When your favorite team is in a free-fall, it’s hard to appreciate the good things still taking place, and Rick Carlisle reminded Spurs fans of the undeniable greatness to come. The Pacers coach sat down for his media day session in Paris ahead of the meeting with the Spurs and was asked about Victor Wembanyama. He didn’t hold back.
“I’m in awe of his talent, his size, his aptitude for the game, his skill, his feel,” Carlisle said. The 7’4″ phenom has just about every intangible you could want in a player, and those traits drive winning basketball. That doesn’t happen overnight, especially when dragging a team from the bottom where San Antonio had their feet planted when he arrived.
We can’t forget that Spurs are already ahead of schedule
They’ve already taken a leap, winning 19 games halfway through the season when last year, they finished the year with 22. The sky doesn’t begin to describe Wemby’s limit, but fans will need patience.
The reward for said patience will be immense, and Carlisle sees it coming, adding, “In due time, it’s very possible that he’ll be the face of basketball—not just NBA basketball, but world basketball.”
Those are strong words from one of the most experienced head coaches in the NBA. Spurs fans are very familiar with Rick Carlisle since he was the coach of the rival Dallas Mavericks for years during the Big 3/Dirk Nowitzki era. He’s the only coach in Mavs history to lead their franchise to a title, so he has plenty of cache in the community.
-He makes a great point because we’ve never seen a player like this before, and because he’s so good, it’s easy to forget how young he is. So much time is spent pointing the finger at other players on the roster, and they do need to accept their fair share of blame when things aren’t going right, but at the end of the day, everything will be alright because we have that guy.
That means something in basketball, more than any other sport, because there are only five guys on the floor at one time, so one player can make more of an impact than in any other sport. Of course, he’ll need help, but he’s not ready to win a title yet, so San Antonio has time to make sure they get it right.
Wemby still makes plenty of mistakes of his own that would be highlighted more if the rest of the roster was championship-ready. He’s still figuring out which moves to use when working on his consistency, learning when to take over games and when to get his team involved, etc. There are many nuances to the NBA game that he’s yet to master, but when he does, watch out, planet Earth.
