By Cesare Milanti / info@eurohoops.net
It only took five games for Victor Wembanyama to reach a 38-point performance against the Phoenix Suns, beating Kevin Durant and Devin Booker’s team in back-to-back fashion, also adding 10 rebounds with 57.7% from the field and 50.0% from beyond the arc.
Helping his team go up 3-2 in the NBA Standings, the 19-year-old center became the 3rd teenager to score at least 38 points in a game after LeBron James and Kevin Durant, running after David Robinson for the highest points scored in a game by a San Antonio Spurs rookie. He’s now 3rd on that.
Moreover, he became the first player since Shaquille O’Neal in 1992 to record at least 100 points and 10 blocks in his first five NBA games, while also joining the already-mentioned David Robinson as the only rookie to score more than 100 points in a five-game span.
After the game, he commented on these accolades early in his NBA career. “It makes me wanna go even higher to beat all these records”, he said while also touching on being a fourth-quarter player, stepping up for Gregg Popovich’s team when needed. “It’s a requirement for being ambitious”, the French rookie added.
Scoring 10 points in the final stretch of the game, he was ready. “Someone’s got to do it. Tomorrow it might be one of my teammates. Every game, we try to find the sweet spot where we need to hurt them. Today it might be this way, tomorrow it might be someone else. It’s how great teams work”, he said before talking about what he brought home so far from the NBA Regular Season. “The biggest thing I learned is that a 20-point lead is nothing”, Victor Wembanyama also commented.
In his first five official games in the NBA since being selected with the 1st pick in the 2023 Draft by the San Antonio Spurs, the 19-year-old potentially generational talent has been close to averaging a double-double with 20.6 points and 8.0 rebounds per game, shooting 50.0% from the field.
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images