It’s not unusual for elite athletes to become brands in themselves. These days, even talented kids coming straight out of college to the NBA or NFL might get signature footwear deals to clothing lines to help them cash in on their newfound fame, but there are levels to these things, and at the very, very top, you get athletes who become more like institutions than brands: We are talking about the Michael Jordan, Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Tiger Woods ‘level’ here.
And so we turn to a young Frenchman making his way in the NBA – Victor Wembanyama. It’s difficult to discuss a parallel for his career so far. He was not some kid making waves in a US high school like LeBron James, nor a college superstar like Michael Jordan. He was plucked from the French professional leagues for the NBA Draft at 18, taken by the down-on-their-luck San Antonio Spurs, and soon tipped to be the next big thing in the NBA.
Wembanyama led the Spurs to an unlikely NBA Finals run
“Wemby” is clearly a generational talent, though it is much too soon to say that his career will compare to the athletes we have mentioned above. Things can go awry in anyone’s sports career, and a bad injury tomorrow or some other misfortune, even an unexplained loss of form, could derail his career. But the fact that he is being mentioned in the same category as all-timers like Jordan and James tells you a lot.
One of the main reasons that Wembanyama has hit the headlines now is that he has ‘broken out’ this season. He’s still just 22 – the age when most NBA players are playing their rookie seasons coming out of college – and in his third season in the NBA. He picked up Rookie of the Year in his first, had a few niggling injury issues in his second, and became the league’s best defensive player in this one.
What’s more, he has dragged the Spurs to the cusp of one of the most unlikely NBA Championships imaginable, at least at the start of the season. San Antonio is the favorite in the Finals according to these NBA odds in the series against the New York Knicks. The Spurs reached the Finals after defeating the Oklahoma City Thunder in a thrilling 7-game Western Conference Final: Wembanyama was the standout player in the series.
The NBA’s Most Talked-About Athlete
Whether or not Wembanyama and the Spurs go over New York remains to be seen, and it’s far from certain, but it is clear that two things have happened: The French star has become the most talked-about athlete in the NBA, and it feels like he is now way ahead of schedule in his personal trajectory. At the same age, but James and Jordan were considered superstars in the making, but they weren’t yet dominating the NBA Playoffs.
It should be noted that the NBA and the San Antonio Spurs seem acutely aware of Wembanyama’s global appeal. The league has grand plans to grow across the globe, including the new. NBA Europe league, so it’s no coincidence that the Spurs and Wembanyama have been tagged to play in the NBA’s Global Games series again this year, which will mean Wembanyama will be playing again in his native France and in the UK. He is, in essence, already the face of the league outside the US.
He is eligible to sign a contract extension with the Spurs this summer, which could guarantee up over $300 million in salary by the 2031/32 season. At that point, you gather that he will be at his peak. Perhaps he continues with the Spurs in a bid to become a one-franchise legend, or maybe he signs a new contract elsewhere, or, as we said, maybe his stock has fallen by that time. Yet, the NBA world is almost in complete agreement that this young Frenchman is a once-in-a-generation athlete, one who may become a global superstar who transcends basketball.
