in the mind of Victor Wembanyama, French basketball prodigy and future NBA star

He is French and is being billed as the future big star of world basketball. Victor Wembanyama, nicknamed Wemby, is highly anticipated in the United States. The Boulogne-Levallois player, 19 years old and 2.21 m tall, will know in the night between Tuesday 16 May and Wednesday 17 May which NBA team he will play for. A drawing of lots will designate the team that will be the first to be able to choose a young player. This is the principle of the draft, of which Wemby is the big favorite.

>> NBA: Victor Wembanyama is officially presented for the 2023 draft

America awaits the 19-year-old with even more impatience from October 2022, after two games played in Las Vegas in an all-American atmosphere. The NBA had organized two meetings between the team of Victor Wembanyama, Boulogne-Levallois, with two teams formed by the best American hopes. An event of which the French was the epicenter.

A successful seduction operation for Victor Wembanyama who showed all his talent to the entire NBA and basketball fans. “All NBA teams sent representativessays the American journalist Tim Reynolds who was present in Las Vegas. Everyone wants to see him closely after the U19 World Cup, as every time such a talented player comes to the United States, the whole league is there for him.A sign of the enthusiasm generated by Wemby, the Boulogne-Levallois games were broadcast this season by the NBA in the United States.

An extraordinary physique

Constantly outclassed in the youth divisions – he was already 1.91m at 11 – Victor Wembanyama made his French league debut at his parent club Nanterre when he was not yet 16. NBA recruiters saw him at the Under-19 World Cup where he shone at just 17 years old. This season, he has shined all season as Boulogne-Levallois has rocked the stats and filled halls across the country.

>> Basketball: “I don’t worry at all about where I’m going to land,” assures Victor Wembanyama about his future in the NBA

An important question then arises,What is Victor Wembanyama, an extraordinary player with a bright future ahead of him? ON this phenomenon, the enthusiastic testimonies of two basketball legends Tony Parker and Lebron James are unequivocal. For former France captain Wemby “He’s got a talent we’ve never seen in basketball, to be so tall and run so fast and be so skilled. And if he stays healthy, he’s going to be one of the best players in the game.”An admiration shared by the biggest NBA star of recent years, Lebron James: “Everyone talks about unicorns. In recent years we’ve always had a unicorn, but he, Victor, is more of an alien. I have never seen, and no one has ever seen, a player so tall so fluid and be so graceful on a ground“.

Victor Wembanyama’s qualities are recognized by everyone in the basketball world. Former French team coach Claude Bergeaud insists on two strengths: “The first is his age and the maturity that goes with it, which is very rare when you’re 19 to have such game intelligence in all the readings and decisions he makes. The second element is that he has a versatility that allows him to play almost in three positions: a wing position, a power forward position who is the intermediary between the wing and the pivot – and possibly a pivot position which he can assume when he has gotten a little more meat around the his skeleton”. It’s true that the skinny Wemby will need to build muscle to withstand the harsh physical impacts of the NBA.

Pretty impressive serenity

How to live such a media vortex at only 19 years old? Victor Wembanyama shows an astonishing maturity and serenity, but he wants to make sense of things. “Mutual expectations have nothing to do with how I handled my careerHe explains. It doesn’t really stress me out. I am really into my stuff and everything I do, all I get is what I undertake. It comes from me, from my thoughts and from my work”.

“I have in mind what I will achieve in the future and in the past, I had in mind what I will achieve today.”

The moment is therefore decisive on this Tuesday to Wednesday night for Victor Wembanyama’s future, because there is a specificity in American sport. Every year, the worst teams in the professional leagues are given priority to recruit the best prospects. The goal is to balance the workforce. This is called the draft and the NBA draft will take place on June 22nd. There is no doubt that Victor Wembanyama will be number 1 in this draft, and it would be the first time for a French player.

A draw is then held next evening to designate which team will have the first pick in the draft, and which should therefore welcome the French into its ranks. Among these, the Detroit Pistons, where another great hope of French basketball player Killian Hayes is already evolving, and the San Antonio Spurs, the team in which Tony Parker shone for 17 years. It would be a nice wink to fate. Parallel to his upcoming NBA career, Victor Wembanyama will continue to wear the France shirt with two important deadlines ahead: the world championships in September and the Paris Olympics in 2024.