Everything is really bigger in Texas. Thursday night, NBA commissioner Adam Silver uttered the sentence everyone was waiting for: “With the first pick in the 2023 draft, the San Antonio Spurs select Victor Wembanyama. “But the emotion was no less strong for the giant of Chesnay, who took his sister Eve, and his little brother Oscar, in his arms with the wingspan of an albatross. Before letting her tears flow a few minutes later in an interview.
“To do something I’ve dreamed of all my life, hearing that sentence from Adam Silver, I had to cry,” said “Wemby” at the microphone of ESPNin almost accentless English, punctuated with “You know”, a cap with a silver spur on his head.
“I want to win a ring”
At the announcement of the news, thousands of San Antonians obviously roared, from the AT & T center, where the Spurs evolve, to all the tex-mex bars of a city which wants to believe in the revival after four years without playoffs. But do not worry, the former Mets 92 promised them: “I will try to learn as quickly as possible because I want to win a ring. “They have already been able to rush on already flocked black and white jerseys.
The wink of fate has not escaped anyone, Wembanyama arrives in a team in which Tony Parker shone, winning four championship titles (2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) alongside Manu Ginobili and Tim Duncan . “Dream Tim” should also, according to the US media, play mentors to help the young French to develop. Tony Parker could also act as a one-time consultant for the franchise. Meanwhile, TP had emerged last month, when San Antonio won the draft lottery, a photo of 10-year-old Victor Wembanyama, wearing Parker’s 9 jersey at the Spurs. Pay for your old age.
A “generational talent” for basketball “without position”
For six months, the NBA has put the dishes in the big for hyper the one who is presented almost everywhere as the biggest “generational talent” since LeBron James. Even the King himself sees in Wembanyama an “alien” and a “unicorn”, who is the size of a pivot (2m24) with the agility of a leader and the address of a winger. An ideal profile at the time of “positionless basketball”, this basketball where positions disappear, with players capable of doing everything, like Jokic in Denver.
In San Antonio, Wembanyama will be able to make his mark under the orders of legendary coach Gregg Popovich, who seems to have prepared this new era for several years by recruiting versatile young players. The Frenchman is looking forward to making his Summer League debut with “coach Pop”:
“Popovich doesn’t lie to his players, he tells the truth. Sometimes it’s hard, but that’s what I want. »
Even if he has built up muscles over the past two years, Wembanyama, with his slender figure, will have to start by eating a few chimichangas (fried burritos) to cash in on the contacts in the racquet, and hope to be spared the injuries that have been known many giants culminating at more than 2m20, from Yao Ming to Porzingis. But come on, let’s savor it anyway, like Emmanuel Macron, this historic moment – not to mention his former Mets teammate, Bilal Coulibaly, drafted in 7th position, who will play in Washington – with the final word to Kylian Mbappé on Twitter: “Wemby, the story begins now. »