During his NBA rookie season, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama apparently had a few “never meet your heroes” moments when encountering some of the league’s top players.
There was an insane amount of hype surrounding French phenom Victor Wembanyama heading into his debut season in the NBA. Besides Lebron James’ rookie campaign, no player was talked about more before his inaugural season than the 20-year-old.
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And much like James, Wembanyama shockingly lived up to the absurd expectations. While he did not earn All-Star honors in 2023-24 — although he should have — the Rookie of the Year ended his first season leading the Spurs in many major statistical categories. Including points (21.4), rebounds (10.6), steals (1.2), and blocks (3.6). However, his terrific rookie season wasn’t an accident.
Victor Wembanyama and his team have been working hard for years to mold him into an NBA-ready player. And he and the Spurs training staff took that to near All-Star levels last season. However, while putting in the necessary work to compete at a high level, the young star found out that some of the players he looked up to didn’t share the same level of dedication to being great.
Victor Wembanyama reveals being surprised by the lack of work ethic of some NBA stars
“In a good and bad way, it’s how the best of the game are. In a good way, some of them are really impressive and inspiring in the way they approach the game every night,” Wembanyama told Sports Illustrated when asked what surprised him the most in his rookie season. “But others that I used to like, now it’s like, I’m just not sure they deserve it. They don’t seem like they put as much work in as I thought.”
There is an old saying that goes, “Never meet your heroes.” And it seems that Wembanyama had that a few times during his first season in the league. Fortunately for the San Antonio Spurs, similar to the players he respects, the Frenchman is one of those stars willing to work hard to continue to get better.
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