Wembanyama: the giant kid under a global spotlight Premium

In this premium article by The Hindu, discover the story of basketballer Victor Wembanyama, the tallest NBA player under the global spotlight.

Victor Wembanyama’s life has been a whirlwind ride since last week’s glitzy NBA draft in Brooklyn, New York. 

The NBA’s most anticipated No. 1 pick since LeBron James received a rockstar-style welcome from fans at San Antonio’s airport before being chauffeured to an eye-opening dinner with basketball team Spurs royalty: legendary coach Gregg Popovich and Hall of Famers Tim Duncan, David Robinson and Manu Ginobili. “Honestly, that was one of the best dinners of my life,” said Wembanyama. “And not because of the food. The food was good. But the people were crazy. In a couple of hours, I learned more about the NBA than my whole life before.”

Wembanyama has packed in more in a week than some people do in a year, sampling the city’s famed breakfast tacos, hunting for a place to stay, exchanging pleasantries with the San Antonio mayor, signing truckloads of jerseys and satisfying an incessant stream of photo requests.

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The buzz is palpable in San Antonio. There’s someone driving around with a ‘Wemby’ licence plate. There’s a burger with foie gras on the menu at a local sports bar, as a tribute to the French prodigy. There’s a mural of him on the outside of a business directly across the street from another mural featuring Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker. There’s even a mariachi band that already has a song about him. “The fans have been the best at their job,” said Wembanyama. “I can only hope to be at their level.”

It has been hectic. Wembanyama hasn’t had much time for sleep. But he also said that he’s enjoying it all: “This is the life I wanted. This is what I worked for. So, it feels normal to me.”

Such has been the hype around Wembanyama — coverage of the draft averaged a record 4,928,000 American viewers on ESPN and ABC, peaking at 6,085,000 when the French phenom was drafted — that it is easy to forget how young he is.