Friday’s matchup between the San Antonio Spurs featured the Summer League debut for No. 1 overall pick Victor Wembanyama. He had a number of highlights, but it was actually his teammate Julian Champagnie, who had the best play of the night with an unreal poster dunk.
It can be tricky to play alongside a player with as much hype as Wembanyama in his debut game. However, it seems like Champagnie fit in alongside him perfectly.
Champagnie led the Spurs with 20 points, eight rebounds, and six assists. On top of that, he captured the spotlight for a moment with a ridiculous poster dunk over Hornets second-round draft pick James Nnaji.
ESPN play-by-play broadcaster Mark Jones beautifully described the dunk as Champagnie “detonating, destroying, and eviscerating” the Hornets.
It was quite the highlight, and fans took to social media to praise him for the play.
The dunk
The reactions
The staredownpic.twitter.com/i8i7lka1kl — ESPN (@espn) July 8, 2023
JULIAN CHAMPAGNIE OH MYpic.twitter.com/Khgj9TBJil
— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) July 8, 2023
With all the talk heading into this game being about Wembanyama, it is certainly impressive to see a somewhat unheralded player like Champagnie steal the show.
This latest impressive performance from Champagnie continues what has been a truly eye-opening Summer League thus far for him. He came into this game averaging 29 points per game and six rebounds in his first two Summer League games.
Champagnie impressed the team enough to be re-signed after coming on under a two-way contract last season. If he can continue this great play, he will almost certainly find his way onto the regular season roster for the team.
[Awful Announcing on Twitter, Photo Credit: ESPN]
About Reice Shipley
Reice Shipley is a staff writer for Comeback Media that graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Sports Media. He previously worked at Barrett Sports Media and is a fan of all things Syracuse sports.