Victor Wembanyama is clearly the next basketball unicorn in line, and people are starting to call him the most anticipated NBA prospect since LeBron James.
The 18-year-old from France stands at 7’4 with an eight-foot wingspan. Wembanyama would make Kevin Durant look like an averaged size wing player. Right now, he is the projected no. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
Most people like myself first came across Wembanyama on social media in the last couple of years. A viral video surfaced of the young prospect at 16 years old playing one-on-one against NBA big man Rudy Gobert. Needless to say he was giving the three-time NBA Defensive Player of the year plenty of issues.
Wembanyama had been working with basketball trainer Tim Martin, known for working with top-level NBA players. Martin has been posting some clips of their workouts on Instagram, which tapped more people like me into what was coming. It was clear to me then that Victor was a rare player. The way he was moving and the things he was doing were not normal at all for his size. It looked like the next progression of Kevin Durant.
After seeing Victor on television recently against G-League Ignite, the basketball world at large is now more on notice. He put up back-to-back 30+ point games against his 2023 draft rival Scoot Henderson. His performances garnered attention from Golden State Warriors guard Steph Curry, who called him a cheat code, and Lakers forward LeBron James.
LeBron James is asked if he watched Victor Webanyama play last night, and if so, if he could share his thoughts.
The answer:https://t.co/5zx0t9SJHP pic.twitter.com/TEsGkv4RQ0
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 6, 2022
Wembanyama does present the common concern with players his size when it comes to his physical frame, but he may still end up being the scariest prospect we’ve seen in a long time.
