This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning. Here’s Mike Sykes.
The Victor Wembanyama media coverage has already jumped the shark and the kid hasn’t even played an NBA minute yet.
Obviously, Wembanyama is beyond talented. He’s very clearly one of the most intriguing prospects in NBA history. He’s a 7-foot-4 (maybe taller?) center who has legitimate guard skills. You might be able to play him on the wing if his handle is tight enough. And don’t be shocked if we see him out there initiating offense at certain points.
The dude can palm a basketball with two fingers. He had a putback dunk off of his own stepback 3-point attempt, y’all. The kid is impossible. That’s more than enough to excite people about what he could possibly be.
But, of course, basketball media is doing the thing again.
What is the thing, you might ask. Well, folks, it’s exactly what we did to LeBron James when it was his time coming up. He was built up into this caricature that, eventually, became an assumed reality for so many people.
Folks like Skip Bayless ran with it and made careers off of it. The conversation was never about the great things that LeBron did at such a young age or the fact that he lived up to every expectation and then some. Instead, it was, “Well, he’s great, right? So he should be doing that. He’s not special.” And that completely warped everyone’s thinking when it came to James and it’s honestly what led to The Decision and the feast-or-famine way we talk about some of the best players ever today.
Now we’re doing the same with Victor Wembanyama. It’s like we hadn’t learned anything from the last 20 years.
Adrian Wojnarowski is calling Wemby the “greatest prospect in the history of team sports.” Fox Sports’ Chris Broussard says that if Wembanyama has a career on par with the likes of Anthony Davis, Kevin Durant or Hakeem Olajuwon then his career would be “a disappointment” as if being one of the 20 best players to ever pick up a basketball is some devastating failure.
What are we doing here, y’all? Who does this all serve? I ask that genuinely. Because nobody wins from this sort of talk.
Unless Wembanyama literally becomes the singular best player ever, he can’t win. The fans certainly won’t win because we’ll only watch what could be an excellent career for Wembanyama through an unrealistic lens. The media won’t win either because the backlash from this ridiculous coverage only creates distrust.
It’s just bad. All bad. And, truthfully, it’s not worth it. Wembanyama doesn’t need that sort of hype. He’s created enough all by himself.
So can we please stop with this ridiculousness? Thanks in advance.
Quick Hits: JIMMY. FRICKIN. BUTLER! … A flaw from all 32 NFL teams … and more.
— I cannot imagine being on the wrong side of this Kevin Harlan call of Jimmy Butler’s dagger against the Celtics. Charles Curtis has more.
— Christian D’Andrea broke down weaknesses from all 32 teams in the NFL that might cost them a shot at the Super Bowl.
— Joe Mazzulla was caught throwing his clipboard during a timeout, which is like finding Big Foot because he never calls timeouts. Mary Clarke has more.
— 5 of the biggest names cut from WNBA rosters this week, from Mitch Northam.
Talk to you tomorrow!