Victor Wembanyama has gone above and beyond in his basketball career: He keeps his word.
The 7-foot-4 center, who donated a San Antonio Spurs jersey nearly a year ago when he officially debuts in the NBA in October 2023, said his goal is to “become something you’ve never seen before.”
Boy, did he deliver.
Wembanyama, 19, has been looked at in disbelief ever since he, like his mom Elodie and several other family members, took up basketball.
He was born in Le Chesnay, a small town outside Paris, France, and grew up with Elodie in the gymnasium of his hometown basketball team when she coached different youth teams.
His visit will leave a deep impression on people.
“When he was five years old, everyone thought he was only 10,” recalls Emmanuel Salavas, who would coach the basketball prodigy at the local Chesnay Concorde de Versailles club.
Before Wembanya turned 10, he was already 5 feet 10 inches tall, causing the coach of France’s Nanterre basketball team to mistake him for a team assistant during an under-11 game.
Coach Michael Allard ensured that Nanterre included Wimby in his youth set-up – and the rising star soon proved to be more than just an impossibly tall teenager.
“He just played the game with ease — no-look pass, creator, no pressure, no positioning, 3-point shooting — he was everywhere,” recalls the center’s current agent, Buna Ndiaye.
“It was such a joy to watch.”
Meanwhile, Wembanyama has shown a surprising amount of confidence and maturity – turning down the approach of Barcelona, one of the best basketball teams in Europe, because he didn’t feel the challenge was enough.
These intangibles allow him to further improve his feel for the game and smooth out rough edges, such as his tendency to turn the ball over.
In this way, as the years passed, the legend of the “unicorn” from France began to spread.
Complete package. A generation of talents. alien. Cheat codes. These are among the other phrases used to describe the young Frenchman, ultimately leading to comparisons to LeBron James.
Meanwhile, his embrace of the spotlight has only increased public opinion.
“I think, this is what I was born for,” Wembanyama told The Associated Press in 2022.
“Everything that happened to me was what I expected of myself. So it was just a list of expectations.
“I’m not surprised what happened to me. Yeah, it’s happening and that’s how I’ve been able to handle it and I think I’ve handled it pretty well.”
After Wimby showcased his talent in an October 2022 doubleheader between the Mets 92 and the G League Ignite, Wimby fever was forever prevalent in the United States.
The NBA is even streaming 92 Mets games from the 2022-23 season on its streaming service League Pass.
When he finally arrived for the 2023 NBA Draft, he was given an entire auditorium to accommodate all the reporters who wanted to attend his press conference.
Other candidates held pre-draft interviews in groups of six, sitting at small tables in the conference room downstairs and talking to the media.
ESPN’s cameras never stopped tracking the Frenchman during the 2023 Las Vegas Summer League.
The network documented him entering and exiting the Thomas & Mack Center dressing room before Tottenham games, although nearly identical footage was produced each time.
At an NBA auction, Wembanyama’s jersey from his underwhelming summer league debut fetched more than $40,000 with just over six days to go.
The No. 1 pick averaged 19.3 points, 5.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists in the first three preseason games of 2023 while shooting 33.3% from three-point range.
But his name barely stopped trending on social media during the Spurs game, especially as the center filled his highlight reel with spectacular blocks.
Impressively, the center’s physical attributes allow him to recover from impossible positions after a poor performance and knock down shots that almost no other player can achieve.
The skill, the character, the hype – Wembanyama is truly something the NBA has never seen before, and he’s exactly what he promises to be.
The first words, Wenbi. You have accomplished your goal.