Webanyama is Already Must Watch Basketball
/Victor Webanyama had his first career 50 point game last night. This is the first of very many to come for him. I have been kind of waiting for this to happen. Let’s discuss.
Webanyama is one of my favorite players. I grew attached during the draft process last year. I watched as many of his games as a rookie as I could. I watched him almost single handily beat Team USA in the summer Olympics this year. All of this made me like him even more. The guy is an enigma on the court in all the right ways. Someone that big isn’t supposed to be able to do the things he does. I’m a 90’s NBA kid. I grew up watching and loving Charles Barkley and Shawn Kemp. I was all in on Shaq. Yao Ming was an incredible flash of light during his shortened career. The big men I watched with awe were all overpowering and lumbering. Shaq dunked all over dudes. Barkley used wit and quickness to excel. Yao Ming was humongous. Shawn Kemp was wildly athletic and a thunderous dunker. They all went hard and went hard all the time. They had one or two moves and perfected them. Wemby is so much more athletic and talented than any of them for a guy his size. This is no shade to any of the guys I mentioned either. All of those dudes are some of my all time favorite players. But I think even they’d admit that Wemby is an athletic anomaly. He’s 7’4. He brings the ball up the court. He’s skinny, but he is a long rim defender. Go look and see what he just did to Domantas Sabonis recently. He is an excellent cutter and passer. Offense can run through him in the paint and at the top of the key. He can dunk on you or he can pull you out to the three point line. Case in point, during his 50 point game, he hit eight threes. Again, he’s a 7’4 center! That’s wild that he can do that. He’s a bigger Kevin Durant. He’s a faster Steven Adams. He’s a better shooter than Kristaps Porzongis. He’s more malleable on defense than Jaren Jackson Jr. He’s a cutter than Russell Westbrook. And when he figures out passing angles even better, his greatness will be harnessed even more. There’s never been anyone like Wembanyama. What he’s doing at his size and age has never been seen before. LeBron made it cool for a power forward to play point guard. Zion made it cool for a thick guy to run the offense. Jokic has stat nerds cumming in their jeans on a daily basis. Webanyama is taller and younger than all of them. He’s just scratching the surface of his greatness. Stars are going to want to play with him. Greg Poppovich is going to stick around longer, get better soon by the way, just to help shepherd him into being the face of the NBA. And this is just the first of major achievements this star is going to make.
I implore all of you to watch this kid play basketball any chance you can. It’s amazing to see him play and watch him do the incredible things he does at a player his size. Wemby is must watch TV.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.
Come and support Ty and the podcast on Patreon.
Follow Ty on instagram.