Victor Wembanyama: The new face of international dominance in the NBA
San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama is a perfect example of an international player taking the NBA by storm. This write-up will explore Wembanyama’s path to the Association and how international basketball is developing a new crop of stars.
Originally published at https://readbutterflies.substack.com on November 6, 2023.
As I wrote previously, the NBA has become an international attraction. On opening night a record 125 international players were on an NBA roster. International players aren’t just making rosters, they’re some of the best players on the floor.
The league MVP’s over the last five seasons have all been born outside the United States. The streak could continue this year since it’s arguable four of the top five players in the world are all foreign-born — Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, and Luka Doncic.
The internet has made it possible for young athletes to be exposed to the game and train on their own. Philadelphia 76er Embiid, the reigning NBA MVP, credits YouTube for his ability to shoot. In The Players’ Tribune, he wrote:
“So I’m chilling one night, and I go on YouTube, and I’m thinking I’m about to figure this shooting thing out. I go to the search box like…. HOW TO SHOOT 3 POINTERS. Nah. HOW TO SHOOT GOOD FORM. Nah. Then the light bulb went off, man. I typed in the magic words. WHITE PEOPLE SHOOTING 3 POINTERS. Listen, I know it’s a stereotype, but have you ever seen a normal, 30-year-old white guy shoot a three-pointer? That elbow is tucked, man. The knees are bent. The follow-through is perfect. Always. …I seriously got to the league by watching YouTube and living in the gym. There’s no other way to explain it.”
With greater exposure via the internet, more and more athletes are choosing to play basketball. With the popularity of the NBA spreading to every country on the planet, the number of athletes picking up a basketball for the first time is growing.
As more youth join the sport, there are bound to be some who are successful. However, the new international kid on the block is not just a number, he is a 19 year-old phenom.
A Frenchman by the name of Victor Wembanyama, the probable next NBA star, was taken №1 overall in the last NBA draft by the San Antonio Spurs. Antetokounmpo thinks he’ll be one of the best players ever.
Wembanyama has already shown signs of his potential on both sides of the ball with the help of his eight-foot wingspan. He recently outplayed Kevin Durant as the Spurs beat the Phoenix Suns in back-to-back games. Wembanyama scored 38 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in the second game.
Wembanyama’s early years
Wembanyama grew up in Le Chesnay, a suburb of Paris, France. It’s no coincidence he stands at 7 feet 4 inches tall, making him the tallest player in the NBA.
His 6-foot-3 mother was a professional basketball player in France before becoming a youth coach. His 6-foot-6 father was a track and field athlete who competed in the triple, long and high jumps.
Wembanyama’s grandparents were both professional basketball players and his great-great-grandfather stood over 7 feet tall. His sister, who plays professional basketball, is the shortest of the bunch at just 6 feet 1 inch. Los Angeles Laker LeBron James has called Wembanyama an “alien” and Golden State Steph Curry said he gives off “cheat-code-type vibes.”
With the combination of his mother, father, and youth coaches, Wembanyama was a well-trained athlete at a young age. Wembanyama would wear soccer goalie gloves while working on dribbling skills.
Due to his height, he learned he needed to dribble the ball close to the ground to prevent other players from stealing it. He wanted to learn how to play all roles, not just the position that made logical sense because of his height.
Wembanyama’s work ethic
At 14 years old, Wembanyama decided to take basketball to the next level. Several teams wanted him, both inside and outside of France. Clubs such as Barcelona and INSEP, France’s elite academy that has produced players such as Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, and Evan Fournier, were all clamoring for Wembanyama to join them.
Instead, he decided to play for Nanterre 92 because he was familiar with its coaches from playing with its youth team. His coaches molded Wembanyama into the player he is today, a big who plays like a guard.
Wembanyama has always had an incredible work ethic. While at Nanterre 92, he developed a bad habit of spreading the fingers on his left (non-shooting) hand when shooting. This caused issues with the rotation of the basketball.
Seemingly overnight, Wembanyama’s coaches realized the problem was fixed. When they asked what happened, he told them he put pieces of paper between his fingers when he shot to train himself to keep his fingers together. One of his coaches recalls:
“Victor was always focused on his goals…I had to fight with him to get him out of the gym. After practice he could shoot for hours. Every day, [the] same story.”
International youth development
While Embiid credits YouTube and hard work to his success, his game developed after he moved to the United States. Other players such as Wembanyama have played their entire pre-NBA careers internationally before moving to the States.
Basketball clubs in Europe operate similarly to European soccer where athletes play on youth teams during their early years. Those who rise through the ranks can play professionally, even when they are still teenagers. Players like Victor Wembanyama and Luka Doncic were playing against grown men when they were 15 and 16 years old, respectively.
Teams in Europe are coached like college basketball in the States, with a focus on fundamentals and team play. Aside from Antetokounmpo, most European players in the NBA are not freak athletes. They rely on their skills to get ahead of the competition. European leagues also have fewer games, which leaves more time for athletes to be in the gym with their coaches.
This is in stark contrast to AAU in the States. AAU teams are known to play sometimes three or four games over a weekend. It’s all about the individual with much less discipline. You might compare AAU to the G-League where the focus is on propping up individuals rather than team ball.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr had critical thoughts about AAU:
“Even if today’s players are incredibly gifted, they grow up in a basketball environment that can only be called counterproductive. AAU basketball has replaced high school ball as the dominant form of development in the teen years. I coached my son’s AAU team for three years; it’s a genuinely weird subculture. Like everywhere else, you have good coaches and bad coaches, or strong programs and weak ones, but what troubled me was how much winning is devalued in the AAU structure. Teams play game after game after game…Very rarely do teams ever hold a practice. Some programs fly in top players from out of state for a single weekend to join their team. Certain players play for one team in the morning and another in the afternoon. If mom and dad aren’t happy with their son’s playing time, they switch club teams and stick him on a different one the following week. The process of growing as a team basketball player, learning how to become part of a whole, how to fit into something bigger than oneself — becomes completely lost…”
This isn’t about comparing the development of international players and U.S. players, but it does show how foreign players are being put in better positions to succeed from a developmental standpoint.
Wembanyama’s diet and unique exercises
Wembanyama was trained from a young age by his mother to eat healthily. While at Nanterre 92, his coaches provided him with meal plans and ensured he stuck to them. He ate five meals a day and continues to do so now. In his early teenage years, it was reported that he grew about a centimeter a month.
Wembanyama is tall and skinny, weighing in at only 210 pounds. Many worry that he will be injury-prone with the long NBA seasons. However, his diet and workout regime are meant to help him stay strong without putting on too much weight.
His trainers don’t want him to focus on increasing his weight, citing too much baggage on his frame will increase his risk of injury. Wembanyama has even suggested that other NBA players should, “skinny up” and would benefit from losing weight because they have too much muscle mass.
In preparation for the NBA draft, Wemanyama hired a personal trainer. His trainer has him sleep 10 hours a day and designed exercises to improve Wembanyama’s foot strength. Injuries to the feet have been common in bigs and have derailed the careers of players such as Bill Walton, Greg Oden, and Yao Ming.
Wembanyama hasn’t had to sit out due to injury since the 2021–22 season while playing in France. If he can continue to stay healthy, he has a chance to be one of the best the NBA has ever seen.
Going pro
Just before his 16th birthday, Wembanyama was invited to play with the Nanterre 92 first team. The news of Wembanyama started to spread. Portland Trail Blazer Mike Schmitz said this about Wembanyama:
“There’s a kid in Europe right now, Victor Wembanyama, who’s maybe the best prospect in the world. I’ve never seen anything like him…The top prospect in all of Europe, regardless of age.”
At 17, Wembanyma decided to leave Nanterre 92 and signed a three-year contract with ASVEL, a French team owned by former Spur Tony Parker and Nicolas Batum, two of the best French basketball players ever.
Batum recalls seeing Wembanyama for the first time in 2018 when he was just 14 years old.
“I had a practice with the French national team in Paris and he was practicing after us. I saw [Wembanyama] pick up the basketball and he started dribbling. I was shocked [at] how he could handle the ball at that size. Then our coaches said it’s time for us to get on the bus and I’m like, ‘Go. Go. I’m staying. I’m going to check this kid out. Give me 15 minutes.’ After watching him, I talked to Tony Parker because we’re part owners of ASVEL. I said to Tony, ‘Yo, I got the next one…This kid is insane. He’s gonna be crazy good.’”
Three years after this encounter, ASVEL finally signed Wembanyama. However, the partnership was short-lived. After a year filled with injuries and less playing time than he had hoped, Wembanyama opted out of the two remaining years on his contract to become a free agent.
Despite interest from the G-League, big European clubs, and Australia, he decided to sign with Metropolitans 92, a team without much historical success. It was a surprising choice, but one that was well-calculated by Wembanyama.
The coach was known for developing young talent and he sold Wembanyama on being the centerpiece of the team. Metropolitans 92 created an environment for Wembanyama that would provide him with the most opportunity to grow quickly as a player and a leader.
The bet paid off as Wembanyama led the league in points, rebounds, and blocks. Metropolitans 92 also ended with the second-best regular-season record.
That year, Metropolitans 92 played two games against the G-League Ignite in Las Vegas. After scoring 36 and 37 points in both games, the anticipation and hype around Wembanyama exploded. Eight months later, Wembanyama was the №1 pick in the NBA draft.
The international player movement
The NBA is no longer a secret in the far corners of the earth. International players will continue to flock to the game of basketball and rise to the top of the talent pool. Others have paved the way for Wembanyama to not only dream but make the NBA his reality.
The success of Wembanyama will inspire more kids globally to pick up a basketball for the first time, continuing the cycle of international player success.
Originally published at https://readbutterflies.substack.com on November 6, 2023. For more content like this at a more frequent cadence, subscribe for free at Butterflies.
