Victor Wembanyama: The Rising Star of French Basketball in the NBA

Victor Wembanyama has been the basketball media phenomenon for several months. His first steps in the NBA were scrutinized by the whole world. And even if the Spurs’ collective level of play confines them to the bottom of the league, Wemby made a successful debut as an individual. Wembamania is real. It is in it, in its origins and in what it could become, that Society Magazine is interested in making us relive the past year while projecting us into those to come. A file in two papers, the second of which takes the opposite view of the first by telling us the adventures of the first (very) young French basketball players who left for the United States with the aim of joining the elite.

From Victor Wembanyama’s first matches, the statistics are there, the defensive level is very serious and the extraordinary gestures are carried out with unequaled ease for a body measuring more than 220 centimeters. The Alien is launched. But where does it come from? How did it get there? And above all, how far could this media and viral madness that accompanies it everywhere go? These are the questions that two journalists from Society tried to answer in an 8-page file devoted to Victor, the former Metropolitans player from Boulogne-Levallois. Fueled by numerous testimonies, the story immerses us in the life of this young person – still a teenager on the other side of the Atlantic – who does not seem to miss any step. He acts like a seasoned professional athlete, he doesn’t make a mistake, he applies himself, stays focused while responding to requests and expectations. It’s very strong and beyond the genetics which gave Victor Wembanyama an extraordinary body for basketball, all this can be explained if we look at his past. Incidentally, this raises the question of whether France is not in the process of meeting its most incredible talent.

Another question remains and will always remain behind such success: for a Wembanyama, how many have failed to realize their dream? This is the angle of the second paper of this big basketball file. A paper which tells us the adventures of the first young French basketball players who tried their luck in the United States with the aim of playing in the NBA. The hopes and setbacks of Samuel Nadeau and his roommate Kudjo Sogadzi, the help of Babacar Sy the coach with a big heart, are told to us in detail with the active participation of the three main actors. A whole program and slices of life which were not necessarily the most glorious of their existences. Before Victor Wembanyama and even before Tony Parker, at the very end of the 90s, they wanted to follow in the footsteps of Tariq Abdul-Wahad, the first Frenchman to have played in the NBA. It didn’t turn out the way they dreamed. Far from there.

If today, we rave about the fabulous destiny of Victor Wembanyama, about the careers in the NBA of players like Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Gobert, Evan Fournier or Boris Diaw, it is also good to remember and talk of his guys who, by taking their chances, opened up avenues.

“The big leap”, by Antoine Mestres and Grégoire Belhoste and “The Americans”, by Ianis Periac

Society Magazine n°219, from November 23 to December 6 Currently on newsstands or HERE Price: €4.50
2023-11-24 14:56:00
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