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Victor Wembanyama Rules
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Sometimes you have to pause and reflect upon great moments in sport, and Monday night in Oklahoma City was one of those:
Wemby rules. 41 points in a double overtime road win to kick off the Eastern Conference Finals? ARE YOU KIDDING ME! <Tom McGinnis voice>. He added a smooth 24 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks, and shot 14-25 from the floor and 12-13 from the line in 49 minutes.
22 years old, by the way.
The amount of multi-level shot making and shot creation was ludicrous. He’s 7’4″ and doing spin moves at the elbow, hitting an awkward off-foot floater to begin that video clip above. Afterward, he very easily grabs a rebound over 6’5″ Jalen Williams and puts it back up for a bucket. Then the logo three to tie it at the end of the first overtime period… holy cow. I’ve watched it 10 times already. It looks like something that shouldn’t be possible, a guy that tall pulling up from DEEP while the sea of blue shirts in the crowd looks on in total astonishment.
But wait, there’s more! Icing on the cake – he gather steps at the three point line in double overtime and dunks the ball after three long strides. Hilarious. How can anybody do that?
The guy is incredible. He’s doing stuff on the floor that has never been done before. It looks like it shouldn’t be able to be done, almost like it’s taboo or forbidden? Does that make sense? When I watch Wemby play, I think to myself, “how is this even possible?” Like he’s bending the rules of physics or something like that. He’s opened a door that nobody has ever opened before.
On a somewhat-similar parallel, there was a point in Joel Embiid’s career, about 4-5 years ago, when took the next step to become a multi-level scorer. We thought to ourselves at the time that somebody of his size had no business developing this crazy face up/elbow game while shooting threes at a 37% clip and playing All-NBA defense at the same time. It felt like a new frontier for NBA big men, along with Joker out in Denver, who was slinging the ball around like Dan Marino. Then along comes Wemby to do all of these things and more while being barely old enough to drink alcohol in the United States.
It’s awesome. How can you not appreciate what you’re seeing?
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com