Swanson: Victor Wembanyama’s touchdown in L.A. an unbelievably human experience
LOS ANGELES – Last week major news outlets reported that the U.S. government has been receiving dozens of UFO reports each month. And that there’s “the potential for ‘hundreds, if not thousands’ more reports expected in the near future.”
Well, yeah.
The truth is out there. And Wemby is here.
It’s hardly classified; you can look it up on the internet. Last week, there were 18,947 Alien sightings in Dallas and 18,354 more in Houston. And right here, in downtown L.A., another 19,370 witnessed an unexplainable French phenomenon Sunday night.
Victor Wembanyama made his Crypto.com Arena debut against the Clippers (2-1), who were aggressive in taking the game right at the worldly and otherworldly talent.
In his third regular-season NBA game, Wemby, the San Antonio Spurs’ elegant Gumby-like rookie power forward with the 7-foot-4 frame and 8-foot wingspan, the sky-high expectations and astronomical upside, finished with 11 points, five rebounds, two assists. He also had one block, one steal, one foul and five turnovers.
And the Clippers blasted his Spurs, 123-83.
It was a reminder that Wembanyama is a 19-year-old new kid, with a league to learn and the weight of a galaxy on his slender shoulders.
But in San Antonio’s system, with its track record of nurturing stars like David Robinson and Tim Duncan — and the Clippers’ Kawhi Leonard — to great heights, I’d bet it’s nothing No. 1 won’t be able to navigate.
Because now I can say I saw it with my own two eyes: Wembanyama really is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before on a basketball court.
Something logic-defying and reason-busting. Something the young Spurs – like the rest of us – seem still to be getting used to. Because it’s something other than a unicorn, LeBron James said recently: “More like an alien.”
Wemby likes it, so we’re going with it. And Nike is branding their newest superstar salesman as The Extraterrestrial.
Paul Scheer, the actor, comedian and hard-core Clippers fan, said he was having trouble processing what he was seeing after watching Wembanyama for a half: “You hear about him, you see him on TV, but seeing him in person, you literally – it’s like, I don’t understand the physics of his body … we haven’t seen something like this and we need to see it, we need to have our eyes it to believe that it’s real and it’s not some AI-generated player.”
To oddsmakers, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft is the obvious frontrunner Rookie of the Year – and, after just two proper NBA games, was among the favorites for Defensive Player of the Year too.
To Britney Spears’ fans, the good-natured Wembanyama remains the subject of some one-sided, betcha-didn’t-have-this-on-your-bingo-card ire, stemming from last summer’s incident in Las Vegas when a member of the player’s security detail struck the pop star when she approached from behind. They express their disdain regularly by spamming the 19-year-old’s Instagram comments.
To Clippers forward and fellow Frenchman Nicolas Batum, he might as well be a nephew, joked Moussa Diabate, the Clippers’ Paris born-and-raised forward. Batum has for three years been trying to turn his colleagues in America into Wembanyama believers.
“Just saying, ‘They got a special player, a really special player,’” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.
Retired Spurs great Tony Parker, another Frenchman, tried to tell San Antonio (1-2) coach Gregg Popovich the same.
But Pop, the sage Spurs coach, treated those reports like most of us deal with UFO sightings. Ignored them, dismissed them, chose not to concern himself with an anomaly that didn’t concern him – until it did.
“I didn’t pay any attention to him,” Popovich said. “He was playing in France and what do I care? That’s not my job. I just coach. So as things progressed and then the draft comes and all that, I watched some film, but I didn’t really pay any attention to it. You don’t think you’re going to get him. In fact, when we did get him, I was on a flight to Italy. My club wondered why I would do that…
“I was asleep and my son-in-law nudged me, woke me up and said, ‘Hey, you guys got the first pick.’ I said, ‘Oh, that’s good.’”
It’ll be good for game, to have a global ambassador like Wembanyama, with the talent and the temperament – and, yes, the far-out physique.
He’s most dangerous, for now, defensively, because of his big-ol’ swooping block radius, his innate timing and a functional quickness that allows him to disrupt and intercept an entire swath of the court.
But he’s plenty scary on the other end too, crossing over smaller defenders with his dribble and using a deft touch around the rim to politely tap in lobs.
But the truth is out there now: He’s actually from around here. As in, Earth. Third rock from the sun. And there is work to do to make good on his gifts. Work he isn’t too big for.
“We got a famous saying in San Antonio, it’s ‘Pound the rock,’ ” Wembanyama told a small room crammed with reporters after the game. “It has a deep meaning and how I see it and how I see life is (there’s) always adversity, and struggle sometimes. But it’s not about how bad the struggles are gonna be but how persistent we’re gonna be.
“We’re young, we got a long way to go. But we’re gonna keep pounding the rock.”