What Can Be Imagined
By Ignacio Zamorano
News Editor
While professional athletes inherently are an elite few that reach heights in their pursuits that are beyond the realm of possibility for the rest of us, these sports are always bounded by the search of the next great talent—the next athlete to be remembered for decades after their career comes to an end, one that cements their spot in the pantheon of the sport’s greats that came before them and will show the way for those after them.
Victor Wembanyama, the French basketball prodigy and number one draft pick in the 2023 NBA draft, has been described as a once-in-a-generation player. In a basketball landscape where burgeoning versatile talents have been called “unicorns”—most often used to describe forwards and centers who have shooting skills typically associated with guards—Wembanyama, 21, has been described as an “alien”. One of the fifteen tallest players to ever play in the NBA with a listed height of 7 feet 4 inches (2.24 m)—though it is rumored that over off-season he grew at least an extra inch—he has unprecedent mobility for a player of his stature. He often plays in the perimeter, as a guard would, and has a threatening jump shot, having shot 35% from behind in the arc last season, his dribbling and passing skills also are exceptional for such a big man, making his game a three-level threat for defenses—from the paint, the mid-range, and behind the three-point line.
His exceptional height has the benefits one would imagine it would carry, with a precocious shot-blocking prowess that has made him lead the league in blocks during his first two seasons and made him incredibly difficult to guard in the post thanks to his outsized wingspan.
Following a season-ending deep vein thrombosis, for which his height is a risk factor, Wembanyama embarked on an exceptional off-season following his full recovery. His 10-day escapade to the Shaolin Monastery in China gathered international attention due to the exceptional environment of devout Buddhism and martial arts that surrounded a global basketball superstar.
He was spotted at various other locations over the off-season, such as playing street football with locals in Costa Rica, visiting NASA’s Johnson Space Center, and organizing a chess tournament, among various others. Most importantly, he was invited by NBA legend Hakeem Olajuwon to train privately with him during the summer; Olajuwon, one of the greatest post players of all time surely had much to teach Wembanyama on how to refine his offensive tools.
Finally, the start of the season for him arrived on October 22nd. His San Antonio Spurs were to play the Dallas Mavericks, led by star rookie Cooper Flagg, on their season opener. His Spurs beatdown the Mavs 125-92. Wembanyama dominated the game with 40 points and 15 rebounds and various highlight reel-worthy sequences. For the third-year player in San Antonio, the sky is the limit; the league should be on its heels as the rate of his progress could make him one of the greatest to ever play the game when it’s all said and done.