Victor Wembanyama has spent the last three years bending the NBA in ways that still don’t feel totally real. The 21-year-old French superstar immediately won Rookie of the Year honors in his first campaign with the Spurs, but had his second season cut short due to Deep Vein Thrombosis. This year, he has the Spurs looking like a real championship contender. And there’s a chance they can do it all.
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The ripple effects go way beyond San Antonio’s win column. Front offices are suddenly obsessed with length, versatility, and upside, even if a prospect is raw, because Wembanyama proved the ceiling is worth the risk. Are there more players out there like him? Probably not. He’s a unicorn. But his impact on the league cannot be denied.
And on top of his incredible game on both sides of the court, his leadership skills are another accolade that sometimes gets missed. Kendrick Perkins spoke about Wemby’s role as team captain on the latest edition of the Road Trippin podcast. Big Perk praised the young Frenchman for being a leader at such an early stage of his career.
“He’s one of the best young leaders in basketball. Wemby. He has an old soul. Like a lot of people made fun of the stuff that he did with the drums and all that stuff, but that’s leadership. Once you see all the guys rally around him and support what he’s doing, there’s nothing else you can say about that,” stated KP.
It is incredible to see the Spurs rally around the big man especially since he’s only 21. It’s not just them either. The way the NBA media has highlighted his every phrase shows that the league has also bought into Wemby stock, an indication that they see him as the potential next face of their operation.
Perkins wasn’t done singing Wemby’s praises either. “You know what leadership is? It’s losing yourself in the team. You know what a young leader look like? It’s coming back when you come back from being injured and you f***ing coming in off the bench in 6 or 7 straight games and you’re not complaining.”
“And when the game starts you’re the first person up off the bench rooting for your f***ing teammate. That’s what leadership is. Leadership is Victor Wembanyama to the max,” he added. It’s easily some the kindest comments KP has ever made about a young player. There have been guys he’s liked, but Big Perk’s negative reactions tend to go more viral. Very cool to hear this from him.
The league has seen plenty of hyped stars flame out or push back against expectations, but Wemby seems comfortable letting the game and his teammates speak first. If this is what he looks like before fully hitting his prime, the scary part for the rest of the NBA is how much room there still is to grow. At this point, it’s less about whether he’ll win titles and more about how much he’ll end up redefining what greatness looks like in this era.
