I knew that Blake Wesley would be one of my favourite Spurs after watching his first Summer League games. He played with the irrational confidence of prime JR Smith and the shooting touch of a mop in a k-hole.

Wesley went 5.4/18 from the field across five games. I watched this unfold and said, out loud to no-one, “I fucking love this kid.”

“Boom or bust” bonanza

He was the exact type of prospect I can get behind: wildly athletic, incredibly raw. Wesley was a Formula 1 car with a learner driver behind the wheel.

Here’s how NBA draft expert Sam Vecenie described Wesley in his 2022 NBA Draft guide:

This is essentially a boom or bust swing. If it works, Wesley has a chance become a legitimate starting guard in the NBA. There is also a real chance Wesley ends up not being much of anything

Hell. Yeah.

Wesley has one other key thing going for him: he steps onto the court to ruin someone’s day, each and every time. He goes hard all the time, for better or worse.

Wesley wants to destroy you

When you’re watching a bad team be bad for months, one of three things happen:

1. You do literally anything else with your time.

2. You lose your mind.

3. You find small things to give you joy.

Wesley was a joy machine. He just wanted to ruin the lives of every opponent he had on the Spurs.

At its most productive, that manifested as smothering defence and momentum swinging steals.

And its most fun, though, it was moments like this:

That’s Blake Wesley, averaging 4 points and 14 minutes per game, landing a great dunk and then hitting the Shawn Kemp point like he’s a goddamn star. (Kemp, by the by, is an all-time dunker and was a six-time NBA All Star. He can point at whoever he wants.)

I chortled when it happened – and chortling isn’t a normal basketball reaction – just for the audacity.

He even did it in the G League:

These small joys are the difference between enjoying and lamenting the hours you spend watching sports.

Blake was a “small joys” machine for the Spurs. Like the time he inbounded the ball off a distracted Luka Doncic for a dunk:

Or when, for some reason, he got really into shaking Chris Paul:

Ride or die

These moments are why it’s a treat to ride with those young, third-string prospects who probably won’t make it – but they might. You know? They just might.

Every sports sicko has a couple on their team. 90% of them won’t make it. But one will eventually. And they’re all players you’ll think of in 10 years, when you’re deep in the hole just naming guys, and you’ll just say “Damn, when Wesley dunked and then pointed at that guy? That was cool” to yourself. And you’ll be right. It was cool.

Because, for a few years, Blake Wesley was your dude. And you’ll ride or die with Blake Wesley.