Gary Payton vs. Victor Wembanyama Season by Season Comparison

Side by side comparison of each NBA season of Victor Wembanyama and Gary Payton, from their rookie seasons to their last year played, in chronological order with awards, stats, championships and playoff performance of their teams every year.

Who had the better rookie season? Who had best stats in their 10th season? Who won a championship first? These questions and many others, are answered here.

Gary Payton played 17 years in the NBA, 15 more than Victor Wembanyama, who played 2. Gary Payton had the first of his seasons in 1990-91, while Victor Wembanyama had his rookie season in 2023-24. With that starting point, here you can take a look at each of their seasons side by side and compare how their careers evolved in achievements, awards and championships won, the stats they recorded both in the Regular Season and the Playoffs and how their teams performed in the postseason.

Rookie Season
	Gary Payton	Victor Wembanyama
Season	1990-91	2023-24
Team	Seattle Supersonics	San Antonio Spurs
Honors & Awards	-	All-Defensive First Team
	-	Rookie of the Year
	-	All-Rookie First Team
	All-Rookie Second Team	-
	-	Blocks Leader
Playoffs	Supersonics Lost West Conf 1st Rd	Did Not Play

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Rookie Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	82	27.4	7.2	1.3	1.6	3.0	6.4	2.0	0.2	2.2	3.0	3.2	7.0	.450	0.0	0.2	.077	0.8	1.2	.711
difference:	+11	+2.3	+14.2	+1.0	+6.8	+7.6	+2.5	+0.8	+3.4	-1.5	-0.8	+4.6	+9.7	+.015	+1.8	+5.3	+.248	+3.3	+4.0	+.085
Victor Wembanyama	71	29.7	21.4	2.3	8.4	10.6	3.9	1.2	3.6	3.7	2.2	7.8	16.7	.465	1.8	5.5	.325	4.1	5.2	.796
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	5	27.0	4.8	1.0	1.6	2.6	6.4	1.6	0.2	1.8	3.2	2.2	5.4	.407	0.0	0.2	.000	0.4	0.4	1.000
Victor Wembanyama	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Season 2
	Gary Payton	Victor Wembanyama
Season	1991-92	2024-25
Team	Seattle Supersonics	San Antonio Spurs
Honors & Awards	-	Blocks Leader
	-	All-Star Game
Playoffs	Supersonics Lost West Conf Semis	Did Not Play

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2nd Season Stats Comparison
Regular Season Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	81	31.5	9.4	1.5	2.1	3.6	6.2	1.8	0.3	2.1	3.1	4.1	9.1	.451	0.0	0.3	.130	1.2	1.8	.669
difference:	+35	+1.7	+14.9	+0.3	+7.1	+7.4	+2.5	+0.7	+3.5	-1.1	-0.8	+4.8	+9.5	+.025	+3.1	+8.5	+.222	+2.2	+2.3	+.167
Victor Wembanyama	46	33.2	24.3	1.8	9.2	11.0	3.7	1.1	3.8	3.2	2.3	8.9	18.6	.476	3.1	8.8	.352	3.4	4.1	.836
Playoffs Stats
	G	Min	Pts	ORb	DRb	Reb	Ast	Stl	Blk	TO	PF	FGM / A		%	3PM / A		%	FTM / A		%
Gary Payton	8	27.6	7.6	0.8	1.9	2.6	4.8	1.0	0.3	1.3	3.3	3.4	7.3	.466	0.0	0.3	.000	0.9	1.5	.583
Victor Wembanyama	DNP	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Additional Years
* Gary Payton played 15 seasons more than Victor Wembanyama in the NBA. In that period—his seasons 3 to 17, from 1993 to 2007—Gary Payton played in 13 Playoffs and won one NBA Championship. In those 15 extra years over Victor Wembanyama, Gary Payton got these achievements:
Honors & Awards	2 All-NBA First Team 5 All-NBA Second Team 2 All-NBA Third Team 9 All-Defensive First Team 1 Defensive Player of the Year 1 Steals Leader 9 All-Star Game