Victor Wembanyama

Victor Wembanyama (born January 4, 2004, Le Chesnay, France) is a French professional basketball center who, since being selected by the San Antonio Spurs with the first pick of the 2023 NBA draft, has established himself as the most dominant young player in the league. Known for his extraordinary height (7 feet 4 inches [2.23 meters]) and even greater wingspan (8 feet [2.44 meters]), Wembanyama is a prolific shot blocker who also excels on offense with a gracefulness and skill unprecedented for someone of his size. He began his professional career in France at the age of 15 and in short order was widely considered to be the most promising prospect of his generation by NBA scouts. He has quickly met those expectations: In 2024 Wembanyama was named Rookie of the Year. Two years later he became, at age 22, the youngest and also the first unanimous winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award and led the Spurs to an appearance in the NBA Finals. There San Antonio was defeated by the New York Knicks in five games.

Youth basketball

Wembanyama was active in sports from a young age, practicing judo and playing football before focusing on basketball. His parents had both competed at an international level in their respective sports—his father, Félix Wembanyama, having been a track and field athlete who participated in the long jump and triple jump events and his mother, Élodie de Fautereau, having been a basketball player for the French national team before going on to coach the sport at the youth level. By age seven, Victor had begun training with local basketball club Entente Le Chesnay–Versailles (ELCV). Throughout his youth basketball career, he regularly competed in divisions above his age level, numbering among the youngest players in those divisions.

In 2013 Wembanyama was playing a game for ELCV that was attended by Nanterre coach Michaël Allard. Because of Wembanyama’s extraordinary height, Allard mistook him for an assistant coach and was surprised to learn that he was a member of the ELCV under-11 (U11) team. Wembanyama joined the youth team at Nanterre at age 10 and gained experience playing all over the court while he began to develop his well-rounded skill set, with the shooting, passing, and on-ball defending abilities of a typical guard. It was during this period, Wembanyama later recalled, that he first wanted to play basketball professionally. He began teaching himself English, which he knew to be the language of the NBA, by watching television shows and online videos.

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Professional teams: Nanterre, ASVEL, and the Metropolitans

At age 14 Wembanyama left his family’s home to move into the Nanterre team dormitory, where he lived and trained while attending high school nearby. In 2019, at 15 years old, he made his professional debut, in a brief appearance in the European basketball competition EuroCup, with Nanterre’s senior team, which captured a silver medal in the tournament. The following year, as a 16-year-old with Nanterre’s U18 team, Wembanyama stood out on both sides of the court in the Euroleague Basketball Adidas Next Generation Tournament, helping his team to a second-place finish.

For the 2021–22 season, Wembanyama left Nanterre for ASVEL Basket, a team owned by French-American former NBA star Tony Parker that played in the top-tier men’s French Pro A League (Ligue Nationale de Basket Pro A). The 2021 FIBA U19 World Cup, the world basketball youth championship, saw Wembanyama and the French national team competing in the finals against the United States. Despite being two years younger than the next youngest player on the court, Wembanyama stood out for his extraordinary defensive effort, setting a FIBA record for blocked shots in a single tournament (5.7 blocks per game). He was named Pro A Best Young Player of the Year in 2020–21. Scouts from the U.S. took notice of Wembanyama, who had grown to his full 7-foot 4-inch height with an 8-foot (2.44-meter) wingspan, and he was projected to be the top pick for the 2023 NBA draft. Following a season with limited playing time, further hampered by injuries, Wembanyama left ASVEL for a team that would prioritize his own development.

Wembanyama joined the Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 of the Pro A League for the 2022–23 season, in which he led the league with averages of 21.6 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 3.2 blocks per game. That season he became the youngest player to win the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, and he won additional awards as the league’s top scorer, best shot blocker, best defender, and best young player.

In an October 2022 series of two high-profile exhibition games in Henderson, Nevada, Wembanyama’s Metropolitans 92 faced off against the NBA developmental team G League Ignite and Scoot Henderson, widely projected as the second best player in the 2023 NBA draft class. The teams split the series, G League Ignite winning the first game and Metropolitans 92 the second. Wembanyama excelled, scoring 73 points over the two games and fueling excitement over his eventual play in the NBA.

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NBA: San Antonio Spurs

Wembanyama officially announced his intention to enter the NBA draft in April 2023, at the age of 19. When he was selected by the Spurs the following June, he became the second European player to be picked number one overall in the NBA draft, joining Italian-born Andrea Bargnani, who was chosen first by the Toronto Raptors in 2006.

Although San Antonio struggled overall—finishing with a record of 22–60—Wembanyama had a stellar rookie year, averaging 21.4 points per game with 10.6 rebounds and leading the league in blocks, with 3.6 per game. He became just the sixth NBA player to be unanimously voted Rookie of the Year. Wembanyama’s rapid ascent continued in his sophomore year as he was voted to his first All-Star team. However, in late February 2025 the Spurs announced that he had a deep vein thrombosis (blood clot) in his shoulder and would not finish the season. At the time of the announcement, Wembanyama was averaging 24.3 points, 11.0 rebounds, and a league-leading 3.8 blocks per game and was considered the overwhelming favorite to win Defensive Player of the Year.

As he recovered, Wembanyama sought to improve his performance in ways both conventional—he learned footwork techniques from Hall of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon—and unexpected—he spent several weeks training in kung fu and Buddhist meditation at the famed Shaolin Temple in Henan province, China.

Wembanyama was given a clean bill of health and returned to play at the beginning of the 2025–26 season. In only his third year in the league, he established himself as a dominating force on both ends of the court. He improved his averages to 25 points and 11.5 rebounds per game and again led the league in blocks. In addition, Wembanyama was named Defensive Player of the Year and came in third place in voting for Most Valuable Player. After having finished with a 62–20 record, the Spurs qualified for the playoffs for the first time since he joined the team. Playing for the biggest stakes and largest audiences in his young career, Wembanyama performed spectacularly. Among his outstanding feats was a 41 point, 24 rebound, 3 assist, 3 block stat line in game one of the Western Conference finals against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder. The Spurs triumphed over the Thunder in seven games, earning a spot in the NBA Finals against the New York Knicks. The Spurs lost the series in five games.

International career

In 2024 Wembanyama was a member of the French men’s national team at the Paris Olympics. He averaged 15.8 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists, leading his team in all three categories. France earned a silver medal after falling to the United States in a closely fought final game. After the defeat, a confident Wembanyama told the San Antonio Express-News, “I’m learning, and I’m worried for the opponents in a couple of years.”