Victor Wembanyama is an alien. Or at least the furthest thing from a typical biological human being we’ve ever seen on a basketball court. The San Antonio Spurs had better go out and get somebody to play with him next season, because if Wemby can do this against the reigning champion Denver Nuggets, the sky — nay, the edge of the ever-expanding universe is the limit on his ceiling as a player.
What do I mean by “this“? I suppose I mean scoring 17 points in a three-minute stretch in the third quarter.
But I also mean that Wembanyama, at 20 years old, was the catalyst for the Spurs’ 21st victory in Game 81 of the regular season against a Nuggets squad at full strength. That means Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Michael Porter Jr., and Aaron Gordon all in the lineup. Denver had everything to play for, namely the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
Instead of getting the inside track on that premium playoff positioning on the Thunder and Timberwolves, the Nuggets lost. Look at what Wemby did do them!
Wembanyama wound up with 34 points, 12 boards, five assists and three stocks. You know how I said I hope they get somebody to play with him this summer? Look no further than what happened last night to underscore, boldface, italicize, underline and caps-lock that point.
Devonte’ Graham will get a lot of credit for hitting the game-winning shot, and good on him for delivering in the clutch.
Graham is a 34% shooter from the field. Not a misprint. These are the types of scrubs Wemby has to rely on if and when a game is on the line and all the attention is on him.
Wanna guess who San Antonio’s second-leading scorer was in the win over Denver? You’ll never get it. You’ve never heard of him. That honor goes to Sandro Mamukelashvili, he who can only carve out 9.4 minutes per game on a high draft lottery-bound team. Mamukelashvili somehow netted 21 points in what I can only assume was a ripple effect from the Nuggets defense focusing so much on Wembanyama.
Nothing about this makes any sense.
Then again, anything to do with Wembanyama defies conventional forms of logic and reason. He’s a singular, 7-foot-4 spectacle who should only improve as he continues to develop and gets better talent around him.
The recent solar eclipse and Nike’s Wemby-centric alien ad will indeed be great foreshadowing for what’s to come, because the young man is about to take over the NBA as we know it.
