LeBron James has seen just about everything during his 23-year NBA career, but even he admits there’s something completely different about Victor Wembanyama.
The 22-year-old did something unprecedented in his first NBA playoff game, and LeBron was in awe.
“He’s not the first tall guy in our league,” James said on the latest episode of his “Mind the Game” podcast. “He’s not the first guy in our league with size or length, he’s not, so we can nip that in the bud right now, guys. Yeah, it’s a factor because of his length, his size, the way he’s able to cover a lot of ground, especially defensively.
“But when we talk about his offensive ability. His ability to get the ball to the floor, we saw him one-on-one on Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert on the perimeter multiple times. Attack him with steals, spins, jumps, fantasy shakes, fadeaways. We saw him crossover dribbles, step-backs from the corner and knock down threes. His catch. The ability and his coordination, it looks great at times. “It’s not coordinated, but it’s because he has the ability to catch the ball with his back to the basket or with his half body and be able to find the basket before he lands, which is coordination that we’ve never seen before, not just because he’s tall, but because he has the ability to do things that we’ve never seen in our league. “
James made it clear that Wembanyama’s dominance is rooted not just in physical talent, but also in intelligence and mentality.
“But his IQ, you can tell by the way he talks, you can tell by the way he carries himself that he understands the game,” James continued. “He’s embraced the right way to play the game, and the Spurs continue to be lucky – to have these generational talents, IQs, smarts, but focusing on the most important things. David Robinson, Tim Duncan and now Wenby. These guys have a very serious mentality. They wear these blinders and they’re like the mission is the mission and that’s all that matters. It’s just amazing.”
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