During the All-Star Weekend, Draymond Green sat down with Jamal Crawford for a special episode of The Draymond Green Show. The two big names from the basketball world spoke about a variety of different topics during the 70-minute episode. One of the topics discussed was about the potential of Victor Wembanyama. After they both lauded the French phenom for being a phenomenal talent, Crawford explained how Gregg Popovich would be the key to the rookie’s success.
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During the beginning of the All-Star Weekend, Jamal Crawford was seen teaching a few moves to Victor Wembanyama to improve the latter’s handles.
Over the weekend, during the podcast, Draymond Green asked JC to talk about Wemby. Crawford, who is known for his excellent analysis, believed that Gregg Popovich will be responsible for the 7ft 4” youngster’s success. Before recalling an incident that left Crawford in awe of the European, the three-time Sixth Man of the Year revealed how he wasn’t sure what Wemby’s best attribute was.
“Before he came in the league, I said he obviously has a cheat code in Pop, right? But I said his skill, whatever he does best early, we don’t know. But, Pop’s going to play him to his strength… The cheat is Pop though because I don’t think Wemby’s best attribute is scoring. I’m not sure what it is right now,” Crawford claimed.
As surprising as it may sound, despite the surreal hype, Crawford believes that the 20-year-old is better than what he’s projected to be.
“He’s actually better than the hype. It’s insane,” Crawford boldly claimed.
Wembanyama has arguably been the most hyped player to enter the NBA since LeBron James. Some analysts even claimed that Wemby needed to have a Hall-of-Fame type career in order to live up to all the expectations. Despite the fans’ lofty demands so far, the San Antonio Spurs big man has been meeting the expectations, averaging 20.5 points, 10 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks per game this season.
Victor Wembanyama talks about his rookie season
Over the All-Star Weekend, Victor Wembanyama was a part of TNT’s broadcast, answering questions that Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, Kenny Smith, and Ernie Johnson Jr. had prepared for him.
Wemby spoke about his rookie year experience, so far, explaining how he’s been lucky to learn what he has and face the many challenges he did.
“It’s been a pleasure also to be on that court and experience this. I’ve learned so much in just a couple months more than in any little span like this before in my life and just living the dream… It’s been a lot of challenges, it’s been hard but I wouldn’t want it to be easy,” Wemby said.
Wemby also said that the constant losing has been extremely tough for him.
“I think actually this (losing) has been the one of the hard things you know this season,” Wembanyama said.
To be fair, the San Antonio Spurs weren’t expected to be a playoff-contending team. At the same time, fans wouldn’t even expect them to sit dead last in the Western Conference standings.
In terms of individual performance, Wemby’s incredible production has been one of the very few positive takeaways for the Texas side. It won’t be surprising to see the Spurs center win the Rookie of the Year once the 2023-24 season gets over.
