The legend of Victor Wembanyama is growing
- 02 August 2024
Five games into his professional career, on his third-straight away game, Victor Wembanyama was already at home in the NBA. He scored 38 points, grabbed 10 boards and put up two blocks by the end of the night. At season's end, he'd average nearly four blocks a game, leading the league.
Victor is all unreal numbers. The 20-year-old's 7'4" frame swallows every square inch of the court. Offensively, he's fluid and mobile. Defensively, he's a one-man zone, able to turn away opposing fast breaks through his size and his stare. Evaluating rookies in the NBA is usually a challenge of evaluating their floor. At a minimum, what can this player become? He entered the league and instantly, the question was how high his ceiling might be—or whether there was one.
Here, Victor answers our questions on what it takes to win—from transcending his own limits to banishing fear from his life.
I knew from an early age the kind of professional I wanted to be. There's a lot of things we have to do as pro athletes that people in other jobs don't need to worry about, like getting enough sleep after you play a back-to-back and fly to a different time zone. I decided I need to get better sleep. When I start my dinnertime meal, my alarm for the next morning is already set on my phone and I'm not going to use my phone for the rest of the night.
I'm lucky in that I can say I'm competing for multiple places. Wearing the France national jersey is one of the strongest feelings I know. In the NBA, I'm attached to the city of San Antonio. I'm a part of it. They've welcomed me.
"Assuming that things are too big or too ambitious are things I've decided to banish from my life".
Victor Wembanyama
All my life, I've been much taller than everyone on the court. So, when coaches saw me doing dribbles through the legs and doing fadeaways and stuff, their first reflex was to tell me not to do it. All my life, there's been this pressure to put me in a box. It's been the toughest battle I've fought my whole life. Now, I do have more freedom than before, but I'm convinced that my freedom wouldn't be here without my efforts to go against those stereotypes.
Here's what I'd tell any kid who's struggling with something: when I was 12 years old, I went through a discouraging period. I was having trouble with my shot during my games. I obviously was growing a lot at that time and I was even skinnier than I am now, so I had trouble getting my shot off consistently against defenders. My coach told me, "When you're a professional, you'll be working on the present. But right now, you're working for the future".
Seeing a kid wear my jersey is special. Any time I catch highlights of our games, I like watching the reactions in the stands and you naturally see the kids who are wearing your jersey. It's not the first thing you think about when you become an NBA player, but you realise you can positively influence the next generation through something you love. It's beautiful.
It really saddens me when I see a lack of ambition from people. Usually, it comes from being scared and thinking "I'm not enough". Assuming that things are too big or too ambitious are things I've decided to banish from my life.
At the end of the day, it's on you to define what your goals are in life, what you want to become. Winning is accomplishing those things that matter most to you.
"I don't think anyone could have a higher expectation for me than I have for myself".
I want to help create a new era of dominance for French basketball. That involves promoting the sport and making it more popular in the country for our youth. For professional basketball in France, I think our potential doesn't match our current investment. How can we improve our facilities? How can we train the best staff? We just need to match our potential and foster our pool of talent that's already here. France has the brightest future of any country in the world for basketball.
Someone asked me how I make sure my name doesn't grow bigger than the Spurs organisation. That will never happen. The team wants me to succeed and be the best I can be. They've made a lot of sacrifices for me. I want the whole organisation to know how much I understand all that they've done. Sometimes, it's a little thing like sending a text or welcoming someone new to the organisation. I try to show people their worth in all they do. I'm not scared to grow bigger than them, because I want to make the Spurs as big as I can. I want to give back to them as much as possible.
I don't think anyone could have a higher expectation for me than I have for myself. So, it's really no big deal when I hear people call me a once-in-a-generation player. The only people to whom I have something to prove are my coach and my team. Even my parents don't have expectations for me; they just want me to be happy. When I don't want to see all that pressure, I turn off my phone. It's as simple as that, but there's really no pressure or expectations. I never felt like I had something to owe to the world. I'm just playing basketball.