During the night from Wednesday to Thursday, the French giant exploded its career record by scoring 50 points against Washington. In the history of the NBA, only three players had achieved such a performance while being younger than him.
And suddenly, a huge heat stroke. Quite clumsy since the start of the season, especially at long distance, Victor Wembanyama adjusted the sights during the night from Wednesday to Thursday, November 14. And he did it quite well. Facing the Washington Wizards of his compatriots Bilal Coulibaly and Alexandre Sarr, the French giant did everything: three points in every direction, sometimes one or two meters behind the line, dunks, rebounds, drives, all with victory as a bonus and as usual with unique agility for a 2m24 player. In 32 minutes on the floor, Victor Wembanyama scored 50 points (including eight three-pointers), making it by far his highest total in a single game. His previous record dated back to last March, with 40 units reached during his first season across the Atlantic against New York.
To measure the exceptional nature of his performance, you have to delve into the NBA archives – the American championship is a mine of statistics of all kinds. Since its creation in 1949, just over 150 players have reached the 50-point mark at least once in a match. But only three players – Brandon Jennings, LeBron James and Devin Booker – managed to do it while being younger than Victor Wembanyama who was, as of Wednesday evening, 20 years and 314 days old.
Among the ten best scorers in NBA history, only LeBron James achieved such a performance while being younger than the Frenchman. In comparison, Kobe Bryant and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar were 22 years old when they scored 50 points in a game for the first time and Michael Jordan 23. Finally, on the French side, only Tony Parker (55 points in 2008, at the age of 26 years old) had so far managed to score 50 units in a match (with double overtime).
An NBA focused on attack
This precocity of Victor Wembanyama compared to the former stars of the league can also be explained by the fact that the NBA is much more offensive today than a few years ago. Big offensive cards are now commonplace and it is no longer as exceptional as before to see a player exceed 40 or 50 points in a match. Since the start of the season three weeks ago, two players other than Victor Wembanyama have already scored at least 50 points. In comparison, over the entire 2010-2011 season, this bar was only reached in two matches.
Without false modesty, as usual, Victor Wembanyama also suggested in a post-match press conference that he could see himself repeating this performance a lot of times in the months and years to come, reports on X French journalist Théo Quintard: “My first thought is that eventually I want my other performances to eclipse this one. I want to ensure that in the future, this match is just another match like any other.”
