Victor Wembanyama, the liquid giant: "We have never seen someone so tall, but at the same time so fluid and graceful"

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Victor Wembanyama

(Nanterre, 2004) seems to be made of water.

The latest phenomenon of world basketball is 2.20 meters tall, his arms are over 2.40 meters and he moves with a fluidity that makes one wonder if evolution has not skipped a step.

There is talk of 'unicorn', 'extraterrestrial' or 'alien', as if to define it the fantastic was more precise than the human.

Because in the absence of precedent, only the imagination remains.

Wembanyama has the dimensions of

, but the coordination and balance of someone much smaller.

He sets up the shot with the naturalness and lightness of a small forward.

He is equal parts genetic quirk and the fruit of technical refinement unrelated to positions.

He is a liquid giant.

There are nine months left for Wembanyama to be number one in the 2023

, but he is already focusing his career on the NBA like no European promise had ever done.

This year, for example, he has changed ASVEL, a Euroleague team, for Metropolitans 92, which does not even compete in European competition.

Fewer games, more room to shine, and a free pass to make a promotional trip to the United States with the season already underway.

More than just a 'unicorn'

Because if Wembanyama behaves as if he were already in the NBA, the league also acts as if the French pearl was already his.

This week, the NBA hosted two games near Las Vegas between the Metropolitans 92 and the G-League Ignite, a test team from the development league where the other great star of this generation,

, plays .

,

,

or

were there as spectators

, giving legitimacy to someone they already recognize as one of their own.

For cases like this, for giants who escape so far from the role that basketball had for them, the term "unicorn" is widely used in the NBA, a word that

used for the first time to define

.

But Wembanyama has something that goes beyond that uniqueness.

LeBron offers another term.

"In recent years it seems that everyone is a unicorn. Wembanyama is more of an alien. We have never seen someone as tall, but at the same time as fluid and graceful as he is on the track. He is a generational talent." .

Wembanyama has sport in its genes.

His mother,

, was a professional basketball player and his first contact with the basket.

Also his grandparents.

But in his choice weighed as much the unusual growth as these ties.

He had previously practiced judo, soccer (goalkeeping) and even athletics like his father,

, jumper (triple and long) of Angolan origin.

He, he says, taught her to run.

In all those foundations the fluidity with which he moves is explained.

The Wembanyama phenomenon has exploded these days with the NBA speaker, but it has been on the radar for a long time.

At the age of 10 he entered the Nanterre youth academy and at 14 Barça tried to tie him up.

In 2018, the Barça team invited him to play the Mini Cup (as Real Madrid did with

, for example), but when the time came to take the next step, the boy and his entourage chose to continue at home.

First in Nanterre 92 and later in ASVEL.

Last season marked a new chapter in his uncovering.

First, shining in the Under 19 World Cup, where he starred in a memorable duel in the final with

, number one in this year's

, another giant outside the mold.

And then at the Lyon club, with which he debuted in the Euroleague.

But when a second year in the elite was to be expected, an explosion that would bring down the wall, Wembanyama tore up the script.

He is so sure of the impact of it that he has given up competing at the highest level.

Debut with France

The choice of the Metropolitans 92 is not accidental.

It is the best team in France among those that do not play European competition and is managed by

, the France coach.

The first gives him a looser calendar, and the privilege of a team built around his figure.

The second, a first level guardianship.

And together it opens the doors of the French team.

This week he has entered his first call and, if nothing goes wrong, he will debut in the November window.

In a report published in the latest issue of the American magazine

, which dedicates its cover to him, Wembanyama's agent confirms that the choice has only one underlying reason: the NBA.

"Having less match load gives her more time to continue working on his body before she leaves."

Wembanyama has his personal trainer and, as is increasingly common, he traveled to the United States in the summer to fine-tune his physical preparation with

, a former Unicaja, Gran Canaria, Menorca or Valladolid player, and specialized in biomechanics.

But the most revealing thing, because of how much he talks about his model, is the visit he made in 2021 to Würzburg, Germany, to put himself in the hands of

, the man who trained

.

If, as the journalist

wrote , Nowitzki opened a gap in the evolution of the seven-foot player, Wembanyama, taller, more coordinated, more liquid (he has a world left to prove to be better) represents the next frontier.

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