After consensus top NBA draft prospect Victor Wembanyama went viral for his ridiculous putback dunk off his own missed stepback three in a LNB Pro A game in France over the weekend, league executives were buzzing over the limitless potential of the 19-year-old rising star.
“I’m still in a state of disbelief to be honest,” an Eastern Conference scout told ESPN’s Jonathan Givony. “We all know how special Victor is, but to have that type of reaction time and processing speed to recognize exactly where his miss would end up basically as soon as the ball came out of his hand, and then go get the loose ball and hammer it back in one fluid motion, that just shows you how easy the game comes for him and why he has a chance to be one of the best players we’ve ever seen.”
One Western Conference executive was so impressed by Wembanyama, that it reinforced his belief that some fringe playoff teams are going to wish they tanked to land him in the draft.
“The craziest thing to me is how effortless this looked for him,” the executive said. “We’re talking about putting back your own miss off a step back three. Who even thinks about that? …Honestly, I wish we wouldn’t have won so many games this year. We’re going to all regret not tanking every game to get this dude.”
The 19-year-old Wembanyama seems to be as surefire a prospect as they come with ridiculous size, ridiculous game and limitless potential. Time will tell which NBA team gets lucky enough in the lottery to capture the top pick and draft the player who has a chance to be a generational superstar.
