Victor Wembanyama didn’t play in the NBA All-Star Game, but he was a busy rookie
INDIANAPOLIS — Saturday night, sometime around 9 p.m. (ET), San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama sat down for another interview during NBA All-Star Weekend. Upon taking his seat, he grabbed the placard on the table, checked it out and confirmed he was in the correct place.
“Yep, that’s me,” Wembanyama said, eliciting chuckles.
As he settled in and members of the San Antonio media started asking him questions, the look on the 7-foot-4 French phenom’s face was somewhat bemused at first, then slightly weary. It was tough to blame him. He had just completed the Skills Challenge at Lucas Oil Stadium, and it was the end of a long 72 hours.
On Thursday, he “had the rehearsal” for the NBA’s annual All-Star Tech Summit. Friday morning, he appeared with commissioner Adam Silver to promote the NBA’s use of artificial intelligence — or what they call “NB-AI.”
Then, he had a Rising Stars media session (he does media conferences in English and French) and a practice.
“The schedule has been full, but it’s also what I’m here for,” Wembanyama said Friday afternoon. “It’s a lot of fun experiences.
“I’m looking forward to (playing) in the game, two games hopefully. Next year, hopefully, the big game.”
Later Friday night, he participated in the Rising Stars challenge. He only played in one game, not two, as his squad of NBA rookies was stunned in the semifinal round by a hungry G League team 41-36 (game played to a target score of 40), led by Slam Dunk winner Mac McClung.
“It was kind of weird,” he said after the loss. “I want to win; I hate losing. At the same time, I have so much going on that I’m happy that I knocked one thing off the list for this weekend. Yeah, mixed feelings.”
And in this social media age, he went viral often — once for wearing a cowboy hat as he arrived for Rising Stars, and once for dropping the f-bomb during an interview with TNT. It had been a long three days. And though he was fatigued by the end of Saturday, imagine if he also had to play on Sunday.
Defense wasn’t the only thing missing from the Eastern Conference’s historic 211-186 All-Star Game win. Wembanyama, who finished eighth in voting among the Western Conference frontcourt and was not chosen as a reserve, did not play in Sunday’s marquee event — like another precocious teen with prodigious talent selected No. 1 overall 20 years before.
Whatever happened to that guy anyway?
“I think as a kid growing up, loving the game of basketball and watching the NBA All-Star Weekend and seeing the Sunday game, I always had dreams and visions,” Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James said before playing in his record-setting 20th All-Star Game. “If I was able to play the game at a high level and give everything to the game, hopefully, I could be a part of that game someday.
“It’s just been an absolute honor to be able to grace the floor throughout my career and be out there with the greatest players in the world year in and year out.”
That’s not to say Wembanyama will play in 20 All-Star Games — or 10, or five. But Wembanyama, who was 6 weeks old when James made his first appearance at an NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles in 2004, has the potential to become a fixture and focal point of many future All-Star Weekends. He noted that in addition to the Skills Challenge, the 3-point and dunk contests were “on his bucket list.” Everyone in Indianapolis who had him participating in numerous off-court events could see that. Adjectives such as “dominant,” “scary” and “special” were used.
“I’ve been asked about Victor before, and I just think he’s going to continue to get better and better and better and better the more games he plays,” James said after the All-Star Game on Sunday. “He has one of the greatest coaches in basketball history in Coach Pop (Gregg Popovich), and he’s going to learn it the right way by just being around Pop.
“The kid is special. … If he’s doing that at 19 now, just imagine what he’s going to look like at 21, 22.”
Wembanyama showed his combination of size and skill was special during the Rising Stars game.
He showed his shooting stroke:
He showed his handle and vision:
He does difficult things on a basketball court that seem to come easy for him.
“The feel, that’s the first thing I noticed, the feel of the game,” Milwaukee Bucks All-Star Giannis Antetokounmpo said of Wembanyama. “He knows, he understands the game. I watched him play before he was in the NBA on (French team) ASVEL when he was teammates with my little brother. His feel of the game is incredible.
“You can’t really teach that. You have it, or you don’t. You can get stronger. You can get faster. You can dribble better, shoot better, all of this. But the feel of the game — when to shoot, when to defend, when to sprint, when to help your teammate, when to not help, the timing on blocking shots — that, you cannot teach. That’s feel, and he has that. That’s the scary part.”
“It’s just insane how dominant he’s going to be as he gets more comfortable in the game,” he said Saturday when asked about Wembanyama. “Luckily, I’m on my way out, so I won’t have to deal with it too much.”
While today’s veteran All-Stars seem thankful they won’t need to decipher how to defend him, Wembanyama, if he can stay healthy, is here to stay.
But Wembanyama had completed the All-Star portion of his weekend Saturday after Rising Stars, and more importantly, he now has reached the All-Star break.
“I was tired even before I started,” he said. “I need those couple of days of rest to get back to be good during the season. My head is fine, though. It’s not spinning. I set up the schedule with my crew before it started, validated everything. Once something is done, I forget it, and on to the next thing. So, I’m good.”
Around 9:15 p.m. ET Saturday, Wembanyama, with media questions completed, rose from his seat and made his way from the mixed zone press area. He ducked under one doorway, then another and into the cavernous Lucas Oil Stadium hallway. One of the great things about seeing Wembanyama in person is seeing others react to him.
This is not breaking news that he’s tall, but Wembanyama is not just tall, he is towering.
In the hallway, a man caught sight of Wembanyama and was thrilled to see the rookie, bellowing with a gigantic smile on his face: “There he is. There! He! Is!”
Further down the hall, a woman, who couldn’t have been more than 5 feet tall, was pushing a cart of food. She stopped, craned her neck and raised her arm, hand parallel to the ground, as if to say, “He’s so tall,” laughing with her co-workers. Others in the area pulled out their phones to snap pictures and take videos.
This happened for the duration of his walk in the area where behind-the-scenes workers, media and All-Stars share the same transverse. With Spurs representatives by his side, Wembanyama, his duties complete, walked away from his first All-Star Weekend and into a bright future, however long it lasts.
