Wemby is redefining basketball

Even before he entered the league, Victor Wembanyama was labeled the “next LeBron.” 

Victor Wembanyama is reshaping the NBA and its future with his fluidity at 7’5. Victor is proving that skill and versatility can coexist with size in a way that has never been seen before. His presence matters because it’s signaling a new era in the NBA. Traditional roles are changing  and players are becoming more skilled. The Rockets recently played a game with a 6’8 point guard. A change is happening in the league and Victor Wembanyama is one of its standout examples. 

Victor Wembanyama’s story begins in Le Chesnay, France where he showed his prominent talent since he was little. He was made to stand out, with his father Felix Wembanyama being a 6’6” track and field athlete and his mother Elodie de Fautereau a 6’3” former basketball player later turned coach. Victor Wembanyama was raised in an environment where he learned to love basketball. “There was always a ball in my hands,” stated Victor while smiling. “I didn’t play on a regular basis, but I always knew how to play.” 

Wembanyama played on four teams in his time in France. Wembanyama joined his first basketball team Enchante Le Chesnay Versailles at the age of 7, where he towered over everyone at 5’6”. At 9 years old he was 5’10”.  

“So my first memory is when I saw him and of course, for a kid of 10-year-old, he was obviously already very tall but what I saw especially was that he had lots of technical ability,” stated his coach at the time, Frederic Donnadieu, in a Daily Mail interview. He would later switch to a pro A team, Nanterre 92, where he made his professional debut at 15, He continued playing pro in France until his 18. 

Wembanyama’s unusual playstyle for a center started ever since he was little as he would develop his jump shot unlike every other big who would just use their size to dominate. “In fact, he didn’t play like other big basketball players, who can have difficulties running. Him, not at all. What he enjoyed was to dribble, to shoot. That was what was so surprising,” said Donnadieu.,  

Wembanyama looked up to Kevin Durant because of their similar build and used it to help him craft his game, but he told Kevin Hart that he didn’t “mold his game after him.” 

After his five years playing professionally he was drafted into the  NBA in 2023. That same year, while still playing pro in France, he would go up against the projected number 1 pick of the NBA draft, Scoot Henderson. His performance silenced all the questions about whether his body could handle playing at the NBA level, solidifying himself as generational talent.  

Victor Wembanyama has been compared all his life to other players, but he doesn’t fit the mold for any of them. He is unique with his height and skills which can’t be compared to anyone in the NBA. Kevin Hart asked him, who he thought his game reassembled the most. “My goal [is that], I’m not comparable to anyone,” Wembanyama replied.  

“He can block shot like Ruby (Gobert) but shoot like KD (Kevin Durant),” Giannis told Hart. Stephen Curry called him a character straight out NBA 2k, almost like “a cheat code.”  

But perhaps the most impressive thing about Wembanyama is his maturity. Despite being only 21, he speaks with leadership self-awareness. He often credits his family and coaches for keeping him humble.  “You can’t get lost in the hype. You have to keep working.” he said in a post-game interview with Nanterre 92 

In the NBA, Victor Wembanyama has lived up to the hype by averaging 20 points, 10 rebounds, and 3.5 blocks per game. 

Wembanyama, in his second season in the NBA, has been training all off season with NBA legends like Hakeem Olajuwon and Kevin Garnet. Wembanyama took a different approach during the offseason and spent 10 days training with Shaolin monks in which he focused on his mental and physical discipline.”Wembanyama has been a more vocal leader this season,” said Chris Mannix of Yahoo Sports. He is ready to take the Spurs to the playoffs this year with the help of his young teammates and the expertise he learned from the Spurs former coach Gregg Popovich who stepped down this season after coaching for 29 seasons.  

“He’s the kind of player who makes everyone around him better,” Popovich said earlier this year. “He wants to learn, he listens, and he competes at the highest level every night.”  

If Wembanyama is surrounded by a team that can shoot, there’s not much doubt that the Spurs will return to be the champion caliber team they once were. Victor Wembanyama will be an “MVP” in the near future and the face of the league.  

Agile, versatile big men like Victor Wembanyama will be the future face of the NBA. Wemby is bound to have an extraordinary career where he will change the game like Steph Curry did.  

Victor Wembanyama is redefining the game and what a big man can do.