Victor Wembanyama Has Arrived for Good
LAS VEGAS — The Wembanyama Week festivities have come to a close here amongst the neon signs and freeways, but the story itself is very much beginning. This thing is starting to feel like a real life tall tale, and no, that’s not supposed to be a height-related pun. Eighteen-year-old Victor Wembanyama is not physically here to stay—he’s headed back to France to continue the Pro A season with his club, Metropolitans 92—but with two dazzling showcase games against G League Ignite (and top U.S.-born prospect Scoot Henderson), Wembanyama has arrived for good.
Wembanyama and Henderson showed up for a historic duel Tuesday night that immediately belongs in the annals of basketball history, as the two brought the best out of one another in front of a sea of scouts in a game Ignite narrowly won. Thursday’s tilt tipped at noon local time and unsurprisingly lacked the same energy, compounded by the fact Henderson played just four minutes before knocking knees with Wembanyama on a switch, getting the worst of it, and sitting the rest of the game as a precaution.
Alone at center stage, Wembanyama shone bright a second time, following up Tuesday’s 37-points, seven three-pointers and five blocks with arguably a more complete performance in a comeback win. He finished with 36 points on 11-of-24 shooting and 12 made free throws, 11 rebounds, four assists and four blocks, galvanizing his team with more aggressive defense and play on the glass, to the delight of his coach, Vincent Collet. “That’s one of his characteristics,” Collet said. “He’s doing new things most every day. That’s talent.”
While Henderson (who is officially day-to-day with a bone bruise) has been naturally cast as Wembanyama’s presumptive foil as a candidate for the No. 1 selection, the truth of the matter is that there hasn’t been a whole lot of spirited debate around the league about it, and it has nothing to do with any flaws in Henderson’s game. Not when Wembanyama is bombing threes, altering countless shots, running the floor, finishing plays and displaying real leadership qualities in the process, helping lead a pair of comebacks by impacting both ends.
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“He’s got a skillset that’s kind of hard to match up with because he’s so tall,” said Ignite head coach Jason Hart. “He’s like a big small forward in a five-man’s body.”
Wembanyama is very arguably the most skilled basketball-playing teenager on earth, while he’s listed at 7’ 2”, tells reporters he’s 7’ 3”, and, to some speculative observers, may be taller than that. There are areas where he can certainly improve—rebounding, passing, ball-screen defense—and for scouts, avoiding groupthink is crucial. And yet, however one might come to their own conclusion, this just doesn’t seem like the year to have a strong contrarian opinion about which player should be taken first.
Entering this week, whatever questions did linger around the NBA about Wembanyama’s place as 2023’s consensus top prospect presumably stemmed from the fact that only a small subset of team decision-makers had gone abroad to see him in person. To varying extents, the pandemic limited the past couple years of international travel. Plus, top executives typically spend more time with their teams than scouting abroad, and not every scout works internationally. After this week, certainly Wembanyama’s visibility is no longer an issue. Many franchises (I won't name names, but most of them are preparing for losing seasons) flew in large chunks of their front offices to watch him practice and play. And if anyone left disappointed with what they saw, that would be their problem.
From the perspective of Wembanyama and his management, you only interrupt your team’s season to fly around the world to play two exhibition games against the next-best guy in order to prove a point—essentially, that he’s not hiding from anyone and doesn’t need to.
When I landed in Vegas on Monday, the hottest topic amongst NBA personnel in attendance at Ignite and Metropolitans 92’s respective practice sessions was whether or not he would shut his season down to protect his health and draft stock. By Wednesday, his agent had gone on record with ESPN emphasizing that Wembanyama very much intends to compete for a full season. And as I understand it, that message is coming straight from the source: Victor himself is far too competitive to entertain the idea of sitting out games when healthy.
Like many around the NBA, this was also my first experience seeing Wembanyama play up close, and as the arbiter of this website’s draft rankings, it’s hard to imagine what earthly events would have to transpire to shift his place atop my board. After spending the past 11 years watching and evaluating basketball prospects on their way to the NBA, Wembanyama is the best one I’ve ever seen in person. His defensive impact was easy to understand on film, but he shoots the ball even better than you might expect, and his overall comfort level handling it is something that has to be witnessed to fully comprehend. There’s a sense of wonderment that comes with watching him play—and how much he seemed to be enjoying himself—which makes it tough for even the most impartial of observers to keep a stiff lip.
There were many of them: Wembanyama’s presence in Vegas also overlapped with a pair of Lakers preseason contests against the Suns and Timberwolves. That meant Chris Paul, Devin Booker and countryman and close confidant Rudy Gobert were among those in attendance at his games. It also led to some high praise from LeBron James, who called Wembanyama a ‘generational talent’ and an ‘alien,’ comments that were recycled not only by the usual outlets, but by decidedly non-sports platforms including Fox News and The Daily Mail. In other words, this phenomenon has begun to woo not just scouts, but search engines.
“If I was amazed by all this [attention] it would mean I’m satisfied with it, but I’m not,” Wembanyama said. “The state I’m at right now, it’s not enough.”
Wembanyama carried himself with real honesty in front of the press all week and spoke thoughtfully and comfortably, and his own cool approach away from the court will score him highly unnecessary extra credit with teams that are already positioning themselves to select him. He celebrates his teammates’ successes, relishes defense as much as offense, and doesn’t play for the cameras, though they find him anyway. When asked specifically about James’s compliments, Wembanyama’s humility felt genuine. “It’s obviously an honor to see such great people talk like this about me,” he told reporters Wednesday. “The thing is I didn’t do anything yet. I didn’t play a game in the NBA yet, I didn’t get drafted. I gotta stay focused to be able to reach my goals.”
Special teams can be built around athletes who combine incredible talent with unusual self-awareness and maturity. They emerge sparingly. The comparisons have been all over the place, and we’re all struggling to find them. Considering the total package Wembanyama brings, he might be best framed as—if all goes well—this generation’s answer to Tim Duncan, a winning infrastructure and organizational spine unto himself. Suffice it to say that it’s very hard for teenagers to fake that level of comportment.
So, whether being the No. 1 pick come June is especially high on Wembanyama’s to-do-list or not, that likelihood is even more significant after what transpired this week. It’s a discussion he may already have put to rest.
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