Following the Spurs’ biggest win of the year—a 130–110 victory over the Thunder on Tuesday night—Victor Wembanyama had a surprise in store for fans.

After exchanging postgame handshakes with Oklahoma City, Wembanayama took the microphone and introduced what he intends to be a new postgame tradition in San Antonio to the 19,133 fans at Frost Bank Center.

“Spurs fans, how are we feeling? Appreciate your support; it’s good to be back at home and win in front of our incredible fans,” Wembanyama said. “Now, I would like, with my teammates, to introduce a little new tradition that we’ve been working on with the Jackals [a Spurs fan group] over there. So, please, everybody, spread your arms and do just like the Jackals.”

Spurs fans stretched out their hands and waited for Wembanyama to strike the “Go Spurs Go” drum at halfcourt. When he hit the drum, they clapped, and continued to do so as Wembanyama picked up the pace pounding the drum. It looked identical to the chant seen before and during Vikings games at U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

O.K., it’s exactly like the Vikings’ iconic “Skol” chant.

For the record, the “Skol” chant seen in the NFL did not originate with the Vikings. It was actually first popularized by the Icelandic National Football Team during their miraculous run to the UEFA Euro 2016 quarterfinals.

Called the “Viking Clap” or “Vikings Thunder Clap,” Iceland fans would chant “huh” as they clapped their hands. Once that took off, the NFL’s Vikings introduced a modified version of it to their fan base when U.S. Bank Stadium opened in 2016, and it’s been used before kickoff and before the fourth quarter of every home game ever since. To give proper credit, the Vikings had Icelandic soccer team captain Aron Gunnarsson and Thor Bjornsson (best known as “The Mountain” in Game of Thrones) pass the torch of the chant across the pond to the NFL franchise.

Wembanyama didn’t reference any history of the chant Tuesday night, but it doesn’t need to be that serious. It’s a fun postgame ritual—and it probably will take off in San Antonio.

“Man, that was phenomenal. I heard about it on the fly,” Spurs forward Harrison Barnes said after the game. “[Wembanyama] may have a career in marketing after this because the way he got that stadium going, that was good.”

“I might really do, actually,” Wembanyama said with a smile when he heard about Barnes’s comments.

On the court, the Spurs had quite the night. Keldon Johnson led the way with 25 points, and Wembanyama tallied 12 points and five rebounds in 23 minutes off the bench to defeat the Thunder for the second time in 11 days. Oklahoma City now is 0–2 against the Spurs but 26–2 against the rest of the NBA.

It appears the Spurs, with their new postgame ritual, have a budding rivalry with the defending champion Thunder. That will get tested again Thursday in a 2:30 p.m. ET Christmas matchup at Paycom Center in Oklahoma City.

More NBA on Sports Illustrated


This article was originally published on www.si.com as Victor Wembanyama, Spurs Unveil New Postgame ‘Tradition’ That Looks Awfully Familiar.

Add as preferred source on Google