NBA legend claims Spurs' Victor Wembanyama is 'playing against little people'
09/14/2024 07:06 PM
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama has drawn comparisons to many greats throughout his first season, from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Hakeem Olajuwon and even Michael Jordan. On Friday, he made headlines once again when Hall-of-Fame player Ralph Sampson dropped a bold claim about Wembanyama.
"Wembanyama's a different player at a different time of basketball,” Sampson said when speaking with Dana Scott of AZCentral.com. “He's got great skills. He's got great work ethic with what you can tell but he doesn't have to play the post and if he did, it'd be a different ball game. But there's not big guys who can play against him. He's playing against little people, so the game is totally different.”
Wembanyama was certainly ahead of any rookie in his class in terms of production. He led the league with 3.6 blocks and averaged 21.4 points, 10.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists and 1.2 steals per game. The Spurs unicorn was the first player since Blake Griffin to average 20 points and 10 rebounds in their rookie season.
Is Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama playing against ‘little people’?
The Spurs center is a freakish 7-foot-4 and is tied with Boban Marjanovic as the tallest players in the NBA. Wembanyama built quite the resume in only his rookie campaign. He won the 2024 NBA Rookie of the Year, was selected to the All-Defensive First Team, and was second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
The average height of an NBA center is 6-foot-11, roughly five inches shorter than Wembanyama. Although height isn’t everything, skill is. He presents a unique mix of the two. The outside game with his 3-point shot and ball-handing are some things that a 7-foot-4 center shouldn’t be able to do. However, he’s also dominant at getting inside. His wingspan allows him to get off any shot against a bigger player. Wembanyama’s weight gain throughout the season should also help him with scoring in the low post.
Interestingly, Sampson revealed some major differences between how he played the game, versus how Wembanyama plays.
“We had to play against guys here like Terry Cummings, A.C. Green, Kareem (Abdul-Jabbar), Artis Gilmore,” Sampson said. “You got real men that will beat your a– in the post. So you can run up and down the court and try to beat them, or you have had to play the post and you had to match their game in the post because they wouldn't let you shoot at them, right? The game has totally changed because in a way it evolves, so it's a different era, different way to play, different structure."
With the evolution of the game, Wembanyama will continue to dominate with his array of skills and sheer size heading into the 2024-25 NBA season.
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