How tall is Victor Wembanyama? He still gets question ahead of draft.
NEW YORK — Victor Wembanyama’s preposterous dimensions reduce disbelieving onlookers to puddles of gasps and murmurs.
The impossibly tall French center arrived in New York City this week to headline Thursday’s NBA draft, and even America’s largest city wasn’t equipped to handle him. Wembanyama had to duck his head to navigate a subway turnstile on his way to throw the first pitch at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday, he ducked again to enter P.S. 092’s gymnasium in Harlem for a Wednesday meet-and-greet with elementary-schoolers, and he ducked once more, perhaps out of reflex rather than necessity, to avoid a low-hanging ceiling during a news conference at a midtown Manhattan hotel.
There’s much more to Wembanyama’s game than his extraordinary height, but the draft is about first impressions, and he cuts a towering figure. Once the San Antonio Spurs select him, Wembanyama will become the tallest No. 1 pick since another international man of intrigue: Yao Ming, the 7-foot-6 Chinese center, in 2002.
As he got settled in New York, Wembanyama appeared comfortable in his own skin and fully ready for the next step of his career. By contrast, the NBA world was still wrapping its collective mind around a teenage prodigy with the size, skill and poise to lead the sport’s next generation. One persistent question, voiced this time by a pint-size Harlem student, lingered: “Victor, how tall are you?”
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Wembanyama replied 7-foot-3, though he looks at least an inch or two taller in sneakers and is listed at 7-foot-4 on the NBA website, and three rows of students let out shrieks of amazement. He has been getting this question for most of his life — he began eyeing a professional basketball career before he was a teenager — and he comes by his game-changing frame honestly. Across the gym, his mother, Elodie de Fautereau, a 6-3 former basketball player, reached up and swatted the net hanging down from a hoop.
“[The height question] got old a long time ago,” Wembanyama said before pausing to consider that it might take a while for his new country to adjust to him. “It’s okay. I don’t mind. It’s part of the fun.”
Few things in sports are more blissfully fun than daydreaming about the potential of a gifted prospect such as Wembanyama, who averaged 21.6 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.0 blocks for Metropolitans 92 in France’s top professional league. And there are plenty of dreamers in New York: Gawkers greeted him at the airport Monday, a cluster of autograph seekers has tracked him from event to event, and he joked that he would wait until nighttime to slip past the crowds that have gathered outside his hotel so he could sneak in a visit to Times Square.
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The NBA has taken an active role in stoking Wemby Mania, striking a deal to broadcast his French league games on its mobile app and regularly sharing his highlights on social media; he ranked among the 10 most-viewed players on the league’s channels this season.
In a break from typical custom necessitated by his popularity, Wembanyama took questions in English and French from dozens of reporters at a solo news conference rather than sharing interview time with his fellow draftees in a ballroom. His rookie campaign will be the most-anticipated since LeBron James’s in 2003, and he assured one eager reporter that he plans to play in summer league.
Before all that, Wembanyama will shake hands with Commissioner Adam Silver at Barclays Center and become the first French player selected with the top pick.
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“I’ve been thinking [about the draft] for years and years,” Wembanyama said. “I can’t really describe how I feel right now. I just know I’m going to have trouble sleeping tonight.”
Going first in his class has been a long-standing goal for Wembanyama, who removed any doubt with impressive performances during two showcase games against G League star Scoot Henderson, who is likely to be a top-three pick, near Las Vegas in October.
“It’s a question of pride,” Wembanyama said. “I’ve always hated to have someone over me. I can’t accept not to be number one.”
Henderson, who will join Brandon Miller, Cam Whitmore, Jarace Walker and Amen Thompson among the top lottery picks in Thursday’s draft, smiled at the memory of his failed attempt to dunk over Wembanyama last fall. Like the Harlem students, the 6-2 guard came away marveling.
“I just saw how tall [Wembanyama] was,” Henderson said. “It was kind of crazy, seeing how skilled he was as well and how he could shoot the ball. This class is definitely special. I like to say this is one of the best classes since [2003].”
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The lottery drawing for the rights to Wembanyama in May ended with the Spurs pulling the winning numbers, leaving Wembanyama thrilled to land with an organization that once employed his countrymen Tony Parker and Boris Diaw. He brushed off the notion that following former No. 1 picks David Robinson and Tim Duncan represented added pressure, but he said the 2013 and 2014 Finals matchups between Duncan’s Spurs and James’s Miami Heat first hooked him on the NBA and launched what has become a perfectionistic journey.
“I’m trying to be the best,” he said. “Being the best is not only on the court; it’s all dimensions of the job. I want also to be the best at the media and the press conferences. I don’t like to do things halfway.”
Restoring the Spurs to championship heights will be a heavy lift after they finished tied for the Western Conference’s worst record last season at 22-60. San Antonio has missed the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, the franchise’s longest postseason drought.
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Speculation has started to mount that the Spurs, who pioneered the practice of load management, will ease their new centerpiece into his NBA career. Though his thin frame has drawn questions from skeptics worried about the possibility of injury, Wembanyama told “Good Morning America” that he didn’t need to “bulk up” and that other prospects should “skinny up” instead.
Regardless of how Spurs Coach Gregg Popovich handles his rotation, Wembanyama said he expects to be the 2024 rookie of the year and eventually wants to become an MVP-caliber player competing for titles. To get there, he is heeding Parker’s advice to avoid making the same mistake twice and trying to improve his conditioning.
Wembanyama wants to hit the ground running.
“I’ve got to work on being able to be intense for long periods of time,” he said. “Not get tired too quickly. … I’m not even a rookie yet. I don’t know how [managing minutes] works in the NBA. I want to learn how it works and how to win as quick as possible. I’ve got no time to lose.”
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