Victor Wembanyama got angry and showed why he's special, and it's not because he's tall.
Yes 17 points in 3 minutes. It’s not the scoring that should blow your mind. There’s something else besides being 7’ 4” moving like guard that separates him from most rookies, heck most players. This isn’t the only time that Wemby responded to the moment. And it’s something that had led to one of the greatest rookie seasons of all time.
Wembanyama would be on a minute restriction due injuries that were haphazard, like stepping on a ball boy. He missed a few games early, he was only allowed to play under 30 minutes a game. At that point, it would have been excusable if Wemby didn’t have the best season as his body was acclimating to the NBA. But no, Wemby didn’t complain.
And mid season on January 25, when Holmgren hits a 3, Wemby drives through him and
That entire game, Wembanyama went right at him. He was so eager to check in the game that he jumped the gun and ref told him to wait. Wemby would finish the game with 24 points 12 boards 4 blocks, everything more than Chet but would lose so
towards the end of the season against OKC, Wembanyama hits this clutch 3, stares down the bench, then blocks Chet and goes ballistic. This means something to him, there’s a fire. He wants to show that he’s the best and it’s not just against Chet.
Even bigger match ups like against Giannis, while most players are getting trampled, he’s not afraid to go right after him whether that’ around him
And there’s a hunger to go at the best players in the league. When Kevin Durant wraps his arms around Wemby after the whistle and he finished, Wemby takes a hot for fun and says and one while looking straight at KD. Even the small little mind games just don’t work.
But perhaps one of the telling moments was when Dillon Brooks decided to trash talk Wemby. Yup after a preseason game, Brooks was asked what he thought of Wemby and he said…
*Just tall huh.* Well they would play in their second game of the season and Wemby came out dunking on his own teammate to prove a point. He reversed dunked on Jabari Smith that had Dillon Brooks out of it. (*I am perplexed)* • Victor SHUTS UP Trash ...
Now Dillon wouldn’t really be matched up on Wemby but there was a clear moment. On an in bounds in OT with the game tied, Dillon Brooks is denying the pass, Wemby spins to cut, but then pulls back. Dillon needs a map. Wemby catches the ball and easily shoots over him. Just tall right? And the best part? He points at Brooks. He heard the talk. The Spurs would win the game.
He’s not giving any little edge to anyone and we can trace it back to one specific moment.
The moment that I knew that Wemby was him came from before the season, when we saw those stretching flexibility videos. I remember thinking to myself, wow, Wemby wants to play, he wants to be able to do anything without fear of injury, and he’s taking care of it early.
I think nothing illustrates it more than when Wembanyama had a 5 by 5 game, the 15th player ever to do it, did against the Lakers and LeBron scoring 27 points, 10 rebounds, blocking LeBron to which LeBron even said he doesn’t have a ceiling
Wemby became only the second player to have consecutive 5 blocks and 5 steals, the other one person was Jordan and his response was “I wonder if he did it in wins.” This mentality makes me believe that he would be successful if he was 7’ 4” or 6’ 2”.
And it’s why we saw a second year leap from Wemby, mid season. Yeah, if we look at his stats from his first 2 months to the rest of the season, everything went up but fouls. He started scoring 4 more points, better playmaking, and a ridiculous near 4 blocks a game while fouling less.