Two electric rookie phenoms who have taken their respective leagues by storm met when Chicago Blackhawks' Connor Bedard and San Antonio Spurs' Victor Wembanyama got together at Fifth Third Arena in Chicago last month.
The pair of superstars met at the Hawks' practice facility “for a talk, a friendly off-ice contest and a tour of the facilities Dec. 20, the night before Wembanyama and the Spurs played the Chicago Bulls at United Center,” reported NHL.com's Tracey Myers on Monday. “They discussed their excitement leading up to their respective drafts, their home openers and their experiences in hockey and basketball.”
The two also explained why they chose their respective numbers. For Wemby, No. 1 was to partially signify the Spurs taking him No. 1 overall in the 2023 NBA Draft. For Bedard, he went with No. 98 because “nobody had it in the NHL at that time.”
“I was telling them, that’s maybe the most excited I’ve been for an interview in a little bit,” Bedard said after meeting with Wembanyama.
“No, it was a lot of fun. It’s rare, we were talking about it, that you get someone in the same situation and his is mine times 100, just with how big everything is in the NBA. So it was pretty cool just to hear his input on it and what he thinks. Obviously, a special player and cool to meet him.”