Basketball: Victor Wembanyama, the sky is his limit

At 18, basketball player Victor Wembanyama captivates with his dexterity matched by his 2.21 meters. Until the NBA stars he will join next year. Programmed to be number 1 in the draft and break the codes, the Boulogne-Levallois player is already a media phenomenon.

During the match, the three girls had seen that this gentleman in a suit was familiar with their favorite. So, after the press conference, they asked Vincent Collet, coach of Boulogne-Levallois and the France team, if he could bring them back from the locker room "an autograph from Victor" . The one they couldn't grab when he left the field because of too much competition. It was eight days ago in the hall of Le Mans (6,000 seats), where we had sold out, a rare thing. The only actor thus courted, local team included, Victor Wembanyama had lent himself to the exercise with good grace, but failed. Before being the only one to lower his head to rush under the awning leading to the shower.

The Wembanyama effect

He hasn't gone unnoticed for a long time – hard to do otherwise when you were already 2.08 meters tall at 14 years old. Also for a long time that all recruiters on the planet have identified him as a unique case. But for the past fortnight, this big 18-year-old kid has entered a new dimension. We no longer stop at its passage, we watch for it. Two hours were enough for the Metropolitans 92 of Boulogne-Levallois to sell the tickets for Friday's meeting against Blois, modest promoted to the elite. While the tradition of Parisian basketball is rather that we lament in front of empty chairs. In the last day's audience report on the League's TV platform (LNB), it was the match at Le Mans that drew the most spectators, almost double the following one.

Nobody sees anything other than the Wembanyama effect. In hollow, the idea of ​​taking advantage of its presence to fill the memory box before the unicorn gallops away. That's kind of why Lionel Jospin, a basketball fan, was sitting in the front row on Friday. “I had already seen him play but it is extraordinary to see him assert himself like this, keeping his smile, slips the ex-Prime Minister.  The most striking thing is that he is not timorous at all, even though he is fine. On the contrary, defense or attack, it goes frankly.