Wembanyama, the seven-foot player with the best ways to grow at Spurs

“Since I was ten years old, I tried to be able to do everything on the field.” This is how he explained to the newspaper L’Equipe Victor Wembanyama, recently came of age, is the secret of his basketball. We are talking about a 19-year-old who is over 220 centimeters tall, 7-foot, cane, but not a noodle. He’s developing as a forward, just as capable of playing close to the basket as he is of causing damage behind the three-point line or looking for drives to the basket thanks to his good ball handling.

His size doesn’t stop him from moving like a shooting guard and helps him intimidate like longer centers. With such credentials, the young Frenchman has long deserved to be the favorite poster to be number one in the draft NBA as soon as it was time to introduce himself. And it happened in the early morning hours from Wednesday to Thursday at NOW.

Popovich’s stick

San Antonio Spurs they had the first option and without a doubt. He is waiting for you there with open arms. Gregg Popovich, probably one of the best coaches who can get the most out of his talent. He already showed it with another Frenchman, Tony Parker. And with Robinson, with Duncan, and with Ginóbili, who eventually became one of the best shooting guards in the NBA. Because he is also receptive to the impressions that the players convey to him, as he himself commented after Draft in accordance with the Argentine stage in the franchise: «I learned a lot from Manu. You can’t make players what you think they should be. You have to understand what they have and take advantage of it, because no player is perfect.

The veteran and award-winning coach also indicated that the first thing is to create a good environment where Wembanyama feels comfortable and relieve him of pressure because “he’s not LeBron, not Kobe, not Tim. It’s Viktor.”

He will not be rushed and will receive close advice from two Spurs icons, Tim Duncan and David Robinson, who know what it means to get to the top.

According to him, the young French talent landed with this ambition after the selection was confirmed. The first thing he did was to let his luck run wild: «It’s one of the best feelings of my life, probably the best night of my life.. I’ve been dreaming about this for a long time, it’s a dream come true.” And he immediately expressed his intention to “try to learn as quickly as possible” to get to the long-awaited championship ring.

Wembanyama arrives in the American professional league after leading Metropolitans 92 in France, a team he led to the finals for the first time in its history. But he failed to win the title against Monaco with huge potential, who found a way to dampen the performance and numbers of the new Spurs player.

Another star from the old continent

At the turn of the century, the weight of Europeans in the NBA increased exponentially. Before, they were exceptions that arrived with the intention of a breakthrough. Now it is not rare to find players from the Old Continent with stripes. Let’s not go any further, the recently elected MVP of the final s Denver Nuggets, Serbian Nikola Jokic. Champion 2021. Milwaukee Bucks, is articulated around Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo. The only ring of Dallas Mavericks came under the influence Dirk Nowitzki. Pau Gasol hung up his boots on a peg with two titles to his credit, won with Los Angeles Lakers, he took off his shirt. His brother Evaluation touched glory with predators. The European contribution is no longer something exotic in the NBA.