Wembanyama’s first season in the NBA ended historically, as the San Antonio Spurs upset the Detroit Pistons on Sunday’s game. Neither team will be heading to the postseason this year.
After Friday’s win, Wembanyama also won over legendary head coach Gregg Popovich, via ClutchPoints, the coach compared his mentality to Hall of Fame big man Tim Duncan.
Coach Popovich had shared,
“He’s a competitor. He wants to win. Obviously, he’s gifted, but I needed to show him that he’s gifted in a whole lot more ways than he knows. Expanding his game was really a priority. He’s made me understand that he has those Tim Duncan qualities of innate basketball IQ and a fire that he wants to be the best.”
Ahead of the game, head coach Popovich had also offered some notable praise for his rookie sensation, he said,
“He was much more malleable and accepting of expanding his role, expanding his game, both defensively and offensively. I’m sure—you’ll have to ask him if he was planning on leading the league in blocks when he came in, but that was like a requirement. We wanted him at the basket, and we wanted rebounding and blocking shots. He likes to shoot that three, so that was probably not exactly what he was expecting from me off the bat.”
The 20-year-old Wembanyama’s debut season made sure even LeBron James looked like an average NBA player. In 71 games this season, he became the first NBA player ever to score at least 1,500 points, block 250 shots, and knock down 100 3-pointers.
A probable candidate to win Rookie of the Year honors, and his strong competition comes from Oklahoma City’s Chet Holmgren.
Wemby averaged better than 21 points and 10 rebounds per game, a double-double for the season, and led the NBA in blocks with 3.6 swats per contest.
