San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama can block shots like Rudy Gobert but shoot like Kevin Durant. He’s going to change the game for sure.
Too much? Too soon?
Tell that to Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic.
We're closing in on a year since ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski called the now-Spurs superstar “maybe the greatest prospect in the history of team sports.”
As respected as Woj is, there was a sense that the noted journalist had gone too far that night. With WembyMania reaching impossible levels leading up to the 2023 NBA Lottery, the basketball writer long known for scoops had placed the most impossible of expectations on a skinny 19-year-old who had yet to experience the American game, much less face the best players in the world.
With another NBA lottery days away, it turns out Woj may have scooped everyone again.
Victor Wembanyama is even better than advertised
It started with a tease. Even in a modest 15-point performance through just 23 minutes because of foul trouble, Wembanyama scored nine points in the final seven minutes to give his Spurs a chance in a close opening night loss to a Dallas Mavericks squad that's very much alive in the playoffs.
It ended with a 34-point, 12 rebounds, 5 assist masterpiece in which he outplayed the eventual NBA Most Valuable Player. Because Wemby sat out the season finale, his last game came in a 121-120 upset in which three-time league MVP Nikola Jokic mustered 22 points, 7 rebounds and 12 assists for the defending champion Denver Nuggets, who were playing for the West's top seed.
In between, the eye popping statistics and highlights that have been rightfully rehashed over and over defined a rookie season worthy of a young man described as the greatest prospect in the history of team sports.
What now for Wemby?
In his first four NBA games, Victor Wembanyama averaged 16.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, and 1.5 assists per game while shooting 26.3% from three-point range and 70% from the free throw line through October.
During his five games in April – a stretch that included three playoff teams, including the champs twice – the French phenom averaged 25 points, 12.8 rebounds, 5.6 blocks, and 6.8 assists per contest while shooting 34.1% from beyond the arc and 75% from the charity stripe to close the year.
It took Michael Jordan two seasons to improve his scoring average by nine points. After averaging 14.5 rebounds as a rookie, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar never increased that number by more than two and a half per contest for the rest of his career. Hakeem Olajuwon needed six seasons to raise his 2.7 blocks per night rookie average by two. By Magic Johnson's fourth season, he hadn't yet improved his assists average by five per outing.
Wembanyama matched or exceeded such gaps in five and a half months.
While such massive statistical swings may be more likely when comparing one end of a season to the other, it's also worth noting most rookies hit a sustained wall. Wemby catapulted over it.
And while some of the other greats may have put up first-year numbers so good that they lent to more gradual increases, it's worth reminding that the 7-foot-4 marvel is just 20 years old and started at power forward before shifting to center.
Where's he going to be in another five and a half months when next season starts?
Where's he going to be in five years?
Just as The Greek Freak already compares Wembanyama to the NBA's best defensive and offensive players, and the Joker says things won't be the same because of him, perhaps the most unique figure to ever play the game puts it simplest.
“He's a special talent.”
Fifteen league and Finals MVP's among them, Antetokounmpo, Jokic, and LeBron James all say it. As does the game's preeminent reporter.
We don't need to be afraid to say it either.
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