NARRATIVE. Basketball: from attraction to confirmation, how UFO Victor Wembanyama successfully landed in the NBA
The madness of his grandeur. Victor Wembanyama has finished his first season in the NBA, those of all expectations following his status as the first Frenchman selected as the number 1 choice in the draft, the annual selection of the best prospects on the basketball planet.
Wembanyama did better than respond, at the end of an exercise rich in highlights and experiences. From the excitement of its beginnings to the final weeks in apotheosis, a look back at a year which took it from a curiosity to follow to an unmissable phenomenon across the Atlantic.
Comet “Wemby” had already crashed the French championship last year, winning all the individual awards and bringing the Metropolitans of Boulogne-Levallois to the final of the Betclic Elite. However, this was nothing compared to what would await him in San Antonio from June 22, the date on which the Spurs officially chose him. In the Texan city, the Tricolor is expected as the messiah, a bearer of hopes as disproportionate as its wingspan of 2.43m.
Large format: Wembamania
This week’s Large Format “La Wembamania” takes you to San Antonio alongside Victor Wembanyama, the 19-year-old French basketball player who has become the new NBA icon.
His first pre-season match, usually quite confidential meetings, was a full house. His first evening in the big world attracts all the attention. Against Dallas on October 25, Victor Wembanyama spent most of his match hampered by mistakes, before revealing a concentration of his talent in the last quarter. The sample is short, so is the time needed to confirm the quality.
