Victor Wembanyama Mega-Thread - For all your Wembanyama needs!

[NBAfan3024]

Read on Twitter

I'm still blown away at how tall he is. He legit towers over David Robinson lol

Who is the other guy? I recognize Robinson, Ginobili, and Duncan.

Sean Elliott

Amazing how he makes them all look short

[Roseability]

Curry
Jordan
Durant
Jokic
Olajuwon

[GYK]

he sounds Canadian. I don’t know any French people. I know they speak it in Canada. Been to Canada and yea he’s sound’s Canadian.

[Old Man Game]

Every organization embraces it's first round picks, but this feels different doesn't it? Not every organization brings three first ballot hall of famers to meet the kid. Not every young player embraces the organizational culture like Victor seems to.

Just an amazing match here. Thank God San Antonio got him over the other likely teams in the running.

[UcanUwill]

Wemby and some short people....

[Mirotic12]

There is so much talk about Wemby's height causing injuries, and how centers 7-3 and over can't stay healthy. But his body type isn't just his height. Plenty of giants played without much injury problems.

NBA:

Shawn Bradley: 7-6
Manute Bol: 7-7
Mark Eaton: 7-4
Kareem: (supposedly 7-4 in shoes)

Europe:

Slavko Vranes: 7-6 (played 21 seasons)
Janis Krumins: 7-3 (played to 39)
Vladimir Tkachenko: 7-3 (played 17 seasons)
Aleksandar Radojevic: 7-3 (played 18 seasons)
Bruno Sundov: 7-3 (played 21 seasons)

Yes, there are the obvious examples of ones that had injury and health issues, like: Yao Ming, Gheorge Muresan, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Arvydas Sabonis, Rik Smits, Ralph Sampson......but even among that group, guys like Smits, Ilgauskas, and Sabonis had quite long careers, especially Sabonis, who played until he was 39.

Among current players, Kristaps Porzingis at 7-3 has had some injury issues in the NBA, but then there are in EuroLeague 7-3 Walter Tavares, 7-3 Tibor Pleiss, and 7-3 Georgios Papagiannis that have had almost no injuries at all. And then there is Boban Marjanovic at 7-4, that has had almost no injuries at all in EuroLeague / NBA.

So actually, there are plenty of guys in that height range that had no injury issues really, or that did, but still managed to have very long careers like Sabonis.

Long careers maybe, but done so at role playing levels.

Outside of Kareem and Easton not a single one of these guys played what would be considered a successfully healthy career for Wembanyama.

Bol: played 8 full seasons and averaged 19 minutes a game. Was done at 30. Trae Young and Mikal Bridges (2018 draft) have already played more minutes than Bol played in his entire career.

Bradley: Never averaged over 25 minutes a game once he hit age 27

Euro guys: all played like 65 games a year and averaged 20 minutes a game

If Wembenyama has any of those guys careers it will be considered a huge failure (can’t play more than 24 minutes per game or or is done as an impact player before 30). The expectations and physical demands that will be placed on him will be much higher than the usual > 7’3 player.

I really really hope he stays healthy but the history or really tall players who are expected to carry a heavy load is not good. The list is Kareem and that’s it.

Currently in EuroLeague, there are Tibo Pleiss (7-3), Georgios Papagiannis (7-3), and Walter Tavares (7-3). All of them are playing 80-90 games a season, and maybe even up to over 100 games, if we add in national teams. And none of them have had any injury problems. And the EuroLeague and the national leagues they play in, are far more physical than the NBA is, as the refs allow tons of more contact in Europe, than they do in the NBA. So those bigs are taking a far harder pounding and have much more wear and tear on their bodies, than Wemby will deal with in the NBA.

[scrabbarista]

Awesome list from Wemby.

For me, MJ, LeBron, and Duncan are the no-brainers, and then it gets interesting - even more interesting after the season Jokic just had! I can come up with a different two every time I answer this Q, so I'll just agree with Wemby this time out of laziness.

[jc23]

He has a very clear voice for a French person, it was like he was speaking his 1st language

Apparently he started practicing his English at a young age because he knew being in the NBA meant being able to speak English fluently.

[Grumpy Heat Fan]

The real answer :

Magic - Jordan - Bird - Duncan - Wilt

[Goomba3666]

League pulling out all the stops in marketing this kid. Hope he loves up to at least half of it. Has all the tools.

Also - He can have all the mentorship in the world, but it won’t stop the thirsty instagram wolves from smelling blood in the water. League and media putting a LARGE target on this dude’s back. Kardashians + millions of internet chicks have a bounty on this dude. Hope the league is and the Spurs FO is looking out. Gonna take a village.

[AdagioPace]

Read on Twitter

I'm still blown away at how tall he is. He legit towers over David Robinson lol

spurs of course were lucky, but man Wemby was even luckier to end up in a family like this and not ...let's not make names otherwise it's fanbase baiting

[The-Power]

And the EuroLeague and the national leagues they play in, are far more physical than the NBA is, as the refs allow tons of more contact in Europe, than they do in the NBA. So those bigs are taking a far harder pounding and have much more wear and tear on their bodies, than Wemby will deal with in the NBA.

Physical pounding is not the reason for injury concerns. It's moving quickly in space and doing so possession after possession, which is much more common in NBA games due to the spaced out floor, superior athletes, and rules that prevent bigs from just staying in the lane.

[Mirotic12]

And the EuroLeague and the national leagues they play in, are far more physical than the NBA is, as the refs allow tons of more contact in Europe, than they do in the NBA. So those bigs are taking a far harder pounding and have much more wear and tear on their bodies, than Wemby will deal with in the NBA.

Physical pounding is not the reason for injury concerns. It's moving quickly in space and doing so possession after possession, which is much more common in NBA games due to the spaced out floor, superior athletes, and rules that prevent bigs from just staying in the lane.

Yeah, but the ball moves faster on offense in the European game. If Wemby is asked to roam around on defense to block shots, which he has been so far in Europe, then that's more wear and tear on the body on defense in space than in the NBA, much more. Because the ball is moving very fast in the European game, even in the French League, which is one of the more American-centric styles of basketball, as far as European leagues go.

The NBA, even in the current league, which has sped up a lot, still has tons of ISO and individual play, and over dribbling, so the ball in general, moves much slower on offense on average in the NBA, than it does in high level European basketball, where the coach usually benches players for doing that with much consistency.

So I still think it would be less wear and tear for Wemby in the NBA.

Just look at Giannis whenever he plays with Greece's national team at EuroBasket, or against other good European national teams. The ball is moving fast on offense, so on defense Giannis has to move his feet a ton. And then when Giannis has the ball, the other defense is very physical.

Giannis looks like he could almost pass out after playing one quarter with Greece. He looks freaking exhausted by the end of the 3rd quarter of every game. And we are talking about just 5-10 games or whatever. Giannis never looks anywhere near that spent in the NBA, not even deep into the NBA playoffs.

Wemby has already played in EuroLeague last season, he already played in the French finals against a good EuroLeague team in Monaco this season, where they could really play hard defense, and if he plays with France's NT at the World Cup, he will get more experience in such demanding and grinding play, and where the intensity of the games is way higher and more demanding than anything in the NBA regular season. He will see the NBA as being much easier, just like Jokic, Giannis, Luka, etc. do.

[LarryBirdsFingr]

Every organization embraces it's first round picks, but this feels different doesn't it? Not every organization brings three first ballot hall of famers to meet the kid. Not every young player embraces the organizational culture like Victor seems to.

Just an amazing match here. Thank God San Antonio got him over the other likely teams in the running.

TD works for the team now full time I believe

[ItsDanger]

Watch on YouTube

Initial impressions are concerning.

[Castle Black]

Watch on YouTube

Initial impressions are concerning.

Kid hasn’t touched a basketball in days, is both physically and emotionally exhausted from 4 straight days of traveling from France to NYC + NBA Draft prep + Draft itself + traveling to San Antonio + doing countless interviews, meet-and-greets, and photoshoots like the one in this video, and he’s the only one on the court aside from the spectators. I think he’ll be just fine. We have hours of game tape to watch and judge over this meaningless video tbh.

I will say it is pretty funny to know that — and this isn’t directed at you, but rather to Twitter in general — we’ve reached the point of media where we’re willing to ignore hours of actual game footage to instead overreact to 60-second clips of someone messing around alone on a court. Pretty fascinating, but to be expected in the social media era I suppose.

[Pachinko_]

Initial impressions are concerning.

Concerning for those who only watch highlights and mainstream media (who also only watch highlights).

Everybody else knows that the guy is not really a good shooter and that it doesn't matter.

[Pachinko_]

I will say it is pretty funny to know that — and this isn’t directed at you, but rather to Twitter in general — we’ve reached the point of media where we’re willing to ignore hours of actual game footage to instead overreact to 60-second clips of someone messing around alone on a court. Pretty fascinating, but to be expected in the social media era I suppose.

Yep i have to keep reminding myself that the average basketball fan absolutely hates watching basketball games LOL
Especially European games God forbid

[-Luke-]

Imagine if the Hornets had gotten the first pick and they had brought out Muggsy Bogues for a picture with Wemby.

[G R E Y]

Every organization embraces it's first round picks, but this feels different doesn't it? Not every organization brings three first ballot hall of famers to meet the kid. Not every young player embraces the organizational culture like Victor seems to.

Just an amazing match here. Thank God San Antonio got him over the other likely teams in the running.

TD works for the team now full time I believe

Manu works for the team officially. Timmy's more around when he wants and I expect he'll be available for Wemby but I haven't heard any6about Timmy being on board in any official full-time capacity.