Even before the San Antonio Spurs drafted Victor Wembanyama with the first overall pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, it was acknowledged that he would take over as the league’s most dominant player. It was just a matter of when. Now entering his third season, it feels that the time of reckoning for Wemby is near.
Advertisement
Wemby, who missed the end of last season with a blood clot in his shoulder, has been given a clean bill of health with Opening Night of the 2025-26 season just two weeks away. That’s a scary proposition for the rest of the league.
The French big man was well on his way to a unanimous Defensive Player of the Year win last year, before his ailment kept him below the required minimum number of games that needed to be played to be eligible. He also improved his scoring from 21.4 points per game in his rookie season to 24.3 last year.
Wemby is also raising his shooting and rebounding numbers. Now he’s looking to take an even bigger leap. ESPN’s NBA Today crew discussed his outlook for the season, and they pointed to his busy summer as the best indicator that he’s ready to dominate.
“I followed him all summer long on social media,” Ramona Shelburne said. “He was playing soccer in Costa Rica, he’s in China waking up at 4:30 in the morning, learning Kung Fu from the monks at the Shaolin temple. This is something I don’t think I’ve seen from a superstar since Kobe Bryant. Kobe did this once.”
Noting that Wembanyama had the genuine curiosity to learn and improve his game. Shelburne added, “To go to people like Hakeem [Olajuwon], and to go to the Shaolin temple and learn different approaches to the game and to life. I don’t even know what his ceiling is; nobody in the league does, but if he’s got that thirst for knowledge and to get better.”
Marc J. Spears interjected at this point, saying, “Hakeem said his upside is unlimited.” Yes, one of the greatest centers of all time sees the vast potential of the Spurs star.
Shelburne was only scratching the surface of Wemby’s busy summer. He also trained with Kevin Garnett, hosted basketball and chess tournaments in his hometown of Le Chesnay, France, and scored a sick free kick in a soccer match in Japan.
Kobe was the NBA’s last real Renaissance man, hungry for knowledge and a deeper understanding of the world and its people. Before him, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar shared the same curiosity.
Wemby seems to be taking that tradition forward. Who can forget when he played chess with a bunch of strangers at a New York public park the morning after a game against the Knicks?
Being intellectually curious worked out pretty well for Kobe and Kareem. So the rest of the NBA better prepare itself for the Wemby they’re about to see. This is the first season that the Spurs have any real expectations to contend, and it could be the beginning of their takeover, led by Wemby.
