He has become the new face of French basketball in the United States. A prodigy of his sport, perhaps the greatest future, he moved to the San Antonio Spurs last year. Victor Wembanyama, who is the first Frenchman chosen in first position in the NBA draft, panics all the counters and attracts all the cameras.
At 20 years old, “Wemby” is expected to reign over the American championship, he is already being talked about as the future best player in the world. For comparison, Tony Parker won the first of his four NBA titles at age 21. “It is undoubtedly a player like we’ve never seen before“, notes Ryad Ouslimani, expert journalist in the NBA. “He is fascinating in the way he constantly evolves with a basketball IQ that appears to be above average“.
His physical qualities also contribute to the player’s image. “Every two or three years, for around fifteen years, we see physical phenomena disembark and do things that we hadn’t seen before”, underlines Julien Lepron, basketball referent at the Business sports observatory.
Victor Wembanyama is not the only Frenchman to shine, we can also cite Rudy Gobert or Evan Fournier. France is the third most represented country in the NBA behind the United States and Canada. “We don’t just produce stars,” recalls Ryad Ouslimani. “You also have role players, lieutenants, supporting roles or players who have a specificity. You have a Nicolas Batum who has been in the NBA for a decade, Bilal Coulibaly who arrived last year in Washington and who made his place there, you had before Boris Diaw, Evan Fournier…”, he recalls. And a whole generation of young talents who could arrive in the next draft, to further swell the French ranks in the NBA for the next decade.
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2024-05-23 18:51:56
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