In this young NBA season, few players have been more impressive than third-year alien Victor Wembanyama. After an offseason training with Kevin Garnett, Hakeem Olajuwon, Jamal Crawford, and Shaolin monks, it’s clear he was coming in with bad intentions.
The 7’5 (and debateably growing) Frenchman has done exactly that. After an early-season showing of dominance against Anthony Davis and the Mavericks, it was clear that he is going to be a problem for a long time, barring injury.
The other night against the Chicago Bulls, Wembanyama showed just why the league is in trouble.
Wembenyama is doing things we've never seen before
The Chicago Bulls have blown people away so far this season by starting off 6-1. Now they were 6-3 by the time they got to San Antonio, but they were still overachieving. The Spurs even went into halftime down one to this Bulls team.
By the end of the 3rd quarter, the Bulls stretched it to a nine-point lead, and Wembanyama decided that enough was enough. In the 4th quarter alone, he posted 18 points and five rebounds, shooting six for eight from the field and three for three from beyond the arc.
Two of those long-range bombs came in the final minute of the game to seal it. The first one, he just walked up into in transition over Vučević. Simply ridiculous. The second one was disgusting.
Wembenyama held the ball above the three-point line, just draining the clock. With seven seconds on the shot clock, he finally got into his action, hit Vučević with a hesitation crossover stepback (he’s 7’5), and drilled his second three in a row right in his face.
That three capped off a night that the NBA has never in its history seen before. Wembanyama finished with 38 points, 12 rebounds, five assists, five blocks, and six made threes.
He officially became the first player ever to record 35+ points, 10+ rebounds, five+ assists, five+ blocks, and five+ threes in a single game.
If it weren’t for the absolute insanity we’ve been seeing out of Luka Dončić in Los Angeles, I’d say we have a clear MVP frontrunner in Wembanyama.