Victor Wembanyama was hailed as basketball’s next generational prospect long before he was even close to making the NBA. The French center found a post from 2020 talking about his debut in a French professional league at the age of 16 and roasted a fan who commented saying he’d never succeed at the NBA level.
Comment: “He’s not gonna do that in the NBA.”
Victor Wembanyama: “Why not?”
Wembanyama had generational status ascribed to him before he even turned 18, with many predicting he’d dominate the NBA one day as early as 2019 and 2020. Naturally, fans who didn’t know about him were hesitant to crown another 16-year-old European as the next big thing in basketball. But the 2023 Rookie of the Year has proven that he is a generational prospect, unlike anything we’ve seen before.
The 20-year-old wrapped up one of the greatest rookie seasons in NBA history, averaging 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.2 steals, and 3.6 blocks. He led the league in blocks and finished second in Defensive Player of the Year voting, primarily losing out to Rudy Gobert because of team record.
The Spurs’ 22-60 record likely stopped Wembanyama from becoming the first rookie to win DPOY, which would help solidify his case for the greatest rookie season since Tim Duncan. Nonetheless, Wembanyama became the first rookie to be named to the All-Defense First Team.
He made sure concerns over his size and durability were a non-factor this season, but his limited load made sure he didn’t pick up a major injury. With an NBA season under his belt now, Wembanyama will likely add some muscle going into his sophomore season to make his body more NBA-durable.
Kevin Garnett Thinks ‘Rookie Bias’ Cost Wembanyama The DPOY
Rudy Gobert winning his fourth DPOY award didn’t sit well with many analysts and former players. Gobert’s defensive ability is recognized by many but most dismiss his pure ability due to his lack of perimeter switchability, which is haunting him in the 2024 Western Conference Finals as well.
Kevin Garnett, a former DPOY winner himself, thinks the league didn’t award Wembanyama the prize purely because he’s a rookie.
“That boy should’ve won a defensive player of the year. I’m just saying. Lord, listen. The league do too much. Oh, he was a rookie. Man, f**k that. If you prove that you can do the job, then you get the job, right? we ain’t seen that type of effect on the defensive end since who, P? Who’s affected? Man, David Robinson, Dikembe, Dream, who got the rim like that, bro he earned that no disrespect to any other person in the league.”
Wembanyama’s counting stats were out of this world and far outshone Gobert, even in Rudy’s prime defensive seasons. However, the league would never set a precedent that a player on a team with less than 25 wins can win DPOY. No player has even been a Finalist for the award in over 20 years with such a poor team record.
Awarding Wembanyama the DPOY in the same season he wins the Rookie of the Year would be an incredible story. The media would be biased towards making that happen as compared to awarding it to Gobert, who had won it thrice before and has a negative reputation as a playoff dropper.
But as Wemby let Gobert know this season, the 2024 award was deservingly given to Rudy, because it might be the last time the French legend would win the award as the 20-year-old looks to be a perennial contender going forward.
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