Victor Wembanyama’s so big that he… You could write the joke in about a million different ways, but now thanks to his Tuesday appearance at Yankee Stadium, we have another way to finish the joke. Wembanyama’s so large that he makes a baseball look like a marble in his hands. Seriously, look at the pic below shared by Joon Lee, where Wemby looks completely out of place at the latest New York Yankees game.
Obviously, the 19-year-old Frenchman who’s set to become the No. 1 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft on Thursday is an extremely talented athlete. The San Antonio Spurs can’t wait to get their hands on the otherworldly talent, even if they’ve received several ‘unique’ trade offers.
But baseball? Probably not the right sport for the 7-foot-5 basketball star with a reported wingspan that reaches 8 feet, if not more.
Just imagine how large the strike zone would be for Wemby. Pitchers would love facing him, but we have a feeling his strikeout rate would be quite high.
In other words, don’t expect Wembanyama to be the second coming of Michael Jordan, trying his hand at a second career in baseball while proving his dominance in the NBA first. We’ll leave those ideas up to the Bo Jacksons of the world.
Still, seeing Wembanyama hold a bat or a baseball is fascinating. Here we see athletes in one sport seemingly built to play baseball, and everything is normal. Then we see another generational athlete from another sport who looks like an alien from another planet, as other NBA athletes have described.
It’s incredible to see how the sizes and skill sets differ from sport to sport, but we’d advise that Wembanyama does not quit his day job any time soon. Spurs coach Gregg Popovich likely agrees.
You thought Wembanyama would step foot in Yankee Stadium without taking the mound? No chance in hell. Here’s Wembanyama throwing out the ceremonial first pitch.
Wembanyama’s got some heat. Could maybe work with Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake on his form a bit, but that’s not bad. Plenty of room for growth, should this basketball thing not work out. We can work on throwing strikes later.
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