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We now know the winner of the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes.
The San Antonio Spurs won the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery Tuesday night, earning the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft and the right to select Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 19-year-old who is considered a generational talent.
Wembanyama is the first can’t-miss prospect in the NBA draft since LeBron James in 2003, and as hyped as any prospect in any sport in recent memory.
Maybe even not-so-recent memory.
And before setting foot in the NBA, he’s impressed the league’s all-time leading scorer.
“We’re labeling like this unicorn thing — everybody’s been a unicorn over the last few years,” James said. “But he’s more like an alien — no one has seen anyone as tall as he is but as fluid and as graceful as he is on the floor.”
Living and playing in France, Wembanyama didn’t get to study many NBA greats up close.
But from afar he picked out Kevin Durant to emulate, studying how the four-time scoring champion gets his feet underneath him, how his footwork is to launch shots, and how to play the game like the former Brooklyn star Durant.
