Visiting the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, Victor Wembanyama wore a dark green suit and a pendant that he thought looked like a miniature comic book galaxy. The attire he would go down in history in was the biggest unknown at the NBA draft ceremony when it came to the French center. Everyone knew he would be number one, the first chosen one. And so everyone knew he’d be playing for the San Antonio Spurs next season, who won the lottery last month. It was like this. Wembanyama, 19 years old and about 2.24 meters tall (7ft 4in is his interim official height), aspires to mark an epoch in American pro basketball or, which is almost the same thing, in world basketball.
Though the draft pick happened in New York, the Spurs pavilion was packed thousands of miles away to celebrate the arrival of the basket’s new messiah. When the San Antonios last had their first shift in 1997, they always chose Tim Duncan, who won five championship rings for the Texans, with Gregg Popovich as their coach. He has been on the bench since 1996. It will be difficult to top that bar, especially since Wembanyama switched to one of the worst teams in the championship last season.
A star can be the key to a team’s development, as Michael Jordan or LeBron James demonstrated in his day, but basketball is a team game and not even these superstars have been spared mediocre seasons with their clubs. Wembanyama was unable to lead his team, the Metropolitans 92, to victory in the French league.
In any case, the Frenchman fits perfectly into modern NBA basketball, in which it is not enough to have big centers fighting under the edge, but to emphasize that they are skilled at dribbling the ball and shooting at the basket have a goal far. The Frenchman has all those virtues and defends his style of play, unusual for someone so tall.
Draft history is full of hits and misses. Michael Jordan (third in his class), Larry Bird (6th), Kobe Bryant (13th), Giannis Antetokounmpo (15th), Nikola Jokić (41st), Stephen Curry (7th) and Joel Embiid (3rd) climbed through outlets from much less space required. Instead, others like LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Shaquille O’Neal were number one to mark their time.
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