Julius Erving: Victor Wembanyama Will Bring Back the Era of Dominant NBA Centers

Erving Sees Wembanyama Rewriting Positional Norms

The game has transformed. Today it relies heavily on perimeter play and versatile wings.

A Historical Shift From Interior to Perimeter

Erving noted that his own era looked entirely different. Every Most Valuable Player award from 1966 through 1982 was claimed by a center, with only Oscar Robertson just before that stretch and Erving himself serving as rare exceptions during a prolonged period of interior supremacy.

That rigid dominance eventually gave way to a perimeter-driven revolution featuring playmakers and high-scoring forwards like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Although traditional center play took a back seat as three-point shooting and floor spacing reshaped offensive philosophies, dominant big men like Shaquille O’Neal later proved that interior forces could still capture championships and command the floor.

The Modern Big Man and a Rare Talent

More recently, perennial MVP contenders such as Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Giannis Antetokounmpo have kept big men firmly in the conversation. Yet Erving believes Wembanyama represents an entirely different tier of disruption.

Standing at 2.24 meters (7-foot-4), the French phenom combines extraordinary length with exceptional mobility, ball-handling skills, deep shooting range, and elite rim protection. That multi-faceted skill set completely blurs traditional positional boundaries, earning praise from fellow basketball icons.

Parish Echoes High Praise for the Spurs Star

Earlier in the year, legendary Boston Celtics center Robert Parish offered a similar assessment of the San Antonio centerpiece. Parish remarked that Wembanyama belongs in a rare category of talents for whom the sport ultimately has to change its rules, noting that the young star’s current trajectory leaves opponents with virtually no defensive answers.

Wembanyama’s on-court production backs up the lofty praise from past greats.

Historic Production and Defensive Dominance

During the 2025-26 NBA season with the San Antonio Spurs, he appeared in 64 games while averaging 25.0 points, 11.5 total rebounds, and 3.1 blocks per contest, shooting 51.2 percent from the field and 34.9 percent from beyond the arc. Across his first three seasons in San Antonio, his scoring averages climbed steadily from 21.4 points as a rookie in 2023-24 to 24.3 points in 2024-25, and culminating in his 25.0-point output.

His defensive dominance also reached a historic milestone when he was named the NBA’s first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year. Furthermore, a third-place finish in MVP voting solidified his status as an early favorite for the honor in subsequent seasons.

While elite perimeter guards like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Brunson continue to drive high-powered offenses across the league, Wembanyama’s unique combination of size and skill challenges the established hierarchy. As he continues to expand his offensive repertoire and anchor the Spurs’ defense, the basketball world waits to see how opposing franchises will adapt to a talent capable of rewriting the playbook for modern centers.