Back in 2002-03, every sports fan in the United States knew who LeBron James was when the ‘Kid from Akron’ hadn’t even played one NBA game. The then 17-year-old would gain the expectations of being ‘The Chosen One’ to better the GOAT, Michael Jordan.
Advertisement
Well, he is too close, and 20 years on, he still is the biggest sports prodigy of all time. However, he might have to give that title to a 7ft 3” Frenchman who’d measure 2 inches more with shoes on and still move like Kevin Durant.
According to an ESPN journalist, who is also from Ohio, and was a reporter for the Cavaliers when James was coming up, Victor Wembanyama is LeBron 2.0.
Brian Windhorst Believes Victor Wembanyama is an upgrade over LeBron James
Very few journalists have seen James’ career and have made the best out of their career as well as Brian Windhorst of ESPN. The 45-year-old veteran is the best person to tell if the basketball world has seen that type of hype since the King of the NBA was still a 17-year-old.
And he believes Victor is Kevin Durant in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s body. He added that Wembanyama is LeBron 2.0 considering how he and the people around him have been preparing him for the top basketball league in the world. Hear it in Windy’s words and then Max Kellerman reacting to it as well.
Now you get why the 8th-best team in the East (Atlanta Hawks, 29-30) and the 9th-best team in the West (Warriors, 29-30) have a losing record. If things go south with injuries or other such problems, those teams would still be able to tank.
Tag it a conspiracy, but we shall see when 14-15 teams prefer losing games to get Wembanyama over giving themselves a chance in the post-season.
Wembanyama has changed the ways of the NBA once again
Adam Silver and the National Basketball Association tried their best to keep more and more teams from tanking each season when they introduced the Play-in tournament in 2021.
Before there used to be only 8-10 teams in each conference who would try for (8) playoff slots, others would tank to get the best player of the next year’s draft.
Since the 2021 Playoffs, there have been 10-12 teams in each conference who are prioritizing wins over other things. But this year feels like the teams that are 11th spot and beyond would let it go when push comes to shove — the Wembanyama effect.
