There is nothing so extraordinary, so gratifying and so hopeful as expectation. Chet Holgrem and Victor Wembanyama bring that to the table: expectation.
Basketball 3.0 is among us. This sport, which once rested on Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, on Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, today has a new paradigm in tow. The future anticipates a new rivalry of similar styles that may be a trend for new generations: Chet Holmgren versus Victor Wembanyama.
There is nothing so extraordinary, so gratifying and so hopeful as expectation. Holgrem and Wembanyama bring that to the table: expectation. Think not only about what they are but what they can be.
The evolution of the game invites a new biotype unknown until yesterday with stylized arms, infinite centimeters, overwhelming extension and superlative skill. Basketball, with this new class in competition, is a shuffle and re-give. It is not yet known if it will be, but what is seductive is the hysteria of what could be. It’s not a new X on the map: it’s a totally different map. They can shoot, they can rebound, they can block. They are the true lab-built wild card: they are what they are because coaches anticipated their potential and cornered them at young ages for whatever they are. Fight nature to expel them from the comfort zone. Anticipate this versatile hybrid world, with the possibility that one can do it all.
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It is, words more, words less, the survival of the fittest. The XXL and XXXL versions of Kevin Durant faced back to back. Two perennial supernatural athletes who have aroused sighs since their early years. It’s not so much about what they did but what they can do; It is the potential that is at stake here.
And in this duel of notables, Holmgren looks better today than Wemby in the rookie head-to-head. The reasons are logical: Although Chet was unable to play due to his foot injury last year, he did have a full season to observe coach Mark Daigneault’s system. The habits are not new: it is included as an additional card to a team that already worked before. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey transferring, Holmgren slips into the squad like a hand in a kid glove. It is an immediate improvement: in fact, no one is surprised to see OKC today as the second in the Western Conference.
To reach this moment, this young Thunder core had to bite the dust of defeat countless times. Crash, learn, grow and then compete.
Wembanyama’s case is different from Holmgren’s because he arrived in a different environment. To a place that goes through another stage. He came to a franchise in the midst of reconstruction with the sole mission of learning. Gregg Popovich threw the French wild card into the water so that he received all the possible blows. So that he understands that the rose is beautiful but it has thorns. The path is arduous, difficult, but if he manages to go through the darkness he will be able to reach the light.
The culture of man in the rock: it is not about the blow that breaks the stone but about the hundred that preceded it.
Holmgren has a usage rate – the percentage of a team’s possessions that a player takes when he is on the court – of 21.6%. Wembanyama is at 29.4%, but it once had 30.2%. This is an outrageous number for a rookie who makes his first weapons. That he receives in different sectors of the field, that he is still a teenager who has to discover what life is about, and also, what this game is about. Back and front. Blocking shots and deflecting them.
Chet Holmgren, with the ball, plays under the radar for the Thunder, an emerging power. In San Antonio, all eyes and all hopes are on Victor Wembanyama. AP Photo/Nate Billings
So much responsibility inevitably translates into losses, with almost four per game since the regular season began.
Wembanyama learns in training with the advice of legends like Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili, and in games with the mistakes he makes. With the fouls he receives. With the untimely movements that he makes. All growing up mistakes: you don’t have to have a very keen eye to realize that we are in the presence of someone special. A sporting unicorn, with everything that means.
Let’s look at it this way: if Chet has Shai or Giddey in the transfer, Wemby has a point guard “invented” in recent times: Jeremy Sochan. The multicolored forward is today a new point-forward for Pop and is part of this invisible reconstruction carried out by the monochrome franchise. It is not surprising that the Spurs are at the bottom of the standings: this season was not faced to win but to add momentum. First you have to read a lot and listen a lot to encourage yourself to rehearse some lines.
Simply put, Wembanyama is the future and Holmgren is the present. In terms of potential, there is no point of comparison: the French internal has more size, more extension and more resources, but it is still green. It is a fruit that needs to ripen before it can be properly savored. Whoever rushes it will only feel the bitterness of disappointment due to impatience.
The NBA is preparing great chapters for this budding rivalry. We, lovers of this sport, know that this story is just beginning. One is now, the other is tomorrow, and both will be in the next few years.
Choose your own adventure.
Basketball, the recurring owner of our nights, has, once again, another great story to tell us up its sleeve.
2023-12-05 16:09:00
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