Victor Wembanyama is a 7-foot-5, 227-pound unicorn who can put the ball on the floor, sky above the rim, block shots and rebound at a high level, while having a capable jump shot. He’s perhaps the most unique basketball prospect ever, and the San Antonio Spurs were gifted him with the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
With that said, could all the hype surrounding Wembanyama’s NBA future be a negative?
Nick Wright argued on “What’s Wright? With Nick Wright” that the expectations placed on the French phenom are unfair.
“We have set the expectations at such an outrageous place that he [Wembanyama] could be a Hall of Famer who wins a league MVP and be considered a disappointment,” Wright said. “We’ve only done that to one other NBA player in my lifetime, LeBron James, and LeBron met and then exceeded — somehow — the expectations, but they were unfair. But at least with LeBron, you were like ‘Well, we know this body type works.’ As far as injury concerns go, if Wemby is on the furthest negative end of the spectrum, LeBron was the antithesis of that.”
Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1,596 games) and Dikembe Mutombo (1,196 games) are the only two players who stood 7-foot-2 or taller and appeared in at least 1,000 NBA games since 1960. Only four players of that size have played in 900 games.
More recently, Yao Ming — who stood at 7-5 and was primarily an interior scorer — was limited to just 486 NBA games due to various injuries.
This past season, Wembanyama averaged 21.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and three blocks per game while shooting 47.0/27.5/82.8 for the Metropolitans 92 LNB Pro A League in France.
As for James, the Cleveland Cavaliers selected the future superstar forward with the No. 1 pick in the 2003 NBA Draft out of high school. James starred from the jump and has racked up four NBA championships, four NBA Finals MVPs, four league NBA MVPs, 19 All-Star selections and 18 All-NBA selections through his ongoing 20-year career.
Wright thinks that Wembanyama will have a great NBA career, but it will likely be viewed as underwhelming in the grand scheme of things due to inordinate expectations.
Victor Wembanyama: all-time great or a 2K Create a Player gone wrong?
“I think fair expectations are that he [Wembanyama] falls somewhere between [Shaquille O’Neal’s] career and Anthony Davis‘ career, in that range,” Wright said. “So, that would be one of the 50 greatest players ever. Maybe one of the 25 greatest players ever, somewhere in there.
“I’m not rooting against him at all; it’s the opposite. It is if this guy through 10 years of his career has four first-team All-NBAs, two second teams, a couple blocks titles, one league MVP and one championship, that would give him one of the best 25 starts to a career ever for a decade, and people would be disappointed by that. That, I don’t think is fair.”
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