Curry, Durant, LeBron: Wembanyama drives NBA stars crazy

His name is on the lips of all NBA scouts. Victor, Victor, Victor. Easier and easier than saying his surname, Wembanyama. A bit like Giannis for Antetokounmpo. He is the common destiny of the new phenomena of world basketball. Because Victor, after two performances in Las Vegas in friendly matches organized to show off in front of the top experts of the great US league, left everyone speechless.

Not only and not so much for the numbers he has produced on the pitch, but for his style of play, elegant and powerful at the same time, which he can combine, taking advantage of all his 224 cm of height and 244 cm of arms opening in all five roles of basketball. So much so that now there seem to be no more doubts: he will be the first absolute choice of the 2023 Draft and the line of teams that aim to call him has already formed. It will be a struggle to lose among the less competitive ones for the ranking, that is to aim to place in the last positions to get to choose Victor, a bad habit tolerated by the system on which Commissioner Adam Silver will have to watch.

dna

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Victor didn’t come to Las Vegas by accident or because he grew 20 centimeters in one summer. His physique is shaping up, today it is a beautiful birch under the quintal of weight. In France he has been Victor for a long time, even in Europe he made himself known by attending the cups. Last year at the Villeurbanne of the Parker brothers he played an average of 17 ‘in the Euroleague but for this season he decided to project himself into the NBA working on himself at the Metropolitans of coach Collet, the interim coach of France, Olympic and European vice champion, far from the spotlights, without cups and without title objectives. A year to grow as a center that tows, crushes and rebounds but can also be lethal from the perimeter with its long-range triples.

All aimed at landing in the NBA, partly anticipated in the two performances in Nevada, playing a limited number of games, just to avoid stress injuries, working hard in the gym to put on muscles and kilos. The plan has started a long time ago, since he was a child. Victor has basketball in his DNA: his maternal grandfather played in the French Serie A in the 1960s; her mother Elodie de Fautereau was a good basketball player and her first coach in Le Chesnay, the Parisian suburb where Victor was born in the winter of 2004; his sister Eve and his brother Oscar, a promise of the Villeurbanne youth teams, also go to the basket. Only dad Felix, long jumper of Congolese origin in the 90s, has never taken the ball in his hand. To make his dream come true, Victor began traveling as a child, at 12 he left home to join the Nanterre youth academies where at 16 he made his debut in the first team and in Eurocup.

the aces of today

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Now everyone is predicting him as the strongest NBA player of the next decade. Even the big names of today are admired. “He is strong. He looks like the player you create in videogames – says Steph Curry, play of the Warriors champions in office -. He is nice to see. Against Team Ignite he played two fun games”. Kevin Durant applauds him: “He has that kind of talent that makes you smile – the Brooklyn winger describes it -. The evolution of the game has brought us this far. We have a 2m 24 boy who can do it. all in the field “.

LeBron James sees him off the planet earth: “Everyone has become unicorns in recent years, but he is like an alien – argues the Lakers ace -. No one has ever seen a player so tall yet so fluid and elegant in his movements. He knows how to do everything on the pitch: he puts the ball on the ground, shoots from three points, shoots from the low post, tows. He is certainly a generational talent. The important thing is that he always remains healthy. ” And if he says so …