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Victor Wembanyama (in the jersey of his previous team in France)

Photo: JB Autissier / PanoramiC / IMAGO

For months, several teams in the North American basketball league NBA fought a battle for the worst record. There was a good reason for the scramble at the bottom of the table: the worse the season, the greater the chance of a good position in the selection of upcoming young players. Now the draw has been made – and the winner comes from Texas.

The San Antonio Spurs are allowed to select the first team in the NBA draft after the end of the season and thus have super talent Victor Wembanyama in principle secure. This was the result of the draw for the order for the worst 14 teams of the last main round on Tuesday evening (local time) in Chicago.

Theoretically, the team from Texas could also select any other player – but this seems almost impossible. After several years of rebuilding – with a correspondingly large number of defeats – very successful times could come back to the Spurs.

The 19-year-old Frenchman is considered the greatest talent since LeBron James joined the league 20 years ago. Some experts say Wembanyama, nicknamed Wemby, is already better than James was at the start of his NBA career. At 2.18 meters, he is exceptionally tall even for basketball players and has very good technical skills.

Wembanyama watched the draw in Paris. "You get a team player. I will do everything I can to win as many games as possible. I want to win a ring as soon as possible. Be ready," he told ESPN.

The Detroit Pistons hit the Lospech

"He's unique. He has the size, the skills, can dribble, he can throw. In the end, we've never seen it the way it is," national team captain Dennis Schroeder told the dpa news agency before the draw.

The draft will take place on June 22. The teams in turn secure the rights to the registered junior players. The weakest teams from the previous season had the best chance of getting the first so-called picks.

The order looks like this: After the Spurs, it's the turn of the Charlotte Hornets. Third place went to the Portland Trail Blazers, fourth place to the Houston Rockets. Detroit, despite its worst record (17 wins and 65 losses), can only pick fifth in the regular season. It is the fifth time in a row that the worst team does not get the highest draft pick.

jok/dpa