He measures more than two meters and for Curry “it’s great to see him play”: portrait of Víctor Wembayamba, the future crack of the NBA

If the king of before -Jordan- and the king of now -Lebron- agree on something, it is that the probable future monarch is an “alien” of more than 2.20 nicknamed Wemby. That nickname is the nickname of Víctor Wembayamba, the son of a Parisian gymnast and an athlete of Congolese descent who made it to the league. A Frenchman who plays as a pivot, but has the ability of a forward and the vision of a point guard. “It is the mixture of many cracks, the most solid projection I have seen; he’s like a 2K created player, the seven-foot-tall point guard. It’s great to see him play”, commented a few days ago Stephen Curry, the great figure of the Warriors in the nba.

The praise is constant but deserved for a youngster who this week was drafted as 1 and chosen by the San Antonio Spurs. Rarely has a player aroused so much attention before leaving Europe. Only the Slovenian Luka Doncic starred on the cover of Slam Magazine before joining the draft until Wembanyama did it a few months ago. His merits at Metropolitans 92, the French club where he plays, are clear: 21.6 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.1 blocks for a PIR of 26.2 in the long-term competition, with 28.3%. in shots of three, 55.3% in shots of two and an 83.7% success rate in free throws, a senior competitiveness despite his 18 years. The payment for so much beauty is also brutal: Wemby would earn 150 million dollars a year, apart from what comes from sponsors.

the new saint

The club that hosts him knows that talents like Wemby mark a before and after in a franchise. The San Antonio Spurs have been through things like that before, when they drafted David Robinson in the ’80s and Tim Duncan in the ’90s. They know how to nurture this kind of talent. And he has veteran Greg Popovich, perhaps the best coach in the league, still wanting to be champion again. The Spurs, coleros in these years after the retirements of Duncan-Parker-Ginóbilli, await in this Frenchman the axis they need for their reconstruction. Before the purchase, he returned the flower: “(Texas) was where I wanted to live and play for years.”

NBA analysts are unanimous in the tremendous technical possibilities of the European, but they do point to a physical weakness -very thin legs and arms- that can, at least in his early years, be a problem for people like Jokic to prevail in the paint. (Denver), Davis (Los Angeles) or Adebayo (Miami). There are not a few cases of promises that fail to enter the big league because their physical response does not match their technical management. The doubts -few- are not of mentality, but of strength in the extremities.

Scoot Henderson, drafted 2 but already successfully tested in the NBA pre-league in the last two seasons, opined that he deserved to be number 1 in the draft. Sure, he was more ready to respond quickly in the NBA; but he knows – and admits – that in two or three years Wemby can become totally indomitable. The NBA and we are pending.