Michigan Senate Race; Cuba in Crisis; Wemby | 60 Minutes Full Broadcast

I'm talking. Well, own up to it. >> On Tuesday, Michigan could decide who controls the Senate. Republican Mike Rogers and Democrat Abdul Elsed disagree about a lot of things, especially Israel. >> I don't pay my taxes to buy another country a bomber a tank. >> I passionately defend Israel's right to defend itself. With passions running high today, a November surprise, Haley Stevens, who lost the Democratic primary to Elsayed, endorsed Rogers. >> This was a personal and private decision. >> We traveled to Cuba and found a country in freefall. >> They just have brutal power against the whole population of another country. That is criminal. >> Biggest problem Cuba has is that their regime is a disaster. Washington and Havana blame each other. Caught between them are more than 9 million Cubans. How much responsibility does your government bear here?

>> We got bullsh on three. 1 2 3. >> He's 7'4, 22 years old, and comes from France. >> Hello. >> Hey, John. >> The new face of the NBA is known for his height and length, >> but we found that's nothing compared to his depth. You appreciate that. Never mind athletes, not all people have your level of curiosity. >> Yeah. It's the defining trait of mine. >> I'm Leslie Stall. >> I'm John Worerheim. >> I'm Nora O'Donnell. >> I'm Ross Dowet. I'm Matt Gutman. >> I'm Bill Whitaker. Those stories and more tonight on 60 Minutes. This Tuesday, control of the US Senate may be decided in the battleground state of Michigan. The Democratic nominee, Abdul Elsed, could be the nation's first Muslim senator, and he's running on transformation, busting monopolies, Medicare for all, an arms embargo on Israel. The Republican candidate, former Congressman Mike Rogers, is eager to paint his opponent as a radical. But on policy, he tries to stay inside state lines, focused on Michigan jobs and education. The test for Rogers is whether a Republican can win in the shadow of inflation, war, and President Donald Trump's unpopularity. The test

for Elsed is whether ideas that thrill the progressive wing of the Democratic Party are what middle America wants. Right now, the contest is close, contentious, and it's left the two men without a kind word to say about each other. >> I am talking. >> All right, >> I'm talking. Well, own up to it. >> He's kind of like a glitchy AI chatbot. Is say the same. >> Go after my mom. >> I'm not going after your mom. What your mom was >> in the home stretch of an expensive, bruising, and consequential Senate race known. Gentlemen, [applause] >> we went to speak to both candidates and see them in action. >> Do we believe in our ability to stand up and fight back? >> The son of Egyptian immigrants, Abdul Elsed won the Democratic primary against a more centrist rival by a sliver of a percentage point. But he has big ambitions. Not just to beat the Republican party, but to remake his own. >> MONEY OUT OF >> MONEY IN YOUR >> MEDICARE FOR >> [cheering and applause] >> SO, WE GOT WORK TO DO.

>> AFTER A road scholarship and a medical degree from Columbia University, Elsad went straight into public health administration and then politics. >> All right. What size for her? >> He's often associated with the Democratic Socialists of America, but he isn't a member and he keeps his distance from the label. >> Pick one economic issue that you think should be the priority for the next Congress. >> Monopolies and igopies. I'm a capitalist. If you read Adam Smith, he'll tell you the biggest risk to capitalism was never government regulation. It was always monopoly and igopoly. >> You ran for office uh in 2018, right? For the first time, >> you were endorsed by Bernie Sanders in that race. Were you ever a socialist? >> No. I'm a capitalist who understands the idea that you should have guaranteed healthcare in the country. Anybody who tells you that's anti- capitalist is not really understanding how capitalism works. Do we believe in our ability to fight for healthare? Elsed is promising a version of Medicare for all that he says would leave private health insurance options intact.

He would fund it in part with a sweeping tax on billionaire wealth. On the trail, though, he says healthcare is no longer voters's top concern. What is the most important issue that you hear about from Michigan voters in this campaign? Pick one. >> I think right now we are barreling total world where the most important issue I hear about every day is AI. Tell me about that. >> It comes in in two different ways. One is students saying, "So, I just took $60,000 in loans and the job that I was supposed to have on the back end doesn't exist anymore or might not exist in 10 years." Or it's folks in rural communities who say, "They're trying to put a data center in my backyard. I already can't afford my utilities, and I'm worried about what it's going to mean for our water." Elsa wants a cabinet level agency to regulate AI and for the frontier AI research that some fear threatens the human race. Full on pause. >> Full on pause. >> We need AI under democracy and AI under control. >> Where the 42-year-old Democrat sometimes sounds like a candidate for president.

His Republican rival Mike Rogers is trying to keep things local. >> Michigan hasn't elected a Republican to the Senate in decades. Rogers hopes to make that a virtue. >> This is a change election in Michigan and that's why I don't really care what's happening around the country. I need to fix Michigan. >> In a populist era, Rogers can sound like a throwback Republican. >> If we don't fix this literacy problem, >> a former army officer and FBI agent, he left Congress after 14 years just as Donald Trump ascended. and his platform sometimes channels the compassionate conservative rhetoric of President George W. Bush. >> So, what's the number one piece of legislation you'd want to work on on a bipartisan basis if you were in the Senate? >> Reading, literacy. I'm a big military family. My father, my brother, me, our son is fourth generation. Patriotism runs deep in our family. One of the big reasons they were missing recruiting during COVID and other places was that kids weren't reading well enough to pass the test in America. in 2026.

If we don't change that, we are all in trouble. >> The welcome has been so warm. >> When Elied recently took a bus tour with Democratic Socialist star Alexandria Okasiocortez through Trump country in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, they weren't talking about literacy. >> Shouldn't be this hard in the richest, most powerful country in the history of the world to afford a tank of gas. >> While the Democrat woos MAGA voters >> for you know that we do have a state to save. Lord God, >> the 63-year-old Rogers has been going into predominantly black neighborhoods that rarely see a Republican. >> I'm still growing. >> Trying to persuade African-Ameans that Elsed is taking them for granted. >> He went to New York with AOC to talk about how they're going to change the world in 2028. You know what I want to do? I want to take care of Flint. I want to take care of every Michigander who has kids and grandkids who want to stay in this state. >> For his pitch to work, Michigan voters have to believe that a Republican senator can fix a Republican president's policies.

Trump's trade wars, especially the tariffs on Canada, Michigan's neighbor and trading partner, have cost the state an estimated $23 billion since January 2025. >> I don't think it's helpful to us. It's certainly not helpful to our automotive industry. >> I don't like the Canadian tariffs. I've said so. I've, you know, raised my concerns to the Secretary of uh Commerce. >> And what did he say? >> Uh, I'll get back to you. >> Uhhuh. [laughter] Why can't other Republican senators fix it, though? There's a Republican Senate majority. Why can't they get the White House to change course? >> Well, you need one more Republican senator there. That's how you do it. >> Would you support as a Republican senator trying to override the president on tariffs that you disagree with, like the Canadian tariffs? If I can't work it out, uh, and it came to that, yeah, absolutely. >> Donald Trump is going to come to Michigan. >> One of Elsa's attack lines is that a vote for Rogers is effectively a vote for Trump.

>> The Republican candidate seems to be looking for daylight with the president while avoiding direct confrontation. He supported the unpopular war with Iran, but now says it needs to quote wind down. >> You are like a rockar. When it comes to another issue on voters minds this fall, Rogers chooses his words carefully. >> Do you think that the Trump administration has a corruption problem? >> Well, I can tell you this. I'm a I'm an FBI agent by training. >> What did you work on as an FBI agent? >> Organized crime and public corruption. >> And public corruption. [snorts] Yes. >> Yes. >> So, I'm going to act as United States senator with the best interest of Michigan. I can tell you that right now. >> Can you tell me a little bit more about what that would mean? >> I'll take the facts as I see them and I'll make a decision based on them. the president of the United States accepted a jet from a Middle Eastern nation. Do you think he should have done that? I >> mean, that's not what I would have done. U but that's uh I don't think it's illegal for the president to do that. >> Well, thank you, Mr. President.

>> It's a delicate relationship. President Trump needs Rogers to flip the seat. Rogers needs the president to turn out the party base. They campaigned together in Port Hiron, Michigan last week where Mr. Trump trained his fire on Elsa. >> I'm here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator. >> The president is talking about an Islamist movement whose offshoots were recently designated as terrorist groups. Rogers has also accused his opponent of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood, citing a 2012 letter that Elsedad signed after the Arab Spring in support of Egypt's new democratically elected government, which was backed by the Brotherhood. Elsad has declined to comment on the letter, but says he disavows the Muslim Brotherhood. He argues that Republicans are targeting his Islamic faith. >> There's a lot of people, Muslim, Christian, otherwise, who are raised in a religion and it doesn't stick. Why did faith stick for you?

>> I think anybody of faith has on again offagain relationships with one's own faith. In my younger years, I certainly rebelled and it was something that that kind of came back to me in college. >> Tell me something about how that faith shapes your politics. >> There is this uh notion of speak the truth even if it be against yourself. And I try to be like radically honest. One place where Elsa casts himself as a trutht teller is the debate over US support for Israel. >> In your view, what's wrong with America's relationship with Israel? >> Number one, we have been told that we are pursuing a two-state solution only to aid, arm, and abet the very people who are trying to foreclose on the possibility of a second state. So, it's incoherent on its own terms. Number two, I don't know about you, but I don't pay my taxes to buy another country a bomber or a tank. That's Israel. That's Egypt. That's Saudi Arabia. That's Pakistan. Three, the state of Israel did a genocide.

>> His language is wrong. They use terms like genocide >> in the argument over Israel's war in Gaza following the October 7th attacks by Hamas. Rogers leaves no doubt which side he's on. >> I passionately defend Israel's right to defend itself and to exist as a Jewish state. That sets me at odds with my opponent right off the bat. He refuses to even acknowledge that Israel has the right to exist. I don't ever get the question of does Palestine have the right to exist. >> Does Palestine have the right to exist? >> Yes. >> Does Israel have the right to exist? >> Yes. If there is a shared understanding. >> Wait, you said >> let me just let me just let me just understand. I believe and this is the this is the problem with this debate. We start from where we sit rather than start from principles. I believe in equal rights to peace, dignity, and self-determination for Palestinians and Jewish Israelis alike. If the Palestinian people decide and the Israeli people decide that they want two states for two people and they decide that on equal terms, I'm for it. If they decide that they want one state shared in a different way, I'm for that.

>> In a state with one of the nation's largest ArabAmerican populations and about 100,000 Jewish voters, the Middle East is territory where the campaign's national and local elements converge. This past March, after a terrorist attack on a Michigan synagogue and preschool, Elsad condemned the violence. >> There is never a justification for attacking innocent people or houses of worship. Never. >> But he added, >> "Hurt people hurt people." >> Seeming to put blame on Israel, he later apologized. >> "So you either got to pick your team. You want to represent Palestine or you want to represent Michigan. I want to represent Michigan." To Rogers, his opponent's rhetoric is feeding an atmosphere of anti-semitism. >> There are Jewish students at University of Michigan that my wife and I talked to who have to hide their star of David to walk across campus because the harassment is so bad. Think of that. >> In a close election, the Rogers campaign hopes that Jewish Michiganders, usually a reliable Democratic constituency, could be one of its keys to victory. Do you think that you are saying enough to reassure those voters that you are on their side?

>> Wherever our disagreements are when it comes to Israel, there are a lot more things that we agree on here. When it comes to standing up for Jewish Americans, I will be right there. >> However the Jewish vote breaks, the state's more than 200,000 Arabameans are expected to turn out to vote for Elsed in record numbers. It's one more variable in a race filled with them where the winning Michigan coalition could be a national surprise. >> What's the biggest thing that you think is different in US politics if you win? >> The ability to run a campaign and win against big money by engaging with people, having a conversation about who we are and who we want to be. >> What's the biggest thing that's different about American politics if you win this election? Well, I'm not sure about American politics, but I'm going to change the politics of Michigan for sure because you're going to have somebody who's an advocate for the state of Michigan. >> One close race, two very different campaigns, and an election whose outcome will reverberate far beyond the state of Michigan.

Watch extended interviews with the candidates on the 60 Minutes YouTube channel. Cuba has been under communist rule since the 1960s. The Cuban government employs most of the country's workers and runs the hospitals and schools. Opposition parties are illegal. For decades, a US embargo cut the island off from American trade. Now, the Trump administration has tightened that vice, strangling its oil supply and threatening to sanction those who do business with the Cuban regime, making it nearly impossible for the government to buy fuel, food, or medicine. Washington says the failure is Havana's, a corrupt communist regime that has mismanaged the country for decades. Havana blames Washington, saying the sanctions are designed to turn Cuba into a failed state. The Trump administration wants Havana to know there are quote no escape valves. It has even threatened to take Cuba. Each side blames the other. Caught between them are more than 9 million Cubans. Last month, we traveled there and found a country in freefall.

>> In Cuba today, the basics have become luxuries. Pharmacy shelves are bare. Lines for bread stretch around the block. [crying] And during daily blackouts, most of the country disappears into darkness. Cuba's crisis has been decades in the making. Its leaders have jailed critics, limited free speech, and Washington says the regime has hoarded billions of dollars. But Havana's government blames the US. >> The United States has no legitimacy to what they're claiming. They just have brutal power against the whole population of another country. That is criminal. Carlos Fernandez Deosio is Cuba's deputy foreign minister and a main negotiator with the US. >> How are the restrictions imposed earlier this year different from the embargo that has been in place effectively for over 60 years? >> They've become much tougher, which means now the US threatens with punishment, with coercive measures or sanctions countries and their companies that engage commercially with Cuba. The streets are dark in old Havana where it used to be glittering and light at night. People tell me on the street that they are hungry. There are bread lines.

Does it feel like this country is falling apart? >> It's not falling apart, but it's suffering the pain. >> Made worse by the loss of its powerful benefactors. First, it was the Soviet Union, then Venezuela. When the US captured Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, Cuba lost its main oil supplier and the crisis was desperate inside the country's hospitals. Long a point of pride here. [crying] On the day we visited the William Solair Hospital, we saw this infant being rushed into the intensive care unit. Dehydrated and suffering from malnutrition, he was barely responsive. >> What is the prognosis for this baby? Right now, his prognosis is critical. That means his life is in immediate danger. He could die at any moment. >> Do you have everything you need here? >> Dr. Alejandro Chong is the head of the ICU.

>> He and his team cleared the baby's airway and just in case he stopped breathing, prepared a ventilator. The infant was about 2 months old. He weighed less than 5 lb. He had no name and no family. >> We were told he was abandoned and brought in by protective services. That little shriek was a positive sign, but stabilizing him was only the first step. >> After this, he'll need nutritional support, which is where things get more difficult for us. In other parts of the world, patients like this are given specialized formulas, many of which come from the United States. We have to make do with formulas made from malanga, a starchy root vegetable, and chicken. >> Doctors in Cuba make compromises like that on every shift. Just 90 miles from the US, Cuba has always imported much of what it needs. Now, the US restrictions are making it harder to import food and medical supplies.

Washington says it does not intend to restrict those goods, but many foreign companies fearful of US penalties won't sell them to Cuba. Cuba's problems long predate the Trump administration's new sanctions. For decades, the US says the regime mismanaged Cuba's economy and let its infrastructure crumble. But since early January, Cuban officials say only a single tanker of oil has reached the island, crippling the country's electrical grid. We're in the pediatric ER right now and as so often happens here in Cuba. Now, the electricity just turned off and this is that interim period between when the electricity turns off and the generator turns on. These are the critical moments here. >> Those few seconds might seem insignificant to someone outside the medical field, but they're precious seconds when you're dealing with a patient under general anesthesia or a patient on a ventilator in the intensive care unit.

And when the generators fail, doctors told us they've had to finish surgeries using the light from their cell phones. If ventilators stop working, they pump oxygen for critical patients by hand. Because it's exhausting and poorly paid work, a huge number of doctors have left the profession or the country. Many who've stayed have taken second jobs just to get by. >> Dr. Chong owns this food stand and he makes more money there than he does running the intensive care unit. >> Dr. Lauren Rodriguez, a secondyear resident in pediatric surgery, supports herself by working as a radio host. >> There are fewer personnel, fewer resources, and it makes all the work we're doing much more difficult. >> Doctors told us cancer drugs, anesthetics, lab equipment are all in critically short supply. You're the one standing in front of the patient face to face. You're the one who has to look at them and tell them you can't solve their problem.

>> How hard is that to tell a patient to tell a parent who brought in a child who's sick or injured that you can't help them? >> Yes, we have to tell people that constantly. >> For this toddler, the missing item was a part for an artificial lung machine critical to her surgery. Normally, it would have been here in 2 days. When we met her, she had been waiting for 68 days. >> So, she's been waiting a big chunk of her life for this component, for the surgery >> just to be able to get better. >> Paloma Blanco, a dancer with the National Ballet of Cuba, is 8 months pregnant with her first baby. >> Are you concerned about giving birth at this moment in time here in Cuba? >> I am nervous. But I trust in the doctors. >> It's not the doctors, but lack of supplies that keeps her up at night. She has already asked friends in the US to send her surgical supplies just in case she needs a C-section.

>> Is that something that a lot of expecting mothers do? They actually go to the hospital when they're ready to give birth with >> C-section kits. sometimes when when you have the possibility. >> Since Fidel Castro seized power in 1959, nearly every American administration has tried to force change in Havana, going back to President Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. >> Now, further action is required and it is underway and these actions may only be the beginning. >> In his second term, President Trump has turned up the rhetoric. Actually, what we're going to do with Cuba is we're going to come back from Iran, those beautiful ships. We'll pass Cuba. We'll have one of them stop about 50 yards off the coast. They'll raise up their hands, and then we're going to send Marco Rubio in to finish up the deal. >> Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, has made regime change in Cuba the signature issue of his career, and as Secretary of State, turned it into one of the administration's priorities.

>> Biggest problem Cuba has is that their regime is a disaster. their economic model doesn't work and the people who run the country don't know what the hell they're doing. Uh all they're most interested in is holding on to power. >> Earlier this year, negotiations between the US and Cuba stalled. >> Every time you interrupt me, I'm just going to keep explaining how corrupt this regime is. And last week, during a speech by Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the UN, those tensions exploded into public view. >> This is the United Nations. This isn't your communist dictatorship. >> Cuban officials confronted him. >> Back up, ambassador. Back away. This isn't Havana. >> I'm suspending the meeting. >> One of those Cuban diplomats was expelled from the US. >> What do you think the US wants from Cuba politically? The US has spoken of taking control of Cuba and has spoken of making political changes of it of their liking, not the ones chosen by the people of Cuba.

>> Can you give me a ballpark figure of when the last time was that you actually had a face tof face interaction with the US official? >> In the past months. >> Months. >> We prefer to be discreet about it. Secretary Rubio declined our request for an interview, but in a statement, a spokesman said, "The failing Cuban regime continues to blame the US and everyone else for their own incompetence and corruption. They hide billions in overseas bank accounts instead of investing in electricity, infrastructure, and the daily needs of its people. You blame the United States, but it is your government that built the power plants, that set the wages, that let the infrastructure here crumble. How much responsibility does your government bear here? >> Every government has responsibility for other people in the US. How much responsibility does a government have for the standard of living, for the affordability of people, for crime in the cities, for drugs? Every government has responsibility. responsibility does your government bear?

>> The unique position of Cuba is that in addition to whatever responsibility the government has, it has an external very powerful factor having an influence in the reality of the population. But our government has a lot of responsibility because there could be decisions that could have been better. >> This year, Cuba made the biggest economic reforms in more than six decades, including dropping its monopolies on fuel, banking, andies. US companies have started exporting fuel to Cuba's private sector, but it's prohibitively expensive. >> For most Cubans, staples are further out of reach. A carton of eggs can cost more than a month's salary. >> That reality has forced people to find their own solutions. >> Half milligram. >> At this street market, we found medicine for sale, part of a thriving black market. Cuba enacted just this past summer 176 economic reforms. You yourself have said that this has revolutionized the economy here in Cuba.

>> Correct. >> Why not go for political reforms as well? >> Well, I believe that rather than in Cuba, it is in the US where it should be political reform. Cuba does not threaten the US or any country. When it comes to its own country, Cuba has cracked down on dissident and almost no one we met was willing to openly criticize the Cuban government. >> How do you see this impass ending? >> With a change of attitude from the United States. >> Do you think that's going to happen? >> We hope so. We see we see every reason for that to occur. What we see no reason is for the US government to continue to punish the whole population of a country. How long is that sustainable? How acceptable is that? Just because power exists in the hands of the United States, does everybody have to bend to that? >> Back at William Solera Hospital. >> That two-month-old baby who desperately needed formula, he did make it out of the ICU, but this weekend we checked in with Dr. Chong. He told us the baby had suffered respiratory complications and was readmitted to the ICU where he died on Thursday. Do you feel that you owe it to the parents of the children we saw suffering in those hospitals to make some sort of change that would appease the United States?

>> We owe it to them to do as much as we can to ease the situation that the population faces to ensure that they continue to live in a sovereign nation and we owe it to them to protect them from being overtaken by a superpower whose interest is not their livelihoods. It is our responsibility to protect our people from that and to do as much as possible to improve their welfare. San Antonio Spurs star center Victor Webbyama is known as the alien, a nod to his supernatural size and supernatural basketball skills. At 7 foot4, Webinyama can dunk without jumping. Yet, he also can freeze defenders with his ball handling, drain three-pointers, and he is the NBA's reigning defensive player of the year. But as nicknames go, the alien misses the mark like a clunky jump shot in that WBY, there's your nickname, is a man making the most of his earthly minutes. He comes from France, plays pickup chess in Manhattan parks, and trains at Chinese monasteries. With LeBron James turning 42 and Steph Curry now 38, WBY, aged 22, is the new face of the NBA, we dropped in on him this preseason and found that while he may be best known for his height and length, it's nothing compared to his depth.

>> Basketball has seen tall, basketball has seen talent. >> Hello. >> Hey, John. >> Basketball has never seen Victor Wanyama's holy matrimony of size and skill. And yet his favorite play hinges on his teammates. >> What part of basketball specifically brings you the greatest joy? >> I think Alioops in particular. >> Alioops a team player and also a dunk. [cheering] >> I like Alioops. >> It's like a telepathy. >> Yeah, exactly. Then again, here's a player who can eliminate the middleman and alleyoop himself through everybody throws it to himself. >> Yeah. So it goes for Wembby. Big men aren't supposed to shoot like this, much less dribble like this. It's devastating offense meets demoralizing defense.

>> Oh my goodness. spiked [cheering] into the 15th rope. >> No one's ever played a game like you. No one has had your combination of size and skill set. There's no blueprint here. So, how are you figuring out >> how to train, how to pace yourself, how to even envision your career when no one's done it before you? >> It's true. It is a uh difficulty first of all because of the player that I am but also being a foreigner here growing up in totally different environment and uh I think the key is being comfortable not knowing being comfortable finding out my own answers. >> Are you comfortable? >> I am comfortable not knowing my answers. I am comfortable walking through the fog. >> What's it like when you make it through the fog? When you figure something out? those brief moments where my head peaks through and sees the sun. Yeah, they're great. Last year, there was this I think the month of February, we didn't lose a single game. This is these moments where everything clicks. You know, >> the Spurs kept clicking through the spring thanks largely to Webyama's heroics. from midcourt.

>> San Antonio beat the Oklahoma City Thunder to win the Western Conference, but then despite being favored in the finals, they lost in five games to the New York Knicks. By his own admission when was far from his best, not least because of this pick on someone your own size cheap shot against Knicks star Jaylen Brunson. >> Excuse me, that should be a flagrant one. >> Last year in the finals, you were portrayed as a villain. Correct me if I'm wrong. I didn't get the feeling that bothered you. >> No, it didn't because it's I'm not paying attention to this during the finals. I don't think any player on either team really is. >> I wondered if you didn't show, hey, this is part of my character, too. Edgy Wii, whatever it is, but you showed a new side of yourself. >> It showed my limits more than anything else. Going out there, you need to play basketball. You don't need to beat the out of people [laughter] if you want to win at least. four forward from France number one Victor.

>> That self-awareness comes from someone just starting his fourth NBA season and scary for the rest of the league just clearing his throat. He first appeared on scouts radars as a young teen, a bright prospect from France. The son of a former track athlete, dad Felix 6'6, and a former basketball player mother LOD 6'3, WBY was the most anticipated rookie since LeBron James 20 years earlier. It was a given he would be the top pick in the 2023 draft. >> Howdy, y'all. This is me. We're in San Antonio. Now, >> the jump from the Paris suburbs to central Texas and one of the NBA's smallest markets might be a considerable one, please. For Webby, it was the perfect pairing of player and franchise. >> The franchise with the greatest coach of all time. The franchise with a a big French history as well. >> Yeah. Just a winning a winner's franchise, you know, >> greatest coach of all time. You're talking about Pop. Yeah. Talking about Greg Papovit, who you played for and got very close to. What's the most important thing he ever told you?

>> One lesson that often comes up is uh about humility. He often said something when we were in film. After a win, you're rarely as good as you thought you were. And after a loss, you're rarely as bad as you thought you were. >> Papovic suffered a stroke and retired from coaching in 2025, but not before leading San Antonio to five NBA titles. The Spurs also nurtured two all-time centers and a bevy of international stars. Amid all that history, Wemi still stands out. Starting with the unique way he trains. After a blood clot in his shoulder shut down his second season, Webyama doubled down on his conditioning. We found him to be preoccupied, obsessed even with the ground level, that is his feet. He told us they hold the key not just to his mobility but his entire career. because uh big men have always had feet problems and uh I also find more and more that feet are responsible for so much more that goes on. It's funny because I was just talking to a rookie.

I went to the to practice barefoot and he sees me walking without shoes and he was like, "I didn't know you could just not wear shoes." [laughter] >> An evangelist for going barefoot, WBY went to work converting us. I try to walk barefoot as much as I can and wear minimalistic shoes. Those aren't minimalist. Those are maximalist. Those got a thick sole. You know, they're looking nice though if you want to. They look very nice. >> But these are what you wear just go really easy on the feet. You're not going to p them. Then you just slip those >> wear for 60 minutes interviews. >> His shoe size, as you're likely wondering 20. >> Basically, you need to you need to strengthen your feet. and what shoes do, like shoes like yours for example, they don't respect the natural shape of the foot. >> When he was done insulting my favorite pair of shoes, he concluded his dissertation. >> If you got a good foot strength, which brings a good foot posture, everything else can develop the right way. Knee, hip, and back, everything. >> You appreciate that. Never mind athletes, not all people have your level of curiosity. Yeah, it's the defining trait of mine.

>> In the summer of 2025, Curiosity took him to China where he went to live, learn kung fu, and meditate alongside Buddhist monks. >> How'd you do with it? >> Uh, it was hard be because they pushed it to the next level. It was really hard. I think the first very first day it was an hour 40 of meditation, silence to complete silence. It was crazy. It was really hard. You've never done anything like that? >> Nothing close to that. >> What was the longest you could go meditating? >> I was probably locked in for 30 minutes >> and then an hour and a half wondering how much longer is it going [laughter] to go on for? Yeah. >> Someone told me you meditate briefly in between free throws. >> You could call that meditation, I guess. >> Where do your thoughts go? I think centering back uh you know thinking that it's it's at the end of the day just a regular shot because when you try to make it too technical it becomes like a robot.

>> You're trying to think about nothing or think about something very specifically >> nothing for a second and then focusing on making the shot. >> You know your free throw percentage >> 82 say it was like 82%. You're doing something right. >> Could be better. >> Not by much. Historically, NBA centers have averaged less than 70%. [cheering] This past summer, Wemi returned to France where, no surprise, he's wildly popular. We joined him in Nantair, the district outside Paris, where he was first spotted as a teenager. He runs an annual tournament here that combines his sport with another of his curiosities. He popped in for a game of one-on-one with a fellow prodigy. This one age nine >> as opponents go. How tough was Louise? >> Was she the last one with the glasses? >> Yeah, >> she was she was tough.

>> The New York Knicks needed five games to beat WBY Louise 16 minutes. [applause] >> Explain the basketball chess overlap. Is there a basketball chess overlap? >> Yes, there is. I find that chess is a lot about decision- making and that looks like basketball a lot at least in theory because there are some theoretical good moves. >> We got bullsh on three. One, two, three. >> On the same trip home, he hosted his first teammates [screaming] first on the court, then on the send. >> What did you want to show them about your country, your culture? I wanted to show them, you know, the the refinement at times, but also how I I I would take care of them, you know, because it's it it really matters to me. But it it did more for me than for them that they came because >> because I don't know, I just take it very it goes straight to my heart.

>> What about the reverse? When friends and family in in France say, "What's it like living in the US?" When they ask me what's what it's like to live in the US, my answer is always, well, I don't know because I don't live a normal life in the US. I live the life of an athlete, of a rich person, uh, you know, the life of somebody that's going to have everything taken care taken care of, you know, no matter what I do really. So, it's not it's not the life of an the regular American, but um, it's is the best country to be an athlete in. You acknowledge you don't live a typical existence here, but but even so, what about this country has struck you? >> Good or bad? >> One of each. >> Good is how like you never it feels like you're never judged for being ambitious. Bad I would say uh I think the social interactions are more shallow here, more not as in-depth as u what I've seen in other countries. Shortly after we visited with Web in Texas, student protests broke out in his home country.

>> "I hear them and I support them," he said of the students. "This cander is part of the Webby deal. Double teamed yet unguarded, unafraid to display emotion, and he can trace the origin." >> Was there a moment when you said, "I don't want to be guarded anymore?" >> Uh, yeah, there is. I think the the condition I had early 2025, the thrombosis, it's uh had a hu huge impact on this. >> He's referring to that blood clot which changed his outlook. >> After that, it's like life's so short. I don't I don't even want to waste it being somebody else, you know? Simple as that. >> The new NBA season is less than two weeks old. The league's new face and tallest starting player comes with outsized ambitions both for his team >> and for himself.

>> You were upfront last year. I should have won the MVP. You made a strong case. I'm guessing your your views haven't changed on that. >> You should have won the MVP. >> That's what you said. >> Did I? >> Should you have won the MVP last year? >> Uh, no. I should win it this year though. [laughter] The last minute of 60 Minutes is sponsored by United Healthcare Medicare plans. A Medicare experience designed for what's next. >> There's an old adage, don't complain unless you're prepared to do something about it. When it comes to American politics, it seems we're long on belly aching and short on showing up. How short? Consider Texas, where Ken Paxton is the Republican candidate for Senate in Tuesday's midterms. He defeated John Cornin, who has served as a Texas senator for nearly a quarter century.

Turnout in that primary runoff, just over 7% of the state's registered voters. A small slice of the electorate, a big say in everyone's future. Elsewhere, voters are showing up in force. In Israel, this past week, some 77% of registered voters went to the polls to weigh in on their country's future. In America's 250th anniversary year, what better way to celebrate our democracy than to take part in it. This Tuesday, have your say like millions of you already have. I'm Bill Whitaker. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.