How a 7-word tribute summarizes Devin Vassell’s impact on Spurs’ rise

Once the NBA Finals ended last June, a young basketball aficionado made a special effort to reach out to the Spur who’d inspired him most. Of all the players in the league, the kid said, Devin Vassell had become his favorite.

It wasn’t hard for Vassell’s biggest Gen-Z fan to get in touch with him. As it turned out, that fan was the rookie who’d been sitting at the locker next to Vassell’s for months.

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And when Carter Bryant got the chance to give his role model a season-ending message?

“I have so much respect for you,” Bryant told Vassell.

Those seven words speak volumes about why the Spurs believe they can handle what’s coming next. For franchises in their position – fresh off a massive leap, and loaded with more up-and-coming talent than they can play at one time – the thorniest potential traps all involve individuals wanting too much, too soon.

On any given league powerhouse, there can be only one Victor Wembanyama. But there can be lots of Vassells. And if the would-be scoring machine who voluntarily embraced a team-first role is the same guy one of the franchise’s most promising future stars chooses to emulate?

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It does more than reflect well on Vassell.

It does more than speak well of Bryant.

It bodes well for the whole organization.

At the risk of making too much of minutiae, these are the little choices that can turn into dynasties, if a lucky team keeps making the most of its good fortune. The Spurs needed to catch multiple breaks to wind up with both Wembanyama and Stephon Castle, and they needed to catch a couple more to land Dylan Harper and Bryant in the same draft.

But not all of them can be the go-to guy, even if each of them believes he has that kind of stardom in him. On multiple occasions last season, for instance, Bryant proclaimed that he plans to be “one of the best players in the world” someday.

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That kind of confidence is great. But if Bryant entered his second NBA season expecting a role commensurate with those aspirations, it would be a problem. As much as he admires Wembanyama, it wouldn’t make much sense to model his approach after that of the superstar who’s always at the center of everything.

The dream scenario for the Spurs, of course, is that every supporting cast member follows the lead of the seventh-year guard who made himself invaluable by accepting a lower profile. That’s why hearing Bryant call Vassell his “favorite player in the NBA” on Wednesday had to delight coach Mitch Johnson and general manager Brian Wright.

“If Dev was on any other team in the NBA, he’d be a 20-to-25-points-a-night guy, easily,” Bryant said. “He’s so skilled, so talented. The sacrifices he’s made for us to take that next step as a team, it’s been amazing.”

The stats back up the kid’s point. Last season, Vassell attempted the fewest shots per game of his last four seasons. He averaged 13.9 points per game, which was almost six points fewer than his 2023-’24 peak.

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But as the Spurs stormed through the regular season and kept rolling to the NBA Finals, Vassell became the ideal version of the player Wright and his staff envisioned when they drafted him in 2020.

He defended opposing scorers on the perimeter. In the playoffs, he blocked three different 7-footers at the rim. He always made the right pass, and almost never turned the ball over. He pushed the pace, and he knocked down open shots.

And while Wembanyama became the Most Valuable Player candidate, and Castle and Harper became the kind of breakout stars that would wind up in GQ magazine? Vassell was fine with that.

Not everyone watching the games appreciated it. But Johnson sure did. And Vassell’s teammates did, too.

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Not that he thought it was a big deal.

“We have so many great pieces that you can’t be selfish,” Vassell said.

But those are the kinds of under-the-radar contributions it takes for a team to make a run like the Spurs did. And those are the kinds of contributions they’ll need more of to make another one.

There’s also this: Everyone’s heard the relentless speculation about when Harper will make his inevitable jump to the Spurs’ starting lineup. But what’s being left largely unsaid is that for that to work, some current starter is going to have to be OK making the kind of transition Vassell’s fellow veteran, Keldon Johnson, already made.

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Might that person be Vassell himself? Might the guy who adjusted to a different role in the starting lineup eventually be asked to adjust again, by coming off the bench? Vassell said Wednesday he has no idea, and said Mitch Johnson has made no definitive statements about whether he’ll be a starter again.

In some places, on some teams, that might foreshadow a problem. If the Spurs hit the kind of rough patch they avoided last season, there’s always at least a chance a player might become less enthusiastic about sacrifices.

But for now, the Spurs’ youth is following Vassell’s lead.

“As long as he’s willing to teach me,” Bryant said, “I’m willing to learn from him.”

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And if that continues?

A whole organization will benefit from the lesson, while the kid waits his turn to pass it down.

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This article originally published at How a 7-word tribute summarizes Devin Vassell’s impact on Spurs’ rise.