A new basketball player surpassing LeBron James enters NBA

‘Alien’ Victor Wembanyama will make an official debut in the NBA. The official opening of the 2023-2024 NBA season is a match between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday. However, the attention of fans is on the home game of the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday, where Wembanyama makes an NBA debut against the Dallas Mavericks. The Dallas Mavericks has Luka Doncic from Slovenia in Europe, who entered the NBA before Wembanyama.

Wembanyama, who was born in the suburbs of Paris in 2004, was ranked No. 1 in terms of the average score (21.6 points), rebounds (10.4 rebounds), and blocks (3.0 blocks) per game in the professional French basketball league last season and picked the youngest MVP in the history of the league. Then, he was the most popular in the NBA draft for new players in June this year. Before being picked as an NBA player, he garnered much attention and was even invited by the New York Yankees of the MLB.

The French basketball player is much taller than the average center with a height of 224 centimeters. However, he has speed, responsiveness, and flexibility comparable to those of guards, which earned him the nickname of the ‘paradigm shifter.’

Wembanyama recorded 19.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks on average during exhibition matches, proving why he is believed to have the ‘skills of the century.’ Even though his average playing time (20 minutes and 54 seconds) was less than a total game time of 48 minutes, he scored the highest points among centers and recorded the highest number of blocks among all players.

In particular, Wembanyama showed an outstanding performance against the Golden State Warriors, which was his last exhibition match, on Saturday. The video of him recording two blocks in the first quarter and launching swift attacks to make a dunk or 3-pointer to score a total of nine points was watched over 300,000 times on YouTube. “Wembanyama showcased unmatched skills and scale in the NBA history in just 90 seconds,” CBS Sports reported. “He can be a perfect player.”


Bae-Jung Kim wanted@donga.com