San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama comes into the NBA with sky-high expectations as arguably the top NBA prospect since LeBron James. It obviously remains to be seen if he will ever reach the expectations that have been put on him. But at least in his NBA preseason debut, he lived up to all of the hype.
Wembanyama and the Spurs faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder and fellow promising big man Chet Holmgren. And right away it was clear that Wembanyama is going to be the focal point of the Spurs offense.
The French sensation made a number of highlight plays that very few players in the world can do, including this driving layup around Holmgren, who is an excellent shot blocker in his own right.
Another highlight play came on the defensive side of the ball, when he was seemingly beat on a drive by Thunder forward Jalen Williams, only to recover excellently for a chase-down block.
Wembanyama ultimately finished with 20 points while shooting 8 of 13 from the field. He also added five rebounds and a number of other eyebrow-raising plays.
Fans were thoroughly impressed with what they saw from Wembanyama, and most clearly feel like he has a special NBA career ahead of him.
It’s especially impressive for Wembanyama to put up this kind of stat line considering he only played 19 minutes, the least of any Spurs starter on Monday night.
That will obviously go up once the regular season starts, so fans should be in for some truly special numbers put up by Wembanyama once the season is officially underway.
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.