For years, one of the great genres of sports photography was simply described as Yao Ming making people look small. Well, it turns out that the next NBA phenom will have a similar effect.
Victor Wembanyama is essentially guaranteed to be the No. 1 pick in the upcoming NBA draft. His combination of size, length, athleticism and skill puts him in a class that arguably no NBA prospect has approached since LeBron James. In his first games on U.S. soil, Wembanyama has showed out against the G League Ignite squad, making plays that shouldn’t be humanly possible.
But if you really needed an indication as to just how large Wembanyama is a human being, look at this postgame photo with the 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert.
Oh my god pic.twitter.com/hwc3zfjpEo
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) October 6, 2022
He makes Gobert look short! And, again, Gobert is not short — he’s extremely tall. Wembanyama is listed at 7-foot-2, so he clearly got taller because Gobert measured at just over 7 feet without shoes at the 2013 combine.
It’s going to be wild seeing Wembanyama match up against NBA big men and making them look short. NBA fans were understandably stunned by the postgame photo. No wonder LeBron said he’s more like an alien.