Ever since before the NBA Draft, the lore of Victor Wembanyama was sweeping the NBA. One of the biggest storylines in the league last year was the race for Wemby – seeing which team would eventually win the NBA Draft Lottery. In the end, it was the San Antonio Spurs, and the hype of Wembanyama took over the organization.
And so far this season, Wembanyama has been impressive. Though the Spurs haven’t been winning many games, his potential has been clear, and it’s fairly obvious that San Antonio has a new face of the franchise on their hands. However, Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid recently criticized the Spurs’ rookie.
While he made sure to emphasize that he wasn’t trying to be harsh, Embiid said that he believes Wembanyama is trying too hard to live up to the hype.
“Not trying to be too critical. Obviously, extremely talented. Right now, there’s so much hype around him, I think he’s trying to live up to the hype,” Embiid said via David Aldridge of The Athletic. “That’s what I see. And I watch a lot of games. I think, first of all, he has to figure out where he wants to play, whether he wants to be a guard or a big or whatever. It’s not necessarily whether he wants to be a guard or a big; it’s what he wants to become.
He went on to say that Wembanyama has to choose – become Kevin Durant or become him?
“Do you want to become KD, or do you want to become me? Not KD, or like a version of those guys — you want to combine everything,” said Embiid. “Right now, I just feel like everything kind of feels a little forced, in the way that he’s playing. Which is not bad. Because the only way to get better is to play through it and learn. That’s the only way. You make a lot of mistakes, and you learn.”
Wembanyama has plenty of time to grow, and it’s clear Embiid wasn’t trying to be malicious, but the rookie will inevitably struggle in his rookie year at times. It’s all about how he responds.
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