the best prospects in NBA history this season, averaging 24.3 points and 11 rebounds per game in 33.2 minutes.
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Before going down, Wembanyama had a league-high 3.8 blocks per game — nearly 1.5 blocks more than any other qualified player.
The 23-29 Spurs are currently the No. 12 seed in the Western Conference heading into the post-All-Star break stretch.
With the No. 10 draft lottery odds on Thursday morning, San Antonio likely will move up the draft board and fall further out of the playoff picture being 3.5 games out of the play-in tournament.
