By Léa Mabilon
Published
yesterday at 5:42 p.m.,
updated at 5:52 p.m
Megan Briggs / Getty Images
Even if he was playing a game, the French NBA basketball player didn't want to miss the Halloween party. Backstage before the match, he created a surprise by donning the costume of Kaonashi (Faceless), an emblematic character from Hayao Miyazaki's film.
Victor Wembanyama likes to dress up. Proof of this was made this Thursday, October 31, a few minutes before the match he played with his team, the San Antonio Spurs, against the Utah Jazz. Behind the scenes, the French basketball player has in fact adorned himself with the features of Kaonashi, or “Faceless”, the mysterious spirit of the film Spirited Away by Hayao Miyazaki. This enigmatic and solitary character, characterized by his floating white mask and his dark silhouette, was perfectly embodied by the young NBA prodigy.
Questioned by the press after the meeting, the athlete justified his choice: “This costume followed a big discussion. I made a selection of my favorite scary characters, and this was one of them. It comes from a film that I love, that I have watched many times. » Note that Wembanyama measures more than two meters, his tall stature accentuating the ghostly appearance of the character.
The costume quickly made the rounds on social networks, where fans praised its homage to Miyazaki's universe, in particular for its visual fidelity and originality. “Always great references,” noted one user. “Wemby is a cultured man” and “Wemby is officially my GOAT,” other users wrote en masse. Last year, Victor Wembanyama had already demonstrated originality by playing the fictional character Slenderman before his match, a ghost man with extremely long arms from an Internet meme.
