Victor Wembanyama is truly one of one. The San Antonio Spurs phenom has somehow exceeded the hype in his debut NBA, running away with Rookie of the Year honors over the second half of the season while cementing his stake as one of the best prospects in the history of basketball.
How do you market a truly unique, generational talent like Wembanyama? Nike broke the internet earlier this week as the world watched the solar eclipse, teasing the 7'4 Frenchman's signature logo with an ad depicting an ‘Alien' crop circle near the Spurs' home of South Texas.
The total eclipse has just begun. 🌕🌖🌗🌘🌑 pic.twitter.com/ihGr5mFzai
— Nike Basketball (@nikebasketball) April 8, 2024
It's a fitting symbol for a player LeBron James famously called an ‘alien' more than a year before his rookie season, positioning Wembanyama as Nike's latest superstar endorser. Wembanyama doesn't yet have a signature shoe with the Swoosh, donning different exclusive versions of the Nike Zoom GT Hustle 2 as well as other new models throughout 2023-24.
Needless to say, it's only a matter of time Wembanyama joins the likes of James, Kevin Durant, Paul George, Ja Morant and Devin Booker with his own signature sneaker from Nike. In the meantime, Nike continued hyping Wembanyama's futurist physical traits and style of play on Tuesday at the brand's OnAir event in Paris, debuting an ‘A.I.R.' concept sneaker designed by A.I. with him in mind.
Nike just unveiled an “A.I.R” concept shoe in Paris for Victor Wembanyama — designed by A.I. and fueled by its Sport Research Lab insights.
What would you want to see in a future @Wemby signature shoe? 👀 pic.twitter.com/rGhpXE6wR1
— Nick DePaula (@NickDePaula) April 11, 2024
Victor Wembanyama exceeds hype during jaw-dropping rookie season
The ‘A.I.R.' concept sneakers are clearly multiple steps of development from making their debut on the NBA hardwood. But there's no better player to introduce Nike's next generation of sneaker technology than Wembanyama, who's broken the brains of basketball fans across the globe during an otherworldly first NBA go-around.
After beginning 2023-24 starting at power forward, the Spurs shifted Wembanyama to center full-time in early December. He's rewarded that decision by playing at an All-NBA level since then, averaging 22.1 points, 11.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 4.9 blocks per game on solid efficiency despite an evolving shot diet that still includes difficult off-dribble jumpers.
Maybe more importantly, the 20-year-old has lifted his lowly team to respectability over that timeframe, too. Wembanyama's net rating since moving to center is -0.3, by far San Antonio's best mark and a whopping 10 points per 100 possessions better than the team has fared when he's been on the bench, per NBA.com/stats.
Any fans of rival teams still clinging to the notion that Wembanyama is more never-before-seen style than real on-court substance have already been proven wrong. Once the Spurs surround him with a better supporting cast, it's only a matter of time until Wembanyama leads the silver-and-black back toward perennial title contention—where they were for two decades of the Tim Duncan-Gregg Popovich dynasty before entering rebuild mode two years ago.
Wembanyama has surpassed even the wildest expectations during his historic rookie season. Expect Nike to take full advantage of his one-of-a-kind game and off-court persona going forward, with Wembanyama not just establishing himself as perhaps the best player in the world, but a peerless force of marketing, too.
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