**On Thursday evening in New York, the 19-year-old Frenchman, the world’s greatest basketball prospect, is set to officially become a player with the San Antonio Spurs. It is the start of an American career that has been planned for several years.**
The coffee table beside him almost overflowed with trophies: best player (MVP) of the season, best defender, best scorer, best counter-attacker, best young player and – naturally – member of the season’s top five. Victor Wembanyama’s haul of end-of-season awards in the French championship left nothing but crumbs for the competition. “I’ve always dreamed of doing unique things, and I’m very proud of that,” said the young French basketball player, the first to stack up such trophies. “Wherever I go, I want to leave a mark.”
On this hot May afternoon, the Boulogne-Levallois player curled up his gigantic legs to sit next to the National Basketball League (LNB) awards. But from his height (2.21 meters) and wingspan (2.43 meters) to his talent and ambition, Wembanyama is bursting at the seams. At 19, the native of Le Chesnay (in the Paris region) is about to make a great leap – even for his 55-European shoe size (20.5 American) – toward America.
“With the first pick of the 2023 draft, the San Antonio Spurs select Wembanyama.” The official announcement will be made by Adam Silver, head of the North American basketball league, on the evening of Thursday, June 22, in New York (2 am in Paris). This outstanding professional – you don’t become an NBA commissioner by chance – has had plenty of time to practice pronouncing the four long syllables of the Frenchman’s surname correctly. Although the draft – a sort of marketplace for players not yet belonging to the NBA and aimed at rebalancing the league – is secret in theory, the name of the first pick of the 2023 edition has for months hardly been a mystery.
**’Unique talent’**
Barring a seismic event, the man the Americans have renamed “Wemby” will be chosen first and join the Texan team – which won the draft lottery at the end of the year. All smiles, he will shake hands with “Commish,” as Silver is known affectionately. He will then be ready to put on his Number 1 uniform – his jersey number, not a mere detail – which he has been preparing for since he was very young.
“From age 13, Victor knew he was going to be an NBA star,” said George Eddy. The mythical voice of basketball in France, whose flights of fancy accompanied the rise of the NBA in the country, passionately follows the evolution of the world’s greatest basketball prospect. “I met him when he was 15, one Sunday morning,” recounted Eddy, a French-American who rubbed shoulders with the player’s father at the club level. “I had a shooting contest with him, to give him a few tips. At 15, he already had perfect technique. I could see straight away that he was going to be a unique talent.”
Trained in Nanterre, where he arrived at the age of 10, Wembanyama quickly made a name for himself. “The first time I heard of him, he was just 14, and we hear that a youngster from Nanterre is leaving to play in a cup in Spain with Barcelona,” recalled Yann Casseville, editor-in-chief of Basket le Mag. In February 2018, the great “Barça” team tried to lure the already immense Wembanyama into its nets, getting him to take part in the King’s Minicup in a Blaugrana uniform. A few months later, one of the sharpest insiders in the basketball landscape, Mike Schmitz, mentioned “a potential unicorn [player capable of doing just about anything on a court] developing in France,” born in 2004 and possessing “massive hands, size 54 shoes and thighs like toothpicks.” His combination of ” incredible physical upside and talent” was intriguing.
Curious to discover the prodigy, many observers took an interest in the Hauts-de-Seine club, which was incubating its treasure. Tall, lithe and capable of doing anything on the basketball court, the young Wembanyama – who played his first pro match at the age of 15 – served to the onlookers what they had come to see: a phenomenon. His stints with Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne, in 2021-2022, and Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 this season only amplified his reputation. In turn, the many NBA scouts and executives who came in October 2022 to attend the “VW” American tour, organized by his team to rub shoulders with the other prospects of his generation, left blown away.
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**On Thursday evening in New York, the 19-year-old Frenchman, the world’s greatest basketball prospect, is set to officially become a player with the San Antonio Spurs. It is the start of an American career that has been planned for several years.**
The coffee table beside him almost overflowed with trophies: best player (MVP) of the season, best defender, best scorer, best counter-attacker, best young player and – naturally – member of the season’s top five. Victor Wembanyama’s haul of end-of-season awards in the French championship left nothing but crumbs for the competition. “I’ve always dreamed of doing unique things, and I’m very proud of that,” said the young French basketball player, the first to stack up such trophies. “Wherever I go, I want to leave a mark.”
On this hot May afternoon, the Boulogne-Levallois player curled up his gigantic legs to sit next to the National Basketball League (LNB) awards. But from his height (2.21 meters) and wingspan (2.43 meters) to his talent and ambition, Wembanyama is bursting at the seams. At 19, the native of Le Chesnay (in the Paris region) is about to make a great leap – even for his 55-European shoe size (20.5 American) – toward America.
“With the first pick of the 2023 draft, the San Antonio Spurs select Wembanyama.” The official announcement will be made by Adam Silver, head of the North American basketball league, on the evening of Thursday, June 22, in New York (2 am in Paris). This outstanding professional – you don’t become an NBA commissioner by chance – has had plenty of time to practice pronouncing the four long syllables of the Frenchman’s surname correctly. Although the draft – a sort of marketplace for players not yet belonging to the NBA and aimed at rebalancing the league – is secret in theory, the name of the first pick of the 2023 edition has for months hardly been a mystery.
**’Unique talent’**
Barring a seismic event, the man the Americans have renamed “Wemby” will be chosen first and join the Texan team – which won the draft lottery at the end of the year. All smiles, he will shake hands with “Commish,” as Silver is known affectionately. He will then be ready to put on his Number 1 uniform – his jersey number, not a mere detail – which he has been preparing for since he was very young.
“From age 13, Victor knew he was going to be an NBA star,” said George Eddy. The mythical voice of basketball in France, whose flights of fancy accompanied the rise of the NBA in the country, passionately follows the evolution of the world’s greatest basketball prospect. “I met him when he was 15, one Sunday morning,” recounted Eddy, a French-American who rubbed shoulders with the player’s father at the club level. “I had a shooting contest with him, to give him a few tips. At 15, he already had perfect technique. I could see straight away that he was going to be a unique talent.”
Trained in Nanterre, where he arrived at the age of 10, Wembanyama quickly made a name for himself. “The first time I heard of him, he was just 14, and we hear that a youngster from Nanterre is leaving to play in a cup in Spain with Barcelona,” recalled Yann Casseville, editor-in-chief of Basket le Mag. In February 2018, the great “Barça” team tried to lure the already immense Wembanyama into its nets, getting him to take part in the King’s Minicup in a Blaugrana uniform. A few months later, one of the sharpest insiders in the basketball landscape, Mike Schmitz, mentioned “a potential unicorn [player capable of doing just about anything on a court] developing in France,” born in 2004 and possessing “massive hands, size 54 shoes and thighs like toothpicks.” His combination of ” incredible physical upside and talent” was intriguing.
Curious to discover the prodigy, many observers took an interest in the Hauts-de-Seine club, which was incubating its treasure. Tall, lithe and capable of doing anything on the basketball court, the young Wembanyama – who played his first pro match at the age of 15 – served to the onlookers what they had come to see: a phenomenon. His stints with Asvel Lyon-Villeurbanne, in 2021-2022, and Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 this season only amplified his reputation. In turn, the many NBA scouts and executives who came in October 2022 to attend the “VW” American tour, organized by his team to rub shoulders with the other prospects of his generation, left blown away.
**Read the full article at this link:** [https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2023/06/22/nba-draft-victor-wembanyama-french-basketball-s-young-prodigy-under-the-spotlight_6035334_9.html](https://www.lemonde.fr/en/sports/article/2023/06/22/nba-draft-victor-wembanyama-french-basketball-s-young-prodigy-under-the-spotlight_6035334_9.html)