Trending
NEW YORK -- Victor Wembanyama
walked into his first
NBA news conference Wednesday
morning, took his seat and
looked out at a maze of cameras
and microphones that have been
awaiting him for years.
And then he smiled.
"What's up, everyone?" the
French teen said.
Seeming poised and completely
ready for what awaits him,
Wembanyama's NBA chapter is
now underway. The NBA draft
-- one that Wembanyama's
towering shadow has hung over
for months, blocking much of
what is usually part of the process
-- is tonight, and he'll be
selected No. 1 overall by the San
Antonio Spurs.
"Ever since I knew about the
draft, exactly how it worked, I
wanted to be first," Wembanyama
said Wednesday. "I think I started
to realize I could be a professional
basketball player at the age of 12.
Tomorrow, something's going to
happen, something that I've been
thinking (about) for years and
years, I can't really describe how
I feel right now. I just know I'm
going to have trouble sleeping tonight,
for sure."
There has been no debate
about who the Spurs should take
with the No. 1 pick, no discussion
of which player might be a
better fit, no real attempts to raise any red flags about the presumed
selection.
When a player like Wembanyama
comes along --
and maybe none ever has
-- there's no real reason
to drum up any drama. The
Spurs are not going to pass
up someone who is listed at
7-foot-4 but has the skills of
a player much smaller.
The decision is certain,
but not official until Commissioner
Adam Silver
says Wembanyama's name
Thursday night. And Wembanyama
playfully corrected
a reporter in New York on
Wednesday who welcomed
him to San Antonio.
"Not there yet," Wembanyama
said. "But thank you."
The 19-year-old from
France has been called the
best prospect since LeBron
James came out of high
school 20 years ago, perhaps
with some physical gifts that
even the NBA's career scoring
leader didn't possess.
Expectations from the
outside world are sky-high.
Wembanyama insists that
won't bother him.
"I don't let all this stuff
get into my head," Wembanyama
said. "I've got such
high expectations for myself
that I'm immune to all this
stuff. I really don't care."
He arrived Monday in the
New York area, surprised
that some fans were waiting
for him when he landed at
Newark Liberty International
Airport. On Tuesday, there
was his first subway ride
-- even hopping a turnstile
as he exited, though the police
who were flanking him
didn't complain -- and a trip
to Yankee Stadium to throw
out the ceremonial first pitch;
it was well out of the strike
zone. And on Wednesday
morning, before his NBA duties
began, he had a weightlifting
workout with a coach.
He has been a big kid in a
grown-up world. He signs autographs
with a smile, pokes
fun at himself, doesn't mind
that everyone tends to stare at
someone of his height.
"Crazy," he said of that
first subway ride, with New
Yorkers all around him.
Let the craziness begin.
Silver will call his name
tonight, shake his hand,
and before too long Wembanyama
will be on a plane
for San Antonio to start the
first chapter of his NBA life.
Wembanyama said he will
play in Summer League that
starts in early July, though it
remains unclear if he'll be
participating with the Spurs
in the Sacramento summer
league, the primary NBA
Summer League in Las Vegas,
or both.
"Wembanyama is built
for the modern game," said
analyst Jay Bilas, who has
been part of ESPN's coverage
for every draft since
James topped the 2003 one.
"We've never seen anything
quite like him on a basketball
floor."
The modern NBA game
requires big men to be comfortable
playing away from
the basket, able to handle
the ball and defend opponents
on the perimeter. It's
a league where 7-footer Nikola
Jokic just guided the
Denver Nuggets to their first
championship by becoming
the first player to lead the
postseason in total points,
rebounds and assists, where
first-team All-Defense centers
Jaren Jackson Jr. and
Brook Lopez block shots on
one end and shoot 3-pointers
on the other.
Wembanyama can seemingly
do all that. He was the
MVP and Defensive Player
of the Year in the French
league, leading the league
in scoring, rebounding and
blocks. The almost-unbelievable
highlights of some
of those plays, a slam or a
swat when he seemed too far
away to pull it off even with
his enormous wingspan, had
basketball fans and even
future opponents on both
sides of the Atlantic buzzing
throughout the season.
He will go to a San Antonio
team that won five titles
after selecting Tim Duncan
the last time it had the No.
1 pick in 1997. Duncan is a
Hall of Famer and one of the
best power forwards in NBA
history, and maybe it's too
much to ask Wembanyama
to become quite like that.
But he's the best of the
bunch this year, and maybe
of the last 20 years.
"I'm trying to be the
best," Wembanyama said.
"Being the best, it's not only
on the court. There's whole
dimensions in the job of basketball
player, an NBA player.
I want to be the best also
at the media, the press conference,
all this stuff. I don't
like to do things halfway."
Charlotte is expected to
decide between Alabama
forward Brandon Miller and
G League Ignite guard Scoot
Henderson with No. 2, with
Portland perhaps taking the
other at No. 3. The Rockets
and Pistons round out the
top five.
Those teams have been
recent regulars near the top
of the draft and should add
another good young player
for new coaches Ime Udoka
in Houston and Monty
Williams in Detroit. But
those clubs shared the best
odds with the Spurs of winning
the No. 1 pick in last
month's draft lottery, so
there was disappointment to
wipe away before thinking
ahead.
That's because, while
every draft has good players,
very few will ever offer
the chance to draft one like
Wembanyama.
Just ask someone who
would know.
"Everybody's been a unicorn
over the last few years,
but he's more like an alien,"
James said last fall. "No one
has ever seen anyone as tall as
he is but as fluid and as graceful
as he is out on the floor."
James will get an upclose
view this coming season
when he plays against
the Spurs. So will the rest
of the league. Wembanyama's
time starts now, and he
sounds as ready as can be.
"I just feel really, really
lucky to be able just to live
this life," Wembanyama
said. "I'm just so lucky."