Published on December 24, 2023 Reading: 3 minutes.
There are not many 19-year-old athletes who have already been the subject of a book of nearly 150 pages. Victor Wembanyama, who will celebrate his 20th birthday on January 4, on the eve of an NBA match between his team, the San Antonio Spurs, and the Milwaukee Bucks, is part of this restricted circle.
Yann Ohnona, senior reporter for the French sports daily The Team and basketball specialist, has indeed written a book – Victor Wembanyama: “I just want to be me” – on this French player, first to be selected number 1 in the NBA draft and recruited by the San Antonio Spurs (his four-year contract provides for an annual salary of 13 million euros). A club where Tony Parker, his illustrious compatriot, shone between 2002 and 2018, winning twenty collective titles and multiple individual awards. Shining will be difficult this season since the Spurs are having a catastrophic start to the championship (3 wins and 19 defeats as of December 13) in the Western Conference, but the Frenchman is generally spared from criticism.
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The DRC, part of its identity
Tony Parker left Paris Basket Racing and was drafted – at 19 years old – on June 27, 2001. Almost twenty-two years later, on June 22, 2023, Victor Wembanyama had the same experience. Before joining Texas, the young pivot had 68 matches at the professional level, spread between Nanterre, Lyon-Villeurbanne and the Metropolitans 92.
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For Wembanyama, practicing high-level sport was almost obvious, even if he explains in the book that his parents “never put pressure on him”. Her mother, Élodie de Fautereau, herself the daughter of basketball players, played professionally. His father, Félix, originally from the Sankuru province in the DRC, also played basketball at the amateur level, but became best known for his performances in the long jump and triple jump. His sister, Ève, was crowned European under-17 basketball champion with France in 2017. With his father, he improved his running and postures; his mother trained him in the club, in the youth categories.
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Music and graphic arts
The player has never spoken publicly about his African origins, but Yann Ohnona was able to raise the issue with him during informal discussions. “Victor Wembanyama never had the opportunity to go to DR Congo, but I think he will one day, when he can. He knows that this country is part of his identity. He remembered some Congolese rituals and traditions when his father’s family visited the house. He plans to take a real interest in it, because it’s important to him. »
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Basketball is not the young man’s only passion: he is a fan of cinema (and in particular the Star Wars saga, which he discovered thanks to his father), music and graphic arts. He is also interested in other sports, including football. “I hope I never go without learning. I like learning and doing things,” he confides to the author. His agent is none other than Bouna N’Diaye, born in Gambia and raised in Senegal, who has several French players playing in the NBA in his portfolio.
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Points in common with Kylian Mbappé
“His intelligence is linked to his precocity. A player so young, of this size (2.23 m) and so efficient, it’s very rare. He understands very well what is happening to him, the expectations he arouses, the pressure he will be under, and that it will be very difficult for him to preserve his private life. His performances will be scrutinized, because, in his team, there is no real star. We will see how he adapts to the NBA, to its busy schedule, with the Olympic Games in Paris next year. At 19, he is not yet physically “finished”. We will continue to discover it during this season,” explains Yann Ohnona, who readily compares the case of Wembanyama, followed by tens of millions of fans on social networks, to that of another French prodigy, the footballer Kylian Mbappé . “Both have African origins, parents who were former athletes. They are intelligent, precocious, have their feet on the ground, and are well surrounded. Wembanyama obtained his baccalaureate a year early, and with honors, while he was already playing at the professional level. The two men have things in common, know each other and like each other. »
Victor Wembanyama: I just want to be meby Yann Ohnona, Éditions Solar/L’Équipe, 144 pages, 16.90 euros
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2023-12-24 15:20:20
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