American basketball fans aren’t screaming his name yet, but the entire NBA already has eyes only for Victor Wembanyama. The Frenchman is the favorite to be the No. 1 in the next draft.
To say that the craze is enormous around the 18-year-old French phenomenon is an understatement. More than 70 media were accredited for his very first match in the United States on Tuesday evening, lost (122-115) with his club Metropolitans de Boulogne-Levallois against the G-League Ignite. A team made up of young talents, likely like him to be selected by a franchise in 2023.
And they were not disappointed with the trip: Wembanyama displayed his immense talent with 37 points (7 winning shots out of 11) and 5 blocks, managing to raise his level in his duel from distance with another great hope, Scoot Henderson, designated rival in the fight for the top of the draft.
‘It’s the biggest game in the history of the G-League!’, exclaimed before kick-off, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, boss of this development league. ‘It’s very exciting. It’s not every year that we have two players who are considered the best prospects in the draft, without at least one of them playing in university, “said this former rightly. winger-shooter, Olympic champion in 2000 with Team USA.
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After his resounding performance, in the Dollar Loan Center, a 5,000-seat room filled with half of inspired basketball fans, who can boast of having seen the first steps of an extraordinary player (2.21 m, 2, 43 m wingspan) called to be the future face of the NBA, he bowed to his second press conference in two days, in a dedicated room far too small to accommodate all the journalists.
Wembanyama, who said that this match and the rematch scheduled for Thursday would be “the most important of (his) life in terms of world exposure”, was not mistaken. What preceded – the airing on ESPN, the cover of the reference magazine SLAM, which at the time praised the enormous potential of LeBron James when he was still a high school student, the comparisons with Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo even Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, did not prevent him from remaining unmoved.
Wembanyama, accompanied to the United States by his parents and the entire staff of Comsport, the agency of the ‘Frenchies’ playing in the NBA, easily managed to control all this enthusiasm and pressure, with a relaxed and confident in itself confusing. ‘What makes players like Victor special is their ability to manage everything, the expectations, the excitement they generate. And once the kick-off is given, they manage to focus on the game and be really good,” said Abdur-Rahim. ‘His maturity is impressive, for an 18-year-old boy. He knows who he is, what he wants and the efforts to be made to get it, ”summarized, admiringly, his trainer Vincent Collet.
‘It’s talent’
‘When you’re dealing with unique players like Victor, you can’t be surprised. He is able to do what normal players can’t. It’s talent ‘, added the coach of the France team, finalist of the last Olympic Games and Euro, who can see with relish the next international deadlines with this diamond that he will work to polish.
Proof of the importance of Wembanyama in the eyes of the NBA, it was she who had the idea of organizing two friendly matches involving the Metropolitans 92, yet already engaged in the French championship. This had never happened before for a ‘prospect’.
All in front of some 200 representatives of the league, who came to scrutinize it. “The general managers and scouts of the thirty franchises are all very excited,” said Abdur-Rahim.
Even those who have little hope of selecting him for the June 22, 2023 draft, because the first choice will go to one of the five teams that ended up with the worst records of the past regular season. The preferential position will be determined by a draw.
Obviously, there is no guarantee that he will certainly become the first French No. 1 in the draft. And no one knows yet which team cap Victor will wear when he shakes hands with Adam Silver. But the story is well and truly underway. And with it a probable ‘Wembamania’ in America.
/ATS
