Wembanyama: the giant kid under a global spotlight

Within range: Dunks and lay-ups come easy to Wembanyama, thanks to his height (7’4”) and wingspan (8’0”). | Photo credit: Getty Images

Wemby-mania: San Antonio fans have welcomed Wembanyama with wild enthusiasm, expressing their love for the 19-year-old prodigy through hairstyles, murals, music and specialty dishes. | Photo credit: Getty Images

Victor Wembanyama’s life has been a whirlwind ride since last week’s glitzy draft in Brooklyn, New York. 

The NBA’s most anticipated No. 1 pick since LeBron James received a rockstar-style welcome from fans at San Antonio’s airport before being chauffeured to an eye-opening dinner with Spurs royalty: legendary coach Gregg Popovich and Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Manu Ginobili. “Honestly, that was one of the best dinners of my life,” said Wembanyama. “And not because of the food. The food was good. But the people was crazy. In a couple hours, I learned more about the NBA than my whole life before.”

Wembanyama has packed in more in a week than some people do in a year, sampling the city’s famed breakfast tacos, hunting for a place to stay, exchanging pleasantries with the San Antonio mayor, signing truckloads of jerseys and satisfying an incessant stream of photo requests.

Hype and hoopla

The buzz is palpable in San Antonio. There’s someone driving around with a ‘Wemby’ licence plate. There’s a burger with foie gras on the menu at a local sports bar, as a tribute to the French prodigy. There’s a mural of him on the outside of a business directly across the street of another mural featuring Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker. There’s even a mariachi band that already has a song about him. “The fans have been the best at their job,” said Wembanyama. “I can only hope to be at their level.”

It has been hectic. Wembanyama hasn’t had much time for sleep. But he also said that he’s enjoying it all: “This is the life I wanted. This is what I worked for. So, it feels normal to me.”

Such has been the hype around Wembanyama — coverage of the draft averaged a record 4,928,000 American viewers on ESPN and ABC, peaking at 6,085,000 when the French phenom was drafted — that it is easy to forget how young he is.

As he took the stage for his first news conference inside his new home arena, he couldn’t help but notice an accessory the Spurs had commissioned for the occasion. It was a four-foot replica of the Eiffel Tower — made from Lego, which the 19-year-old Wembanyama loves. He smiled when he saw it, then sat next to Spurs general manager Brian Wright and talked business.

The scene was a perfect microcosm of Wembanyama’s world right now. He’s still a kid, albeit a very big one, not averse to saying that he enjoys building things with Lego. And he’s also the player, who seems incredibly mature for his age, on a world stage that the Spurs are betting on to change their fortunes and help them return to championship contention. 

The notion of the NBA being a global league is not new, with roughly one out of every four players in the league born outside the USA. But there’s never been an international player with the hubbub that Wembanyama has: a global phenomenon even without playing an NBA game.

Not even LeBron James — now a billionaire and the all-time scoring leader in NBA history — had this much global attention when he came into the league 20 years ago. LeBron was a huge deal in America in 2003. Wembanyama is a huge deal globally right now. That’s the difference. Stories have been written about him in English, French and Spanish, and social media is plastered with ‘Wemby content’.

Target on his back

“Because of all the hype, he’ll have a target on his back,” Spurs coach Popovich said. “So we’ll be most interested in setting [up] an environment where he’s comfortable, where he can be Victor. He’s not LeBron or Tim [Duncan] or Kobe [Bryant] or anybody else. He’s Victor and that’s who we want him to be.”

Wembanyama is expected to become the third saviour San Antonio has picked with the No. 1 overall draft choice. The club previously hit the jackpot with the selections of Robinson (1987) and Duncan (1997). Now Wembanyama will try with his size 20.5 foot to follow their massive footsteps. The Spurs were only in a position to draft him because they were a woeful 22-60 last season and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season.

But they won May’s draft lottery to get the opportunity to select Wembanyama, who is expected to be an immediate difference-maker. Listed at 7’4”, he dominated the French league in his final season, leading all players in scoring, rebounding and blocked shots. In spite of his huge frame, he can shoot 3-pointers with ease and his technical ability is stunning.

The term ‘unicorn’ has been tossed around in NBA circles for years to describe rare prospects who have both the size to dominate as a power forward or centre and also the dribbling, passing, shooting and speed that resemble a guard. But LeBron felt that term had been used too loosely and went in another direction to describe Wembanyama, one of the highest-ceiling prospects scouts have seen.

“Everybody’s been a unicorn over the last few years, but [Wembanyama’s] more like an alien,” LeBron said last year. “No one has ever seen anyone as tall as he is but as fluid and as graceful as he is on the floor.”

Clear-headed thinker

The teenager — already being mentored by past Spurs great big men like Duncan and Robinson, along with French Spurs Parker and Boris Diaw — is worldly, engaging, funny and has somehow stayed humble even with all the attention. He has also shown he can make difficult decisions in a clear-headed manner.

Wembanyama announced this week that he won’t play for France in the upcoming FIBA World Cup in order to protect his still developing body. He told L’Equipe newspaper that he will instead focus on training for his rookie season in the NBA and the 2024 Summer Olympics.

“My body is like a prototype. I can’t base myself on people who look like me,” said Wembanyama, who is set to play 170 games in a 24-month period for franchise and country, a far higher load than he has ever shouldered. “So you need specific preparation, personalised anticipation. You can’t leave anything to chance. There’s a real risk of overload.”

Fortunately for Wembanyama, with the Spurs management and his family, he has an excellent support system. His family shuns the spotlight. “They’re really smart and grounded people,” he said. “Whenever I need to find stability, I can go to them.”

He’s going to need those bits of normalcy and all of coach Popovich’s proven ability to nurture and develop Hall of Famers. The challenge that awaits Wembanyama is enormous but then he is no shrinking giant.