Is Wembanyama the best player in the world?
Pierre Andreson and Kenny Beecham examine the Spurs' Game 1 win and discuss how dominant Victor Wembanyama was in his performance.
Video Transcript
After watching game one of the conference finals, is it safe to say that Victor Wembanyama is the greatest player to ever pick up a basketball?
Thoughts?
Hey, there was times where- that crossed my mind as well.
Uh-huh.
And you know, we like to let things play out, and not jump the gun, but it's very hard not to.
20-something rebounds- Mm-hmm number one, was incredible.
40-point game.
And what I was telling people was, outside of the box score numbers, there was a bigger presence that they can't account for statistically- because you, you just saw from the start of the game when they had the 7-0 run and had to call the first time out, his presence of being in the paint just adheres everything and it forced them to take a lot of three-point shots.
And if your name wasn't Alex Caruso, you unfortunately couldn't make shots.
Mm-hmm.
And I, I credit those as just as good as blocks or steals when you're forcing drives from Shai, J Dub, AJ Mitchell into- Mm-hmm Lou Dort three attempts that- end up being one of five, to me that's, that's like a steal or a block.
so yeah, and then the three-point shot, the Steph Curry range shot to tie the game.
It really was like watching Shaquille O'Neal, who was better on defense than Hakeem Olajuwon, that does have the range of Steph Curry.
Nuts.
That, like- Double overtime, didn't s- didn't show fatigue.
He was the only person that didn't show fatigue.
only took two threes.
Yep.
And the one of them was that three.
Got the block shots.
they had some adversity there in that fourth quarter where the Thunder started to do- Mm-hmm championship-esque things.
And we even saw a little, little, moment to him, like, rattling the team or coming together on the bench.
It was, like, him and Devin Vassell checked out of the game, and I remember seeing him put his arm around Devin Vassell like, "Let's go."
so yeah, it wa- it was an incredible performance, and I hope that it ain't just that because I think he's gonna probably need that type of a series- Yeah the rest of the way.
Not that he needs 40 and 20, but he's gonna have to be the best player on the floor.
And it's, it's gonna be hard for him not to be based on the fact that you talked about with the defense.
Mm-hmm.
I think you could easily, not just based on this game, but just the work of, body of work that you could easily argue he's the best player in the world right now- Yeah when you think about both sides of the ball.
So regardless if he's giving you 41 and 24, or he's giving you a, a normal offensive Victor Wembanyama game, these games are gonna be good because of that defense.
Yep.
And we saw early on Mark Dayton, or not early on, the entirety of this game, Mark Dayton all decide that, hey, it's gonna be Dub guarding him, it's gonna be Caruso guarding him.
Yeah.
We're gonna go small rather than letting Chad or, or Isaiah Hartenstein guard.
And I thought that Caruso did a pretty solid job, all things considered.
Mm-hmm.
But there were times, whether it be late in that first quarter or early second quarter where Wembanyama just remember, "Oh yeah, I am a full foot taller than this dude."
Yep.
"Give me the ball at the elbow and let the people work around me, but worst case scenario, I'm gonna get fouled or I'm gonna just body this dude down."
And I, I said so in my video, the, like, best player in the world title for the last, for the majority of the last decade, 15 years has been big ass wing- Mm-hmm forward slash forward or a big center, whether it be Jokic, if you wanna give Embiid his MVP season as the best player in the world, whether it be Giannis, whether it be Bron Bron.
And I think part of that is because that size advantage that you can look into and say, "Hey, if I'm Wembanyama and I'm not shooting well, the worst case scenario is that my teammates will give me the ball down low and I can turn it into a easy shot."
And, and that's why Steph Curry is so ridiculous for him to have conversation for best player in the world- Yeah for a couple years without having that size.
But it, like, three times, maybe even more than that, but three times off the top of my mind, there was teammates throwing the ball at the rim and said, "Wemby, go get it."
And some of the times, just one full swoop, get the ball, dunk it, and just like there's nothing you can really do about that.
As great as he is as a complete player and his ability to shoot those shots and the threes and whatever, I'm not gonna lie, I'm simple, those are my favorite plays.
Those plays when he caught it and he just dunked- Mm-hmm while somebody was holding down his left arm, he just dunked it with one hand.
Yep.
Or the times where he gave the freedom for a Dylan Harper or Stephon Castle, who aren't the greatest shooters, to just feel confident knowing that I'm gonna clean up the misses, 'cause I think he had, like, nine offensive rebounds himself.
Yep.
And yeah, he was there one-handed tipping it in the, in, in the, in the basket, and I just think that it gives everybody around him a big boost, of confidence.
And I think that does go into the best player of the world thing where you're able to be dominant, which a lot of players have stretches of that, but then it's like in a crunch time in this sta- on this stage where everybody know you're getting the basketball, who can put the ball in the hoop?
And yeah, for him to be able to be 7'5", have the three-point threat, have enough wiggle to make teams feel like they should put somebody on him to get under him, like the Carusos and J Dubs.
Yep.
And then for him to have moments where he abused them.
There were certain times where he just caught the ball, drop stepped, and dunked like it was 2K.
And to me, that's what I, I had always wanted to see, him layer all of that into, into his game.
And yeah, man, he it was just crazy to watch.
