During a recent interview with Bleacher Report, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal lit a fire under the NBA’s reigning Rookie of the Year. As he ranked the league’s best players from the bottom up, Shaq put Victor Wembanyama at 31 for a very particular reason.
“I’m gonna go with Victor Wembanyama at 31. Same thing my father told me: you’re good but you’re not good enough. So he was really good. Really, really good. But when your team don’t make the playoffs… when you’re that guy and all the pressure is on you, it don’t matter who you got out with you, you have to win. So with the addition CP3 and they made a couple more moves, they definitely should be pretty good. But right now he’s at [31].”
For Shaq, the greatest measure of a player’s worth is their win percentage. When he was drafted by the Magic in 1992, Shaq transformed the franchise from bottom-feeders to playoff contenders. In his first season, he led the Magic to 41 wins, tied with the 8th-seeded Pacers.
By 1995, Shaq took the Orlando Magic to the NBA Finals with Penny Hardaway and took his place as one of the best players in the NBA. All of this came before Shaq was 24 years old, just four years older than Victor is right now. Unfortunately for the French superstar, he hasn’t had nearly as much early success as O’Neal did during his Magic days.
Statistically, Victor Wembanyama had a historic rookie season with averages of 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, and 3.6 blocks per game on 46.5% shooting. He led the NBA in blocks and was a powerful force on both ends of the floor.
He followed up the season with a great showing at the Olympic Games. As Victor led France to silver, he led in all aspects on the floor with averages of 13.8 points, 10.2 rebounds, and 3.6 assists.
So while Victor’s talent is not a question, it could be some time before the Spurs are in a position to compete in the West. With Wemby, they only won 22 games and lost a franchise record 18 times in a row.
By all accounts, it was a season of hell for the San Antonio Spurs and a brutal reality of how much times have changed since the era of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker. As fortunate as they are to have Victor, the hard work has really only just begun and they have a lot of ground to make up.
As for Wembanyama, nobody is going to take him seriously unless he can lead the Spurs to more victories. If he’s as good as they say, he should be able to beat last year’s measly win count and at least put the Spurs in position for a potential play-in spot.
But the longer that the Spurs continue to struggle, the more questions will be raised about Wembanyama and just how much he raises the team’s ceiling. For better or worse this upcoming campaign will be a big one for Victor and it may just set the tone of his career for the next few years to come.
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