The Wembanyama phenomenon: "It's going to break the NBA"

If everything that is expected of Victor Wembanyama is fulfilled, the NBA will live a before and after the summer of 2023. The French center, 18 years old, 2.20m tall and 2.38m wingspan, player of the Metropolitans 92 of the French league, has caused such an impact due to his game, his ability and his spectacular physique that not only does nobody in the American League dispute that he will be number one in the next

, but that his arrival in the mecca of basketball will cause a tsunami similar to that of LeBron James two decades ago.

Wembanyama is a skyscraper with endless legs and arms, huge hands and a mobility and technique unbecoming of such a giant.

The astonishment is unanimous even among the greatest.

“It's an alien.

No one has ever seen someone so tall and so fluid and graceful on the track," LeBron surrenders.

“We have to prepare for this guy,” Antetokounmpo assumes.

Adds Curry: "He's a video game player."

Wembanyama will turn 19 on January 4, at which point he may be eligible for the NBA.

Many months before, the fight for the diamond has begun.

And even the NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, has activated the alert for the famous

, the trap by which teams purposely lose many games during the regular season to ensure a better position for the

(the teams with the most losses have more options to occupy the first places in the draw; the three worst, 14% each to choose in the first place).

"The system is good, but we have a serious problem when there is the feeling, as we have now, of being faced with a once-in-a-generation player," Silver commented.

Victor Wembanyama and Tremont Waters in the exhibition game against Ignite in Nevada on October 6. Ethan Miller (Getty Images)

The madness began to break loose in October during a pair of friendly games of the Metropolitans 92 in Las Vegas against the Ignite, of the American Development League.

Wembanyama flew with 36.5 points, 7.5 rebounds and 4 blocks on average.

Opposite was the American Scoot Henderson, another contender for the first place in the

.

"If I hadn't been born, Henderson deserved to be number one," Wembanyama settled.

His show on the court was such that the NBA is broadcasting the Metropolitans games in the French League for free through its mobile application.

"He is the player with the most projection since LeBron because of the impact he can have on the game and in the competition," says Jordi Fernández, first assistant coach at the Sacramento Kings.

The story of Victor Wembanyama begins to be written in a neighborhood on the southern outskirts of Paris.

Son of Felix Wembanyama, Congolese triple jump athlete, and Elodie Fautereau, basketball player and coach (he directed his son), the boy practiced soccer, as a goalkeeper, and judo until his growth pushed him to the basket

At the age of 10 he was already 1.80m tall and at the age of 11 the American scouts followed his career in the Nanterre quarry.

At the age of 14, he was invited by Barcelona to play the ACB Mini Cup.

At that age, a cadet, already stretched up to 2.10m, weighed 78 kilos and had a wingspan of 2.22m.

He spent a week wearing Barça, accompanied on the trip by his mother.

The coach who directed him at Barça that 2018, Carlos Flores, today the coach of Sant Antoni (LEB Plata), remembers something that he will not forget.

“Pere Capdevila, head of the quarry, brought it and he told me: 'Enjoy it.

In a few years you will be able to say that you trained Victor Wembanyama'.

It was a brutal impact.

It was very long. I was impressed by his hands and his feet, especially his hands, because of how big they were.

I thought he would have trouble moving, that he wouldn't be able to stand up well, but when we gave him a ball he left us speechless.

It was all grace, a talent that could not be expected in such a body.

It was unbelievable that at that height he could move like that.”

Flores immediately understood that he was looking at a star who combined the body of a center with the skill of an outsider.

“His game vision of him, his way of dribbling, of giving a pass without looking,

of passing the ball under the legs in a counterattack... A forward in the body of a great.

He was a boy who seemed like he was going to break playing and now he is going to break the NBA”, summarizes Flores.

💥 Victor Wembanyama 𝙥𝙖𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙤 in the United States <<<<<<<<<<< Victor Wembanyama 𝙥𝙖𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙤 in the #MinicopaEndesa with the @FCBbasket jersey.

Yes, he comes from another planet.

Yes, his past shone as bright as his future.pic.twitter.com/hksrph3jXS

– Endesa League (@ACBCOM) October 5, 2022

Barça launched their networks to sign him.

In addition to inviting him to the Mini Cup, they showed him the facilities, the sports city, and presented him with an offer to enter the Barça youth academy the following year, but the family, always very protective of him, considered that his place was in France, warmth of home, without haste.

His jewel shone in such a way that he did not need to show himself in any shop window, he just burned stages at home.

Everyone knew that he had a ticket in his name to the NBA.

After making his debut at the age of 15 in the Eurocup with Nanterre, Wembanyama signed last season for Asvel Villeurbanne, the French champion, the team controlled and chaired by Tony Parker, the great French basketball legend.

He only lasted one year and this summer he moved to the Metropolitans when he could be playing the EuroLeague now.

Waiting for him on the bench at his new destination was Vincent Collet, who is also the France coach and with whom he can debut tomorrow in the senior team against Lithuania in a World Cup qualifying match —an injury kept him from the Eurobasket that Spain conquered— .

He will be rookie and leader on the same day.

“He is incredible, not only because of his size, but because of his abilities.

Last year he didn't play too much and the agreement we have at the club is to give him that experience of really playing", says Collet, who also shares an agent with the pearl, like Gobert, Fournier, Batum... With the Metropolitans shirt , Wembanyama is the player with the highest rating in the French League, he is the undisputed figure and, by not playing in any European competition, he has more time to polish his physique and his technique before knocking down the door of the NBA.

For example, to draw, a hobby that he practices daily to improve his skill with his hands.

We don't know what is more insane, Wembanyama's highlight reel or his stat line!!🔥🤯

The 18-year-old went for 36 PTS, 11 REB and 4 BLK to help the @Metropolitans92 bring home a win over G League Ignite .

pic.twitter.com/E3dqPOLm9x

— NBA G League (@nbagleague) October 6, 2022

The boy keeps his feet on the ground as madness explodes around him.

The five publications with videos of Wembanyama on the NBA Europe Instagram account have accumulated more than three million visits and multiplied by four the average diffusion of content on the platform.

“In France, basketball exists because of the NBA, and today even the radio stations that only talk about football are with Wenbanyama”, explains Yann Ohnona, a journalist from

who has followed him for years;

“He is someone special, very intelligent, both on the court and off.

He doesn't care what LeBron or Curry say about him.

He has a very well furnished head.

He finished high school a year earlier than he was supposed to”.

Victor Wembanyama mixes that serenity with the confidence that the chosen ones feel.

He doesn't hide expectations, nor is he overwhelmed by pressure.

“What is happening to me is nothing new, I have been preparing for this since I was born.

All my life, even before I came to basketball, I have tried to do something different.

I'm not talking about sports, but about anything.

I like originality, achieving things that have never been done before.

My destiny is the NBA.

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