Victor Wembanyama is the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft and heads to San Antonio with huge expectations to become basketball’s newest sensation.
The selection of the 19-year-old Frenchman, who had been known for months, was announced by NBA commissioner Adam Silver on Thursday evening at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, followed by chants of “Wemby! Wemby” from a group of Spurs supporters waving signs from the front row of seats.
Wembanyama comes in with far more scope and enthusiasm than most of the top picks. At 2.24m tall, he dominated the French Championship in his last season, being the best scorer, rebounder and shot blocker of all players.
Today, he enters the NBA, perhaps as the best prospect since LeBron James graduated from high school in 2003. Wembanyama brings a skill set that seems perfect for the modern NBA and too broad for just one. player, with the size of a center and the shooting and ball handling abilities of a playmaker.
“Hearing this sentence from Adam Silver, I dreamed of it so much, confessed Wembanyama, with tears in his eyes, leaving the stage with his Spurs cap and hugging his brothers and sisters. I must cry. »
Wembanyama was the center of attention throughout the selection process and sat in the middle of the green room. He smiled at the young supporters who shouted “Victor! when he walked around the room, even encouraging one of them to throw a basketball at him which he signed and threw back in the stands.
It was during a two-game series between the teams of Wembanyama and Henderson, last October in Las Vegas, that Wembanyama asserted himself as the key man in this repechage, scoring 37 and 36 points ahead of recruiters. and some of his future adversaries. His highlights, like the dunk that follows his own missed 3-point shot, have become must-have content for basketball fans.
Wembanyama is the Spurs’ third number-one pick and first since Tim Duncan in 1997, a pick that won them five NBA championships through 2014 before struggling in recent seasons.
PHOTO WENDELL CRUZ, USA TODAY SPORTS
NBA commissioner Adam Silver with Brandon Miller
The Charlotte Hornets selected Brandon Miller of Alabama as the second draft pick.
Scoot Henderson of the G League Ignite, tipped as the No. 2 pick in this draft, was picked No. 3 by the Portland Trail Blazers.
For the fourth and fifth draft picks, Overtime Elite twins Amen and Ausar Thompson were picked by the Houston Rockets and Detroit Pistons, respectively.
“It means a lot to my family,” said Amen Thompson. We were going to be happy whichever came first. The fact that we are the first twins to place in the top five, twice in a row, means a lot. »
The Toronto Raptors decided to draft Gradey Dick of Kansas in 13th position.