NBA Draft: Likely top pick Victor Wembanyama 'trying to be the best' on and off court

A towering figure entered the ballroom at the Westin in Times Square and took a seat in front of a crowd of reporters. The 7-foot-plus Frenchman is now the center of the basketball world’s attention.

Victor Wembanyama embraced the spotlight Wednesday as usual, smiling easily and sounding relaxed in English and French at this meet-the-media gathering in anticipation of the NBA Draft Thursday night at Barclays Center. He’s the clear No. 1 pick.

He’s being heralded as a generational player, the top talent to join the NBA since LeBron James in 2003.

The big man has big aspirations in every way.

“I’m trying to be the best, so being the best, it’s not only on the court,” said Wembanyama, one of 25 draft prospects on hand. “It’s all dimensions in the job, basketball player. I want to be best also at the media, the press conference, and all this stuff. I don’t like to do things halfway. I’m trying to enjoy it. I enjoy it.”

The 19-year-old forward/center from Le Chesnay, France, in the western suburbs of Paris, won this press conference. Now it’s on to San Antonio.

The Spurs, whose last top overall pick, Tim Duncan, helped them claim five NBA championships after his selection in 1997, get to choose him after winning the lottery.

Wembanyama felt he did, too.

“For me, San Antonio is a city of winning,” he said. “On lottery night, when the Spurs got the No. 1 pick, I was . . . feeling lucky they got the pick.”

Last October, Wembanyama said he was 7-3. The NBA lists him at 7-4, 230 pounds. There has been talk that he could even be 7-5. Yet he can handle the ball and fire up those threes like a guard.

Wembanyama played the last three seasons in France’s highest level of pro basketball. His first season with Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 recently ended with a loss in the French league finals.

He led the league in scoring at 21.6, rebounding at 10.4 and blocks at 3.0 per game. He nailed 47 threes, although he sank just 27.5% of his attempts. He also won Defensive Player of the Year.

“No one has ever seen anyone as tall as he is but as fluid and as graceful as he is out on the floor,” James has said.

So who goes after Wembanyama? Charlotte owns the second pick and Portland has the third.

Brandon Miller, a 6-9 Alabama forward, and Scoot Henderson, a 6-2 guard who played with the NBA G League Ignite, are the favorites for those spots.

“It can go both ways with me and Scoot,” Miller said.

Miller was asked by NBA teams about a January incident in Tuscaloosa. The freshman was alleged to have brought a gun that was used by another man in a shooting that resulted in the death of a 23-year-old woman. Miller hasn’t been charged.

“NBA teams kind of did their background on me,” Miller said. “I think they kind of found out that I was a great guy, great character. So I don’t think they’re really worried about the character part of it now. I think it’s just all basketball now.”  

The 20-year-old Thompson twins, Amen and Ausar, may also not have to wait long to be chosen. The 6-7 guards played in Overtime Elite, a pro league in Atlanta, for two seasons, including this last one on the same team. Now they will likely be bound for different cities.

“It’s going to be hard,” said Amen, the older brother by a minute. “It’s going to be a new challenge. But we’ve been prepared for this our whole lives.”