We now know the winner of the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes.
The San Antonio Spurs won the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery Tuesday night, earning the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft and the right to select Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 19-year-old who is considered a generational talent.
Wembanyama is the first can’t-miss prospect in the NBA draft since LeBron James in 2003, and as hyped as any prospect in any sport in recent memory.
Maybe even not-so-recent memory.
And before setting foot in the NBA, he’s impressed the league’s all-time leading scorer.
“We’re labeling like this unicorn thing — everybody’s been a unicorn over the last few years,” James said. “But he’s more like an alien — no one has seen anyone as tall as he is but as fluid and as graceful as he is on the floor.”
Living and playing in France, Wembanyama didn’t get to study many NBA greats up close.
But from afar he picked out Kevin Durant to emulate, studying how the four-time scoring champion gets his feet underneath him, how his footwork is to launch shots, and how to play the game like the former Brooklyn star Durant.
Still, he wants to be his own player.
“I heard a comment he said; somebody compared him to a few players in the league and he was like ‘I think I’d do myself a disservice if I compared myself to one or two players. I’m going to take from everybody.’ That’s such a profound statement and made me a big fan of his,” Durant said earlier this season.
“That type of talent and skill just puts a smile on your face if you play basketball. The evolution of the game has taken us this far. We got a 7-5 dude that’s able to do everything on the court. It’s inspiring to a lot of people.
“The league’s really in trouble when he comes in. I want to see how it plays out. Everybody has been excited about his arrival to the league so we’ll see what happens.”
Wembanyama isn’t just a combination of size and skill, but also of focus.
His Metropolitans 92 point guard DeVante’ Jones — who played at Michigan — recalled the all-but-anointed top-overall pick crying after a loss to former club ASVEL, such was his competitive drive to win despite an already-assured future so bright NBA teams were brazenly tanking to get the merest chance to take him.
And as far as the French phenomenon’s offensive game, Jones couldn’t find a flaw.
“I just think you can’t really guard him,” Jones told the Field of 68 pod. “He’s 7-3, got a really long wingspan, so you can’t block it. So he’s going to get (where) he wants to get, so I feel like if he missed it’s going to be on him. I think nobody’s really going to affect this shot.
“He’s got the back-to-the-basket easily over both shoulders. Lately he’s been working on his floater. People are trying to make him take more left-handed shots, especially in the post but he’s done a great job…It’s hard to point out flaws, because whatever you take away he has something else.”