He is the other architect of “Wembamania”. The arrival by the front door of Victor Wembanyama in the NBA, drafted in first position by San Antonio, is the culmination of several years of meticulous preparation orchestrated by his agent, Bouna Ndiaye, one of the most influential on the planet, at the head of Compport.
“With Victor, we are dealing with someone atypical in every sense of the word, both mentally and physically. You have to adapt everything to him. We put a lot of energy into it, but it’s exciting !”, Said Ndiaye, watching his 2.24m colt attempt a few shots, for the first time in the white Spurs jersey, in the AT&T Arena. A few moments earlier, it is visibly more tired, that he had bowed to yet another press conference, two days after becoming the first Frenchman in the history of the N.1 draft.
But how tall is Wembanyama really?
YESTERDAY AT 3:57 PM
We can feel the pride and emotion modestly dawning on this 58-year-old man, whose career is nevertheless punctuated with successes, with, in almost 20 years, around thirty players from his team who have signed in the NBA, and very big blows, like the record contract signed in 2020 by Rudy Gobert ($205 million over five years) with Utah. But none of this compares to the “Wembamania” that has only just begun in the United States, long before the 19-year-old French prodigy’s first official match.
So, after several days of an intense media whirlwind, from New York to San Antonio, where the reception reserved by the fans embraced a certain excess, seeing Victor finally dunk on the floor of the Spurs is a precious moment. It allows you to measure the progress made.
Victor Wembanyama likes San Antonio, where he will play in the NBA next season.
Credit: Getty Images
“An Extraordinary Boy”
“About 30 years ago, I was pushed a bit to become an agent, because at the time I was taking care of kids in Grigny (Essonne), in the city of La Grande Borne. And one day, the one of them said to me ‘but why don’t you become my agent? It’s in you that I trust'”. He created Comsport in 1995, with Jérémy Medjana, admires David Falk, Michael Jordan’s agent, and draws inspiration from Pape Diouf, a football icon, for his ability to establish a relationship of trust, almost family with the players.
“My first decision was to deal only with French and Africans. I was told ‘you are crazy, the best basketball players are Americans, foreigners have no value. I replied: ‘well it will change. And today I am in Forbes, ranked among the most influential agents in the world, all sports combined”, he smiles. “Through the years, we have been able to sharpen our know-how, with all the players we have supported in the NBA, Didier Mbenga, Ian Mahinmi, Ronny Turiaf, Rodrigue Beaubois, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier…” , he continues.
“Today, we are in the footsteps of an extraordinary boy. Up there (in his head, editor’s note) things are going very, very quickly. He is ready. For him, what is happening is normal, because he has been preparing for it for a long time. And we have to use all the accumulated experience, remember the mistakes we may have made too, in his service, “said Ndiaye, observing the player’s mother sitting nearby.
Wembanyama, first steps in the Spurs room
fierce competition
“From the start there are connections, because with Elodie we have known each other for 35 years, he says. She was training my son when he was four years old. When Victor started talking about him, Jérémy (Medjana ) said to me: ‘there is this kid, you have to go see him!’ He was 12. I didn’t want to, because if someone had come to see my son at that age, I would have sent him ch…”
“By dint of insistence, I ended up going to observe him. We kept in touch and when he was 15, we started to put things in place, with specificities for each of the sectors to be worked on. A medical staff was mobilized, there was Guillaume Alquier, one of the best physical trainers, and there was daily management on the mental level…”, he lists.
All this so that Victor is armed to meet the challenge of the NBA. We also slip to Ndiaye that he too will have to beef up his game with Comsport, in the face of fierce competition which will not fail to want to steal his client. “Some American agents have already tried,” he cuts in smiling. “But we don’t deal with that. What matters are the results.”
Who aroused as many fantasies as Wembanyama before the draft?
Wembanyama, first steps in the Spurs room
YESTERDAY AT 06:45
Wembanyama makes his mark in San Antonio: “I feel in my place”
06/24/2023 At 7:53 PM
2023-06-26 19:31:02
#NBA #Agent #Bouna #Ndiaye #man #watches #Victor #Wembanyama
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