Article 6BS2M The San Antonio Spurs won the draft lottery. So did Victor Wembanyama

The San Antonio Spurs won the draft lottery. So did Victor Wembanyama

by
Joseph Palmer
from US news | The Guardian on (#6BS2M)

It turns out there were two winners in the Wembayama sweepstakes: the French teen hailed as the best NBA prospect since LeBron James could not have handpicked a better organization to develop his craft

The NBA draft is still more than a month away, but its biggest question has already been answered. After winning Tuesday night's draft lottery, the San Antonio Spurs are almost certain to use this year's No 1 pick to select teenage French basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama. Almost certain" is no exaggeration - according to oddsmakers at time of writing, a $100 wager on the Spurs to take Wembanyama with their pick would net the bettor just 50 cents.

It's easy to see why Wembanyama is a shoo-in to be drafted first. At 19 years old and 7ft 4in tall, he's already bigger than nearly everybody in the NBA and is possibly still growing. His height, however, is only a (metaphorically) small part of Wembanyama's appeal. He does things on a basketball court which people have never seen before. He can collect his own missed three-point shot for a putback dunk, score at will over one of the best defenders in basketball and dribble past opponents like a player half his size. In what may be the greatest accomplishment of his nascent career, Wembanyama even seems to have already won the admiration of his NBA elders (not always a given, even for most heavily hyped prospects). Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, for example, thinks Wembanyama will eventually serve as the archetype for all future NBA players, predicting that in 2045, everybody is going to look like Victor".

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