Victor Wembanyama is a 20-year-old NBA player from France who, standing at a skinny 7-4, is known for doing breathtaking things on the court.
Brandon Sanderson is a stocky 48-year-old author from Lincoln, Nebraska known for writing some of the most popular fantasy books in the world.
Based on physical appearance, these two should have nothing in common. But get them talking about books, and they are both on the same page.
“One of my hobbies happens to be reading fantasy books,” Wembanyama told Sporting News. “It’s the one thing that allows me, more than [TV] series, more than anything, to escape from the real world.”
Wembanyama is always reading — on the plane, on the trainer’s table, before bed and even before tipoff of games. He can usually be seen carrying large fantasy books into NBA arenas.
Wembanyama grew up reading the classics, such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings series. He discovered Sanderson’s books about 15 months ago and couldn’t put them down, citing him as his new favorite author in a story by Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News.
Sanderson wasn’t familiar with Wembanyama before that article came out. But he was delighted to learn about the NBA player’s enthusiasm.
“It excited me,” Sanderson told Sporting News. “I think that’s incredible.”
“I grew up in an era where we like to pretend that people who like sports and people who like books were different breeds,” Sanderson continued. “And I always hated that. I always disliked it.”
The crossover between professional athletes and Sanderson superfans isn’t as small as one might think. Chris Kluwe, a long-time kicker in the NFL, has told the author that he is a superfan, as has WWE wrestler The Big Show.
Sanderson says that his sports fans “always made me excited because, like, why do we pretend you have to be in certain boxes?”
Wembanyama, for his part, agrees. “It’s a cliche that’s been here for a long time” and one that he has no problem breaking away from.
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Wembanyama has been under an intense microscope more than any other rookie since LeBron James. He uses Sanderson’s books “to really escape from reality and the pressure, expectations, responsibilities that I have. Sanderson is everything I look for when I read.”
The mental break from the immense pressures of hoops provided by reading boosts Wembanyama’s performance.
Recently, Wembanyama was at the end of one of Sanderson’s books, Words of Radiance. He was at the climactic finish of the 1,087 page tome as he lay in bed.
“I had to stop, because I wanted to save it for game day.”
Wembanyama picked the book up again the next morning, finishing it before facing off against the Pistons. Energized by the story, he put up the first triple-double of his career, finishing with 16 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in the Spurs’ sixth win of their season.
Sanderson has also thought about how he might use the Frenchman for inspiration.
“I am writing an entire book series called The Stormlight Archives about a world where the gravity is a little less, people are a bit taller than on our planet. There’s a group called the Edgedancers that I think Wemby might fit quite well into.”
There is a mutual respect between the two legends of their respective industries.
“I love how deep, how thought out Sanderson’s worlds are,” Wembanyama says. “I’m sure there are people who have studied his worlds that know more than him.”
Sanderson loves that Wembanyama is breaking down barriers when it comes to reading.
“When you get a basketball star who also loves reading, I think it does so much for the world,” he says. “I really like the idea that human beings can love so many different things and so many different things are a part of our makeup.”
“You don’t have to be one or the other. Love what you love. Any time we’re gatekeeping certain people, we’re doing a disservice to both the people and the passions that we have.”
