They don’t come around very often, but there is always The Next Big Thing. And when they do, the basketball world comes to a screeching halt, and gawks, and imaginations run wild as to what The Next Big Thing can do and who he can be.

And venues such as Barclays Center become the nerve center of the NBA, electricity crackling through the place in anticipation of Victor Wembanyama, all 7-foot-3 of him, seemingly walking on water from Paris to the Brooklyn stage on Thursday night where NBA commissioner Adam Silver and all of San Antonio was waiting for … how does The French Freak sound?

Here comes Wembymania.

“Has to be considered one of the most exceptional prospects to ever enter the NBA,” legendary broadcaster Marv Albert told The Post.

Wembanyama has landed in the perfect place. “I could see that Gregg Popovich will bring in Tim Duncan and David Robinson to work with him,” Albert said. “And Pop is great in this type of situation. The expectations are gonna be so high. I think the saving grace is that he is going to go to San Antonio.”

The Next Big Thing is only 212 pounds, but he will grow naturally. “He’s unstoppable when he goes to the basket,” Albert said. “He’ll get hit in the NBA, but still he’s very good at following up on rebounds.”

Way back when around here, before he would change his name to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, a gangly 7-foot-³/₄ kid out of Manhattan’s Power Memorial High School every salivating college coach knew as Lew Alcindor was The Next Big Thing.

Wembanyama doesn’t have a skyhook yet. Good luck defending him if and when he does. “It looks like he has skills from the outside … obviously he can take it to the basket,” Albert said. “The center position is so different than it was … they used to go down low, but Wembanyama has the talent also to hit outside shots. His instincts, you see him coming from nowhere to grab a rebound and put it right back. He’s an excellent dribbler, so similar to [Nikola] Jokic. He can bring the ball up-court at times which is amazing.”

This was how The New York Times chronicled Alcindor’s decision to take his talents to John Wooden’s Westwood:

“Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr.’s announcement, made in the Manhattan parochial school’s gymnasium, ended several years of secrecy and speculation. He had never spoken publicly before, but always through his coach, Jack Donohue. The coach installed himself as a buffer between Alcindor and the 60-odd colleges who seriously bid for his enrollment and any interviewers and newspapermen who wanted to talk to him …

“By 12:33 P.M., when Alcindor arrived in the gym from the cafeteria, several hundred reporters, photographers, television crewmen, radio broadcasters and students lined the room. Alcindor, wearing a dress shirt, jacket and tie, as does every student in the Irish Christian Brothers’ school, stepped to the microphone and said: ‘I have an announcement to make. This fall I’ll be attending U.C.L.A. in Los Angeles.’ ”

Read the New York Post’s coverage for the 2023 NBA Draft:

None other than Wilt Chamberlain, The Next Big Thing prior to Alcindor, called him “the greatest high school player I’ve ever seen.”

The Bucks won an over-the-phone coin flip against the Jerry Colangelo Suns, who called heads, in commissioner Walter Kennedy’s New York office in March for Jabbar and the first-overall pick of the 1969 NBA draft. Bucks owner Wes Pavalon embraced GM John Erickson after listening to the result of the call and inadvertently stuck his lighted cigarette into Erickson’s ear.

“He was so advanced,” Albert said, “because he played four years.”

Bill Walton (Blazers, 1974) and Magic Johnson (Lakers, 1979) preceded 7-4 Ralph Sampson as The Next Big Thing in 1983 for the Rockets. Hakeem “The Dream” Olajuwon was The Next Big Thing in 1984 in the last draft that used a coin flip to decide the first-overall pick. The Rockets won it and the Blazers settled for Sam Bowie over Michael Jordan.

For Knicks fans, and for then-GM Dave DeBusschere, who would pound the table when the lottery gods smiled down on him with the first overall pick, Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing was The Next Big Thing in the 1985 NBA Draft. “It wasn’t hype until he came to the Knicks, I don’t think,” Albert said.

David Robinson (Spurs, 1987), Danny Manning (Clippers, 1988), Shaquille O’Neal (Magic, 1992), Tim Duncan (Spurs, 1997) and Yao Ming (Rockets, 2002) were considered Next Big Things by many prior to LeBron James, but Wembanyama is The Next Biggest Thing since King James, and that includes Zion Williamson (Pelicans, 2019).

Months before the 2003 NBA Draft at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, King James was crowned on a Sports Illustrated cover that trumpeted: The Chosen One … the savior of the Cavaliers from nearby St. Vincent-St. Mary HS. James was mature beyond his years.

“They were chanting ‘Overrated,’ ” Albert said, “and he’s just talking very calmly about how ‘we have to play together’ and all this kinda stuff … he did not go over the top with anything.”

LeBron was 18 at the time. Wembanyama is 19. “He’s so mature,” Albert said.

As they might now say in San Antonio: YES!!!!