This is a first for a French player in the American Basketball League (NBA). The 2.24 m giant Victor Wembanyama, aka “Wemby”, was selected as the starter on Monday January 19 for the “All-Star Game”, scheduled for February 15 in Los Angeles.
This announcement is enough to galvanize the 22-year-old Frenchman, who was only chosen as a replacement last year. Satisfaction as he has had a complicated start to the season with his San Antonio Spurs team, due to a calf injury then a knee injury.
Victor Wembanyama, who was voted best NBA rookie in 2024, therefore adds a new line to his list of achievements and surpasses his French counterparts Tony Parker, Joakim Noah and Rudy Gobert, who never managed to be started for the All-Star Game, a culmination in a career as an international basketball player.
A tool for the American League
The All-Star Game is a sort of gala for the NBA. Originally, the tournament was organized by the young league to allow basketball, then criticized after several scandals, to improve its image among the public.
If its format has been slightly modified in recent years, the concept remains the same: the All-Star Game consists of an annual match between the best players from the East and West conferences of the NBA, which each brings together 15 teams who compete on each side of the country.
The success was immediate since its first edition, in 1951 in Boston, brought together 10,000 spectators. A figure that is derisory today but well above the average at the time, around 3,500 people per match.
The popularity of the competition has only grown over the years, now reaching several million spectators each year across the world. With an even more grandiose staging than for classic NBA matches, the objective today is to attract a new audience who would not necessarily be basketball fans.
A selection based on a voting system
If the announcement of the selection of the French champion is exceptional, it is because only ten players are chosen each year in the entire North American league to start at the event. Five players are designated in each of the two conferences, regardless of the position they play or their nationality.
This choice is based on a voting system of fans (50%), players (25%) and a panel of media (25%).
Due to a change in the format announced last November, in addition to the ten officially named players, 14 others will be chosen by coaches according to needs to complete the teams and thus reach a total of 16 players from the United States and 8 others from elsewhere, such as Wembanyama.
The format changed from this edition
These specific needs based on the nationality of the players can be explained by the new form that the All-Star Game will take from this 2026 edition. A concept already well known in other sports such as tennis, it will now be a question of pitting the United States against the rest of the world.
Thus, three teams of eight players will be set up. Two composed exclusively of American players and one bringing together the best international players.
Unlike classic NBA matches, the playing time is very short here, particularly at the request of players who want to avoid injury. The three teams will therefore play a group stage with matches lasting only 12 minutes, before a final between the two best.
A weekend of festivities
The All-Star Game is above all a spectacular event. It is for this reason that the matches were shortened in order to make them more dynamic for the spectators.
For two to three days, the meeting is an opportunity for fans to be able to observe in real life the greatest players in the world but also personalities from the music scene, fashion and even cinema who come to compete in various challenges, ball in hand.
The players themselves put on a show during the very famous shooting or shooting competitions. dunksFor example.
More of a spectacle than sport
This sensational aspect, however, is not to the taste of the majority of certain fans, who shun the event. The reason is the lack of sporting interest since, even on the field, the players seek to entertain the public with spectacular tricks, based on balls curled behind their backs or blind passes.
Aware that his tournament is today seen more as a demonstration of technique, NBA boss Adam Silver announced that he was tackling the problem: “I am optimistic that we have found a formula this year that will work. »
Victor Wembanyama, also critical of the previous model, had already expressed his intention to favor the competition aspect and promised to fight “on every possession” of ball.
