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So much of the intrigue and excitement around Victor Wembanyama is the sheer volume of superlatives he has already been showered in by basketball’s elite.
LeBron James has labelled him an ‘alien’, Steph Curry likened the French phenom to a video game ‘2K create-a-player’ while Kevin Durant believes the ‘league is really in trouble’ when Wembanyama is drafted No 1 in 2023.
Former NBA player-turned-ESPN-analyst Richard Jefferson believes Wembanyama is the ‘scariest’ prospect to ever head for the Association while many feel he is comfortably the greatest player to enter the league since LeBron walked in to Cleveland as ‘The Chosen One’ two decades ago.
Victor Wembanyama is being earmarked as one of the greatest NBA prospects ever
And yet Wembanyama, the 18-year-old hailing from the French city of Le Chesnay, just outside of Paris, is not giving too much substance to the hype around him.
‘I’ve done nothing yet,’ he told reporters back in October. And yet here he stands, all 7ft3′ barefoot with an 8ft – EIGHT FOOT – wingspan, causing a rush to the bottom in the NBA in order for a team to land the No 1 pick needed to get him.
‘Tanking’ – facilitating losing to worsen a season record and increase the likelihood of a No 1 pick – has been monitored much more closely by the league in recent years. But when it comes to Wembanyama, those at NBA headquarters have been put on red alert.
There is a proverb from 19th century French poet Alfred de Musset that best encapsulates Wembanyama’s mindset right now, heading into one of the most important years of his life.
‘Il vaut mieux faire que dire,’ wrote Musset, which means ‘it is better to do, than to talk’.
Wembanyama (right) shook hands with LA Lakers star LeBron James (left) earlier this year
Wembanyama’s steady rise to superstardom has been guided by mum Elodie and dad Felix
There is no greater example in Wembanyama’s young career of doing, rather than talking, than when he headed for Las Vegas and two matches against NBA G League Ignite in October.
Wembanyama, who plays for Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 of the French LNB Pro A league, was finally heading Stateside for his first games in the US and he would come up against projected No 2 pick.
More than 200 scouts heading for Sin City solely to catch a glimpse of this ‘alien’ dominating basketball discourse in Europe. Only Adele in 2022 can stake a claim to have caused as much of a frenzy in Vegas as Wembanyama did back in October.
With Phoenix Suns stars Chris Paul and Devin Booker among the star names courtside Wembanyama put on a masterclass, finishing with 37 Points, 5 blocks and 4 rebounds.
The undisputed No 1 pick for 2023 went 7 of 11 from three and was 11 of 20 shooting from the floor overall.
His team may have lost 122-115, with Henderson impressing on the other side, but this was as other-worldly as many wanted to believe Wembanyama was really capable of. This was no longer a highlight reel from a gym in France, this was the teenager lighting it up in front of some of the game’s biggest decision makers. Cue an avalanche of praise.
‘When this kid comes, get ready,’ former League MVP and Finals MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo said of Wembanyama.
The 7ft4 big man has the handle of a point guard and the size to match any center in the NBA
He is refusing to get carried away despite being universally locked in as 2023’s No 1 pick
‘If you’re not ready, this kid is going to be a problem. I’ve never seen this before in my life. I saw him up close, he was on the same team as my brother Kostas.
‘He’s taller than Rudy Gobert but he can block shots like Rudy and shoot like KD. Crazy. And he has a good attitude. If he stays healthy, he’s going to be really good.’
‘He’s solid. He’s solid. He’s like the 2K create-a-player,’ Curry added. ‘Every point guard that wants to be seven foot – cheat code type vibes. He’s a solid talent.
‘It was great to watch. They had a pretty entertaining game with the Ignite team, So it was dope.’
Nit-picking Wembanyama’s game is tricky given he has the handle of a perimeter guard, the shooting of a wing and the vertical of any centre in the game.
Games in Europe are 40 minutes versus 48 minutes in the NBA and G League and so, by his own admission, stamina is the area of his game he now wants to improve.
‘I haven’t played in an NBA game yet. I wasn’t drafted, so I have to stay focused to achieve my goals,’ he said, ‘because it’s going to be difficult to improve every day and stay consistent.’
The biological cocktail for Wembanyama always gave him a chance of being, truly, one of a kind.
LeBron labelled him an ‘alien’ while Steph Curry has called Wembanyama a ‘cheat code’
Wembanyama (left) is expected to be drafted No 1 ahead of guard Scoot Henderson (right)
His father Felix Wembanyama, was a successful former high jumper, and stands at 6ft5 while his mother, Elodie de Fautereau, is 6ft2.
His brother Oscar is a prominent handball star while his older sister, Eve, plays basketball professionally, winning a gold medal with France at the 2017 U16 European Championship.
Sporting success, quite literally, runs in his blood.
‘I’ve always felt like I was on a different level,’ Wembanyama told the New York Times.
‘I was living a different life than everyone else in school, for example, even in elementary school. I was just thinking differently than everyone. I’ve always tried to be original in everything I do, and it’s really something that stays in my soul: Be original. Be one of a kind. It’s like, I can’t explain it. I think I was born with it.’
Wembanyama started his basketball journey with local team L’Entente Le Chesnay Versailles 78 Basket at the age of 7, having already tried his hand at judo and football, as a goalkeeper.
His growth was remarkable and not resplendent of friends who would have spurts in fits and starts. Wembanyama was tall, really tall, from young.
Le Chesnay doesn’t have too grand a sporting alumni to fall back on outside of Nicolas Anelka, the former Arsenal, Real Madrid and Chelsea striker. It won’t be long before Wembanyama is the greatest export the city has ever produced.
When he travelled to the US for the first time, Wembanyama was brought onto ESPN coverage
Even Anelka, who is a regular at courtside to watch Wembanyama before he heads for a new life in the States, has ‘Wemby fever’ as it’s been coined.
Drawing comparisons for Wembanyama never seem accurate. Names such as Durant, Antetokounmpo, Hakeem Olajuwon, Yao Ming and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar all get brought up but there really has never been a player walk into the league with the size of a big, the shot of a spot-up shooter and the handle of a point-guard. Wembanyama is like Wembanyama, no-one else.
2019 No 1 draft pick Zion Williamson was viral on a weekly basis with windmill dunks and all-round gravity-defying moves at college with Duke.
But Wembanyama is no stranger to going viral and one such incidence can be traced back to 2020 when the then 16-year-old Wembanyama made light work of then-Utah Jazz centre Rudy Gobert.
In footage that has been viewed more than 7.4million times, Wembanyama shoots over the multiple Defensive Player of the Year with ease and, dare we say, make a 7ft1 player look… short.
Offers from the Australian NBL, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Paris Basket soon came in but he elected to go home, close to his parents and enjoy his final run in France in familiar surroundings.
In basketball circles the name Holger Geschwindner rarely needs much of an introduction.
He appeared on the front page of Slam magazine, charting his journey to the NBA draft
Wembanyama stood next to PSG striker Kylian Mbappe (left), who the 7ft4 star is a huge fan of
Described as a ‘shooting sensei’ for Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki, Geschwindner is an icon of the coaching game and is said to have helped Durant with his shooting form.
In the summer of 2021 Wembanyama headed for Bavaria, specifically Wurzburg, in Germany to enter Geschwindner’s lab.
His form was deconstructed and rebuilt and while Geschwindner stressed to the teen, as well as his agent Bouna Ndiaye, to avoid being bullied into the weight room, the German shot doctor’s main takeaway was telling.
‘Victor doesn’t need any damn coach,’ he said. Generational stars rarely ever do.
#TankForWemby has taken over social media this season and NBA chief Adam Silver warned the league office would be closely monitoring teams who actively tanked in order to bolster their hopes of landing the No 1 pick, and ultimately Wembanyama.
He’s a franchise starter, a culture changer, that player you could build a championship-winning team around for a decade-plus.
For now Wembanyama is young with the brightest of spotlights on him. It is no wonder then that one of his biggest inspirations is Paris Saint-Germain striker Kylian Mbappe, who just hit a hat-trick in the World Cup final.
‘Of course, for many years. I realise that we have a lot in common,’ Wembanyama told PSG TV earlier this season about Mbappe.
‘He is one I relate to a lot. Kylian is the player who inspires me the most, but I want to be original and chart my own path.’
