Sold out for the debut of the first choice of the Draft, not in the evening: 9 points and 2/13 from the field. “I still have to settle in”, he says after the race
– New York
It’s not easy to live with a hype that the NBA hasn’t seen perhaps since the days of LeBron James: Victor Wembanyama fails to give the Thomas & Mack Center crowd a memorable performance in his debut at the Summer League in Las Vegas. Indeed, the French cue closing his first game in the Spurs shirt with a bad 2/13 from the field.
sold out
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Nothing transcendental, of course, Summer League basketball is to be taken with a grain of salt, but the many fans present on the Unlv campus, sold out for days (17,500 spectators), would have liked to see a different match.
ticked
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The Spurs win 76-68 against the Charlotte Hornets but Wemby struggles a lot offensively. He shows flashes of his infinite talent by handling the ball like a playmaker, despite being 2.23 tall, and dominates the area defensively. At the end of the match, however, the scoresheet is not memorable: 9 points, with 2/13 from the field, 8 rebounds, 3 assists and 5 blocks, a couple of which are truly highlight-worthy, in 27′ on the parquet. Greeted by incredible enthusiasm and returning from the singular incident with Britney Spears who made a lot of noise in Vegas (for which Wemby has no responsibility, however), the new Spurs phenomenon started the match with the desire to give something special to the public of the Thomas & Mack Center, but failing to find rhythm in the shot. After three wrong shots, the basket finally arrived, 7’02” from the end of the first quarter, with a good shot in the painted area, also topped off by a foul. A three-man play which in the end remained his only field goal until the end of the match when Wemby scored, again with a foul, from long range.
the words
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Too little to consider the performance of the special observer of this Summer League positive. “I have to settle in – underlines Victor Wembanyama at the end of the match – it was my first game, I’ll do better next time. My goal is to make progress to better prepare for the start of the season.” Sixteen points and 11 rebounds, however, for Brandon Miller, Charlotte’s second overall pick.
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