The NBA held its breath during the lottery draft. It always happens, but much more so if the option of choosing a player like Victor Wembanyama is up in the air, the French center who for many is, literally, the next great evolution of basketball, a player called to change the game and, of course, to transform the franchise in which he lands from top to bottom. This is going to be, after that weighted draw made on Tuesday, San Antonio Spurs.
Wembanyama just received the MVP, the Best Defender award and the Best Young Player of an LNB, the French League, which has led in points, rebounds, blocks and valuation: 21.6, 10.4, 3 and 26. An outrage for a boy of 2.21 who turned 19 in January and who will now face the playoffs with the Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92, which finished in second place in the regular season. Right between the two French Euroleague teams, Monaco and his ex, ASVEL. On June 22, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the choice of him with the number 1 by the Spurs will be confirmed. Everything that is not that will be a historical surprise, something very similar to what has never been seen.
From his headquarters in Paris, Wembanyama showed in his gestures that he was relieved that the 1 was not for teams like the Houston Rockets, and of course He showed sincere happiness to end up in the Spurs, a team that the seriousness he has shown for decades makes a priori, and more with Gregg Popovich at the helm, an ideal destination. And one that has always been very sensitive to non-American players, including Frenchmen like Boris Diaw and, above all, Tony Parker. So the center from Le Chesnay ended the night very satisfied. But according to Brian Windhorst, the special host of ESPN to Paris, there was another team also in Texas that wouldn’t have minded going: the Dallas Mavericks. That, of course, It would have allowed him to play with Luka Doncic.
The Mavs started from position 10 and stayed in position 10. There was no lottery fat man (statistical chances were very slim) but yes the very good news of staying there and not losing a pick that he could have gone otherwise to New York Knicks (for operation Kristaps Porzingis). If it had fallen out of the top-10, it would have gone to those in the Big Applewho now go on to have the first round of the Mavs in 2024 with the same condition, top-10 protection.
“Could Dallas try to do something to pick higher? You could definitely see Victor’s reaction when Dallas stayed at 10 because obviously The prospect of playing with Doncic was fascinating to him. It is something that I had talked about with his environment”. The Mavs only had a 3% chance of reaching No. 1 in the lottery. AND 65% of staying in the 10, as it finally happened. The Texans are one of three teams that have never moved up the math in the lottery. The other two are the Miami Heat and the Denver Nuggets. Now, Wembanyama will become a Division rival to some Mavs whom he will see a lot of in Texas rivalry duels.
But he will do it with the shirt of some Spurs who talked about more than 2,000 new subscribers just in the first hours that followed the lottery of the draft. Happiness in the city, and happiness also for the promising youngster who will have all eyes on him from next season: “There is a very special relationship between Spurs and France. By Tony Parker, by Boris Diaw… I think half the country, or more, wanted it to be number 1 for them. draft. So I see everyone happy and I’m happy too. It’s not to show my chest now, but I thought this was going to happen, in fact I recorded myself saying it this morning, when I was going to train. It’s like the universe told me. Dreams, sensations… they are things that happen sometimes”.