NBA Paris Games 2025: inauguration of courts, Louis Vuitton parade, presence at the PSG-Manchester City match… Victor Wembanyama returns to his native land

The basketball player Victor Wembanyama has been the main attraction since the NBA packed his bags on Monday Paris pour two meetings between his San Antonio Spurs team and the Indiana PacersThursday and Saturday.

After 2020, 2023 and 2024, the North American basketball league has relocated not one but two regular season meetings to the banks of the Seine: the Wembanyama effect, an immense 21-year-old French talent.

“This trip to Paris, it’s a bit my way of giving back to the French public“, he explained Monday from the Maurice-Thorez sports center in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine), the location of his first professional steps and starting point of a week marked by numerous requests and unprecedented enthusiasm.

Meeting the children

“I feel a different energy but I’m waiting to see what it will be like on match days. around the room because I haven’t gone out much in Paris, I’m waiting to see it with my own eyes“, confided “Wemby” on Wednesday at a press conference.

After this first training in Nanterre in front of a children’s bedthe number one in the 2023 Draft – annual selection of university and foreign players not yet in the NBA – has invited his teammates to dinner Monday evening, inaugurated two fields in his birthplace of Chesnay-Rocquencourt, participated in the Louis Vuitton fashion show as part of Fashion Week and should travel Wednesday evening at the Parc des Princes for the Champions League clash between PSG and Manchester City.

“When we found out we were coming to Paris, we sat down with Victor and asked him: what things do you want us to honor while we are here? His first wish was to meet the children,” Spurs general manager RC Buford told a few journalists.

“The best gift they could give me”

Olympic runner-up with the Blues, Victor Wembanyama is aware of his influence in a country where his team’s matches are the most watched on NBA League Pass, the league’s broadcast platform. “It reminds me of the responsibility we have so that our impact is positive, so that we provide emotion to people,” he said from the Accor Arena in Bercy.

“I try to share these moments with the fans as much as possible.” He shares his journey with his teammates like a guide following in the footsteps of his childhood. “The way they are present, the way they respond to everything I want to show them and make them discover is the best gift they can give me,” admitted the Habs.

“We see how important it is to him and how much it means to him to share with his teammates,” praised his coach Mitch Johnson. Despite the demands, the Spurs need to concentrate on the field where their two meetings against the Indiana Pacers will be an opportunity to end a series of six defeats in the last seven games.

“Even if it is an incredible context for me, my responsibility is with my team and my coaches and I am fully involved in everything that is tactical,” warned Victor Wembanyama.