The French teenager has been hailed as the best NBA prospect since LeBron James. Let’s hope he can pursue his goals at his own pace
Victor Wembanyama’s rookie hazing tipped off before this week’s NBA draft. After origamiing his 7ft 4in frame (some say he’s taller) onto a flight from Paris to Newark, he folded himself again for a subway ride to the Bronx to throw out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium, missing well outside of home plate. (Zut alors.) All the while a frothing New York press mob gawked at him like he was something that had slipped out from under PT Barnum’s tent.
But by Thursday Wembanyama was standing tall again in a green kimono suit after the San Antonio Spurs tapped him with the night’s first pick. It’s a status that comes with significant expectation, and the pressure on Wembanyama – the surest prospect since LeBron James, it’s been said – was immense; the King himself has called the Frenchman “an alien,” one dwarfed only in the NBA by Washington’s Boban Marjanović.
