Victor Wembanyama says he reads before every game.
Editor’s Note: Read more NBA coverage from The Athletic here. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA or its teams.
***
Turquoise, pink and orange words mount an exhibit of books immediately noticeable when patrons walk into San Antonio’s Central Library, the bright red building in the middle of the city’s downtown: “Read Like Wemby.”
Just to the right of the circulation desk, where people can sign up for a library card and check out books, are some of San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama’s favorite books. Many nod to his love for science fiction and fantasy literature. Some of the books on display include “Yumi and the Nightmare Painter” by Brandon Sanderson, one of Wembanyama’s favorite authors, as well as “The Witch of Whispervale” by R.A. Salvatore and “The Eye of the World” by Robert Jordan.
With the Spurs tied 2-2 in the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, the San Antonio Public Library, of which the Central Library is one of 29 branches, is taking advantage of the most public hobby of the Spurs superstar: reading. Cate Prazak, a librarian at the Central branch who celebrated the Spurs’ 2014 title in the streets, created two reading lists for what the SAPL is calling the “Read Like Wemby” campaign.
It launched May 14, four days before the series against the Thunder started.
“The spark is so reinvigorated. You see it everywhere,” Prazak said of the city’s attitude toward the team. “Everyone is so proud of the Spurs.”
One of the lists on the SAPL’s website is of print books Wembanyama has been seen reading and related fantasy and science fiction books inspired by his reading habits. Another is a list of titles on Libby, the free e-book and audiobook app. There are about 50 titles collectively across both platforms.
When veteran forward Harrison Barnes, another avid reader, first came to the Spurs, he and Wembanyama started a book club that included a couple of other players until it eventually whittled down to just the two of them. Barnes made sure to include books from Wembanyama’s favorite genre, science fiction, and more specifically a favorite author, Sanderson.
Wembanyama has visited Alien Worlds, a comic book store in San Antonio, “upon occasion,” said David Wheeler, the CEO of Dragon’s Lair, a comic and fantasy store in the city. Though many NBA players are photographed walking down the tunnel of an arena before games to show off their fashion, Wembanyama has often been seen clutching a book in one hand.
In February, a clip of him and Nikola Jokić in the locker room during NBA All-Star Weekend went viral.
JOKIĆ: "You really brought a book?"
WEMBY: "Yeah, I read before every game."
As we approach the new year, take a look back at this hilarious moment from February between Joker & Wemby 😂pic.twitter.com/it0Xn1bGNS
— NBA (@NBA) December 28, 2025
“You really brought a book?” the Denver Nuggets center said.
“Yeah …” Wembanyama responded, deadpanning as if to say, “What’s the big deal?”
“I read before every game.”
Jokić covered his eyes and shook his head as if he couldn’t believe it. But the librarians at SAPL were grinning with joy.
“Library people, we’ve been paying attention to those moments,” said Scott Williams, SAPL’s marketing manager. “We just love the fact that there’s this NBA star, this international superstar right in our own backyard, who also happens to be a voracious reader.
“To work for a library in a city where somebody who is that publicly supportive of what reading and literacy can mean for someone is really inspirational.”
Nearly 160 copies of the books, physical and electronic, have been checked out or placed on hold since the start of the campaign. The most popular is “Alchemised” by SenLinYu, a 1,040-page, genre-bending novel that centers on a former alchemist recovering from the memories of a civil war, which has the most holds on it as a direct result of the campaign.
“We love connecting people to new books,” Prazak said. “And we hope showing what Wemby loves to read will inspire someone to go find those books.”
These are a few of Wemby’s favorite things. Courtesy of Central Library
Juspreet Kaur, the chair of the SAPL’s Board of Trustees, came up with the idea for the campaign. She saw an article about Wembanyama’s love of books in MySA, a local news outlet, and, Williams said, proposed that the SAPL use the superstar’s hobby to help promote the benefits of public libraries.
Though Wembanyama has not participated in the campaign, the SAPL hopes he might eventually. The goal is to inspire people of all ages, especially children, to read more. It shows that someone can be one of the best basketball players in the world and also love reading. They want the world to know that reading is cool. Wemby is cool. Science fiction and fantasy and world-building and magic are cool.
The campaign is not just highlighting San Antonio’s hero but also serving as a love letter to the library as an oft-forgotten staple of communities, and to the written word as a whole, in the age of artificial intelligence and massive changes in how we consume information as a society. According to data from Gallup and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans are reading fewer books per year than ever before and spending less time reading than ever.
A survey from YouGov shows that almost 40 percent of Americans didn’t read a single book over the course of a year. The Washington Post has even called this a “post-literate era.”
The campaign inspired a second exhibit at San Antonio’s Las Palmas branch. Senior circulation attendant Lila De Los Santos and library assistant Elvia Ramos, both wearing Spurs T-shirts, helped put up a life-size cutout of Wembanyama’s gargantuan, 8-foot wingspan next to some of his sci-fi favorites, incorporating “Go Spurs Go” signs. De Los Santos and Ramos recently took a photo behind the cutout, stretching out their arms, too.
Children who come into the libraries have taken selfies next to the exhibits, thanks to the staff’s approval of photography inside the library, something that is often prohibited in similar facilities. The Spurs’ generational talent’s chase for a title is too special not to capture.
San Antonio resident Christy Hernandez, 34, has used the SAPL’s Wemby website list for recommendations for her next read. “Seeing Wemby’s interest in reading has definitely renewed mine,” Hernandez said. She started reading fantasy/science fiction novelist Sanderson’s books once she realized how much Wembanyama liked the author’s work.
“I really hope the exhibit leads to a formal collaboration with Wemby,” Hernandez said. “I can only imagine what a huge impact it would be on kids to see a role model like Wemby be such a voracious reader.”
Summer is the library’s busiest season, and the SAPL staff is hoping Wembanyama will collaborate with them at some point. If Williams could make a pitch to the All-Star, he’d like to start by saying: “Thank you. Thank you for bringing awareness to how important connection is with the written word and literature is.”
And one more thing, Williams said: “Get a library card. Come to the library.”
— Fred Katz contributed to this report.
***
Mirin Fader is a senior writer for The Athletic, writing long-form features, primarily on the NBA. Mirin is also the New York Times best-selling author of GIANNIS: The Improbable Rise of an NBA Champion and DREAM: The Life and Legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon. She has told compelling human-interest features on some of our most complex, most dominant heroes from the NBA, NFL, WNBA and NCAA, most recently at The Ringer. Her work has been featured in the Best American Sports Writing books. She lives in Los Angeles. You can follow Mirin on X @MirinFader.
