Victor Wembanyama won over Gilbert Arenas during his sensational rookie season and the former NBA star believes he is soon going to have a historic season. On Gil’s Arena, Arenas predicted Wembanyama’s 2026-27 season is going to be like Michael Jordan’s 1987-88 campaign.
“That 26-27 season, man, that’s gonna be All-Wemby dog,” Arenas said. “That’s gonna be blocks, steals, rebounds. He gonna have a Jordan 87-88 year.”
In case you don’t know, Jordan became the first player to win MVP and DPOY in the same season in 1987-88. He averaged 35.0 points, 5.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 3.2 steals, and 1.6 blocks per game in that campaign for the Chicago Bulls, leading the league in both scoring and steals.
Arenas believes Jordan became the GOAT in 1988 thanks to that season. So, for him to think Wembanyama is capable of putting together a season like that, speaks to how highly he thinks of him. While Arenas has dished out plenty of outlandish takes over time, I wouldn’t put this one in that category.
Wembanyama averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.2 steals, and 3.6 blocks per game as a rookie for the San Antonio Spurs. If the 20-year-old stays relatively healthy moving forward, there is no reason to believe he won’t put up otherworldly numbers.
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if Wembanyama ends up leading the NBA in points, rebounds, and blocks in a campaign in the future. He has already managed to lead the league in blocks as a rookie, which is absurd.
Thanks, in part, to that, Wembanyama finished second in DPOY voting and looks set to win the award a handful of times in his career. No player has won MVP and DPOY in the same season on multiple occasions but Wembanyama might just do that. He’s that special.
While winning the awards would mean a lot to Wembanyama, he’s made it clear what he values most is winning. The Spurs were 14th in the Western Conference with a 22-60 record last season and it will be interesting to see if he is able to drag them to a winning record this time around.
Victor Wembanyama Revealed He Has Lost Admiration For Some NBA Players
Earlier this month, Wembanyama was asked what surprised him the most about the NBA in his rookie season and he gave quite an interesting answer. Wembanyama stated he has lost admiration for some NBA players because they won’t work hard enough.
“In a good and bad way, it’s how the best in the game are. How, in a good way, some of them are really impressive and inspiring in the way they approach the game every night. But others that I used to like, now it’s like I’m just not sure they deserve it. Like they don’t seem like they put as much work in as I thought.”
We’ll never find out who are these players he was referring to, but we can safely rule out two people. Wembanyama named Kevin Durant and Rudy Gobert as two players he admires. He stated he likes their work ethic and how they view the game and wishes to be like them.
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