SI:AM | Victor Wembanyama’s Big Breakout Game
Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I have a feeling I’ll be writing about Victor Wembanyama in this space on a fairly regular basis.
In today’s SI:AM:
????♂️ An Olympian running his first marathon
If you're reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.
He’s already living up to the hype
It took only five games for Victor Wembanyama to truly announce his arrival in the NBA.
Last night in Phoenix, Wembanyama had the best game of his young NBA career, scoring 38 points on 15-of-26 shooting with 10 rebounds and two blocks. He joined Kevin Durant and LeBron James as the only teenagers in NBA history with 35 points, 10 rebounds and two blocks in a game.
Some other numbers from Wemby’s first week in the NBA
- His 38 points were tied for the third most by a Spurs rookie. (The only other San Antonio rookie to reach that number was David Robinson, who did so three times, but not until after the All-Star break of his rookie season.)
- He and Robinson are the only Spurs players to have 100 points in their first five career games.
- He’s the first player since Shaquille O’Neal in 1992 to have 100 points and 10 blocks in his first five career games.
- He’s the first player since John Drew in 1974 to score at least 38 points in one of his first five career games.
- He and Anthony Davis are the only players in the NBA this season with 100 points, 10 blocks and seven steals.
Wembanyama came into the league with more hype than any NBA rookie since LeBron James, but he’s living up to it thus far. He does supernatural things on the court that can be hard for the brain to comprehend. His size, agility, ballhandling, creativity and shooting ability allow him to score in almost limitless ways.
Watch this sequence from last night’s game where he creates his own shot off the dribble, leaving a defender in the dust to hit an open three, and then comes off a screen to hit a midrange jumper on the next possession. He’s so tall that he’s capable of catching most entry passes when not guarded by the opposing team’s largest defender. Put a big man on him, though, and he’ll put the ball on the floor to slip by him. There was also his pull-up three at the end of the first half, which is a shot a 7'3" guy shouldn’t be able to hit. He had a thunderous dunk on the break, too, because he’s able to fluidly run the floor. There are a dozen plays I could pick to link to, so just go watch this five-minute highlight reel.
“He’s a multifaceted player and he’ll pass it to the open guy,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich told reporters after the game. “But he’s got confidence in himself and he made some plays that were unbelievable. That combination is pretty good, if you have that skill and you’re still willing to pass.”
Just a week into his NBA career, Wembanyama is already showing that he’s capable of taking over games. The Spurs won last night, 132–121, over a Suns team that was firing on all cylinders. Kevin Durant had 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting. Devin Booker added 31 while hitting five of his seven three-point attempts. But Wembanyama was the best player on the court and willed his team to victory.
San Antonio is now 3–2 on the season, with back-to-back wins over Phoenix. If Wembanyama can produce such impressive performances despite his limited NBA experience, it's exciting to think about how much more he could develop as the season progresses and what the potential peak for the Spurs might be.
The best of Sports Illustrated
Michael Conroy/AP
- The pressure is on for Zach Edey and Purdue after their stellar season ended with a shocking upset to Fairleigh Dickinson. In today’s Daily Cover, Kevin Sweeney looks at how the Boilermakers plan to live up to the hype this year.
- Sweeney also has a list of the players most likely to win the men’s Player of the Year award.
- Chris Herring believes these four guys are already making a case for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.
- Though his temper overshadowed his accomplishments, Bob Knight may have been the best coach in college basketball history, Michael Rosenberg argues.
- Olympic bobsledder Steve Mesler wasn’t sure where to channel his competitive spirit after winning a gold medal in 2010 and leaving the sport behind. Greg Bishop spoke with him about how he turned to distance running, a journey that will culminate with running the New York City Marathon on Sunday.
- MLB slugger Nelson Cruz has announced his retirement.
The top five...
… non–Victor Wembanyama things I saw last night:
5. Canucks forward Andrei Kuzmenko’s sportsmanship to stop his goal celebration after realizing he injured Sharks goalie Kaapo Kähkönen.
4. Kyle Connor’s backhand goal for the Jets.
3. Kwon Alexander’s game-sealing interception for the Steelers.
2. Derrick Henry bouncing off tacklers for a touchdown.
1. The possum on the field at Texas Tech–TCU.
SIQ
On this day in 1987, who joined Gordie Howe as the only players in NHL history with 1,700 career points?
- Mark Messier
- Wayne Gretzky
- Marcel Dionne
- Bryan Trottier
Yesterday’s SIQ: Steve Carlton won the first of his four Cy Young Awards on Nov. 2, 1972, after winning an MLB-leading 27 games. How many games did Carlton’s Phillies win that season?
- 101
- 87
- 71
- 59
Answer: 59. They won 29 of the 41 games started by Carlton, who finished with a 27–10 record. That’s a .707 winning percentage in games started by Carlton and a .352 winning percentage in all other games.
Carlton was dominant that year, to say the least. He had a 1.97 ERA and 0.993 WHIP. He led the NL in both strikeouts and strikeout-to-walk ratio. He also led the majors with 30 complete games, a mark only one player has reached since (Catfish Hunter in 1975).