HIt’s been a while since we talked about Victor Wembanyama as number 1 in the NBA draft in 2023. Since he was a quinceaero. At the age of 16, the experts in young talents already considered him “the best project in the world regardless of your age”. Now, at 18, the noise is already thunderous. And more after the two games he has played on American soil. before the project Ignite of the G Leaguewhere he militates Scoot Hendersonanother top draft contender, has averaged 36.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4.5 blocks with a 9/18 triple and a variety of resources and movements that have amazed the basketball planet and make it the most impressive rookie since LeBron James.
Wembanyama, during training in the United States.
The French prodigy has followed a plan to get to number 1 that everyone predicts, but it would have been impossible without an amazing chassis: 2.20 meters high, 2.31 wingspan, 94 kilos, a 56 foot… It is family heirloom. His mother played basketball at the Stade Franais and guided his first steps in basketball, for which he decided after trying judo and as a soccer goalkeeper. His father was a long jumper.reaching 7.41 meters as the best mark. His sister Eve won gold in a Eurobasket U16 and his brother Oscar plays handball.
Wembanyama breaks it again: 36+11+4+4 in his second match against the BNA scouts
Play the Mini Cup with Barcelona
But genes without work are of little use. Wembanyama, born in a village near Versaillespolished his talent in the Nanterre 92 at the orders of Pascal Donnadieu. He became the second youngest player to debut in the Eurocupbut combined the first team with the Pole France from Nationale Masculine 1, where it was too much. Before, in 2018, had tried with Barcelona in the Gran Canaria Mini Cupwon by Real Madrid con This is John Ndiayenow in the first team, as MVP.
Wembanyama making himself known in the United States, but before he did it in the Mini Cup in a barbaric way
In 2021, Victor turned his career around signing for the ASVEL Villeurbanne who presides Tony Parker. She arrived at Euroleaguewhere he left some signs of his conditions despite playing little. only 13 meetings with averages of 6.5 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.9 blocks and 5.5 PIR and mediocre percentages: 37.3% shooting from two, 30.3% from triples and 66.7% from free throws . Everything indicates that it will take time to see him again in the highest European competition if he does. Going to the NBA without having tasted it. It is no longer necessary to become a star in America. Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpowho have shared the last four MVPs of the competition, are two good examples.
An ideal team to work and show off
Last summer Wembanyama left ASVEL to go to the more modest Metropolitans 92, which does not even play European competition. It might sound weird, but it was part of his plan: a smaller team, with a greater capacity to show off and do numbers, with less match load, with more time for individual workunder the command of the French coach Vincent Collet… And with the possibility of doing a tour of the United States in which he has finished propping up his number 1 pick in the draft.
All has won the individual duel with Scoot Hendersonthe only one who could shade him. “He’s a great player. If I hadn’t been born, he could be number 1,” said the Frenchman, bravado at his first press conference in America. Last year he also emerged victorious from a confrontation with Chet Holmgram, second in the last draft and another young man called to great goals in the NBA. They met in the final of the U19 World Cup. The United States won 83-81, but Wembanyama finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, eight blocks and a PIR of 30. The two share a thin and apparently frail physique. The American will miss his first course due to injury. He may be the only threat to both of them.
Everyone has labeled him a unicorn, but he is an alien. I have never seen anyone as tall as him play so smoothly and elegantly.
The two French games in the United States have been the epicenter of the NBA these days. The preseason has been in the background. Representatives of all the franchises and stars of the League have gathered in the stands, who did not want to miss the opportunity to see the prodigy. “Everyone has labeled him a unicorn, but he is an alien. I have never seen anyone as tall as him play so smoothly and gracefully. Nobody has seen it”, has analyzed LeBron Jameswhom he had occasion to greet.
This was the duel between Scoot Henderson and Wembanyama: their fight to be No. 1 in the 2023 Draft
With all that, The NBA is now presented with a problem: the ‘tanking’, get lost to have more options to choose in the first place of the draft. It has been in the past, but now the interest in having a generational player can turn the season into a madness of defeats, dubious injuries, breaks that are difficult to justify… “It looks like starting a race to the bottom like we’ve never seen before”assures the general manager of a franchise. It is estimated that the value of the team that acquires Wembanyama will increase by $500 million just by drafting him first on draft night.. It will be the consummation of the plan of the unicorn, the alien or whatever you want to call it. It will also be the beginning of an era in the NBA.
