Spurs take phenom Victor Wembanyama with No. 1 overall pick in NBA draft

The Victor Wembanyama era has officially begun in San Antonio, as the Spurs made him the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday’s NBA draft.

Wembanyama, a 7-foot-5 French phenom with an 8-foot wingspan, walked across the stage at the Barclays Center in New York to shake NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s hand and formally mark the start of his new career.

The 19-year-old was in tears when talking with ESPN’s Monica McNutt shortly after being selected.

“It’s accomplishing something that I’ve been dreaming of my whole life,” Wembanyama said. “Hearing that sentence from Adam Silver, I’ve dreamed of it so much, I got to cry.”

Wembanyama is considered by many to be a generational talent — a player who can defend and play above the rim but move with such fluidity that he can also hit step-back 3-pointers off one leg.

When the Spurs won the right to draft Wembanyama by winning the lottery May 16, Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt leaped with joy from his seat on stage inside Chicago’s McCormick Place Convention Center.

On Thursday night, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich credited Wembanyama’s parents for how they’ve raised him to handle the immense amount of pressure that has been put on him so far.

“He’s got a great disposition, a good combination of intellectual ability and an emotional intelligence at the same time,” Popovich said. “He understands what hype is. He understands all the attention he’s getting, but he still welcomes it, deals with it. … So, I think he understands that there’s a way to handle that responsibility and still let people feel somewhat close to him. So he doesn’t need a lot of advice in that area.”

Popovich said Wembanyama will play for the Spurs in the summer league but that he didn’t know to what extent. San Antonio will play in the California Classic in Sacramento on July 3. That event starts four days before the Las Vegas league, which all NBA teams participate in.

“As I said before, I’ve only spoken with him on the phone a couple of times, so I got to get a better feel for where his head is at,” Popovich said. “Talked to his people who’ve trained him his whole life. They’ve been with our people, and we’ve got to make those decisions once we’re all together. But he’ll be there at some point.”

In October, Wembanyama announced his presence on the national stage during two exhibition games in Las Vegas with his Metropolitans 92 squad taking on the G League Ignite to showcase both Wembanyama and Ignite guard Scoot Henderson.

Wembanyama had 37 points, 4 rebounds and 5 blocks in the first game and followed that up with 36 points and 11 rebounds in the second game.

During the French LNB Pro A League regular season, Wembanyama averaged 20.7 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game, leading the league in all three categories. Wembanyama was named the league’s MVP and led Metropolitans 92 to the French league finals this season.

“People talk about generational talent, and they only think on-court skill, but it’s bigger than that,” Spurs general manager Brian Wright said on May 16. “His ability to be a great teammate, his ability to think the game, unique challenges, you see him doing things that you wouldn’t even have guessed someone could do. His approach, his professionalism. When you use the word generational talent, it extends beyond your ability to put the ball in the basket. And he’s unique in so many ways.”

This is the third time the Spurs have won the NBA lottery and earned the right to pick No. 1. They hit big on the other two picks — David Robinson in 1987 and Tim Duncan in 1997, both of whom played their entire careers with the Spurs and are considered among the best big men of all time.

Now, Wembanyama begins his career with the coach Robinson finished with and Duncan played his entire NBA career under: Popovich, the winningest coach in NBA history.

Popovich said on Thursday that Wembanyama will have a target on his back and has to be himself and not anyone else — not LeBron James, not Kobe Bryant and not Duncan.

“He’s Victor and that’s who we want him to be,” Popovich said.

Under Popovich, the Spurs made 22 consecutive trips to the playoffs from 1998 to 2019, which is tied for the longest such streak in NBA history (matching the Syracuse Nationals/Philadelphia 76ers streak from 1950 to 1971).

The past four seasons, however, the team hasn’t managed to finish over .500, going 32-39, 33-39, 34-48 and then 22-60 last season. Bottoming out during the 2022-23 season, however, gave the Spurs a 14.0% chance of hitting the No. 1 pick.

Wembanyama joins a Spurs team that was heavily reliant on young players a season ago. The Spurs’ top five scorers in total points were all 25 years old or younger, and that didn’t include last year’s No. 9 overall pick, Jeremy Sochan, who averaged 11.0 points and 5.3 rebounds in 56 games played.

Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, Malaki Branham and Sochan help form the core of what San Antonio has moving forward. The Spurs also have 28 draft picks, including 11 first-rounders, over the next six seasons.