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Wemby Was “Boring” to Me. Then He Painted a 35-Point Picasso.
A skeptic’s reckoning with the 22-year-old who just dropped a masterpiece on the Portland Trail Blazers.
I Owe Victor Wembanyama an Apology
From the day he was drafted in June 2023 until about 72 hours ago, I had a very firm position on Victor Wembanyama: I wasn’t watching.
Not out of protest. Not because I hate the Spurs. Not because I’m anti-French basketball (I’m not — shout out to Tony Parker). I just could not get into his game. Every time a clip popped up on my timeline, my brain short-circuited. A 7-foot-4 human being pulling up from the logo? Dribbling behind his back in transition? Shooting fadeaway threes over a small forward like he was Kevin Durant’s tall cousin? My eyes were telling me one thing and my basketball brain was filing a grievance.
He looked, to me, like Geoffrey the Toys R Us giraffe had signed a 10-day contract. Long limbs moving in ways long limbs aren’t supposed to move. I couldn’t lock in. I scrolled past.
Then Sunday night happened. And now I’m writing this with pom-poms on the desk.
Why I Avoided Him for Three Years
Let me be honest with you, because honesty is the only currency that matters in a post like this.
I avoided Wemby for three reasons:
- The height felt unfair. 7-foot-4 with a 98-inch wingspan isn’t basketball — it’s a cheat code. I wanted to see someone earn it the hard way.
- The aesthetics didn’t land. His game has angles I wasn’t used to. Everything looked a half-beat off-rhythm to my eyes.
- I’m spoiled. And this is the real one.
I grew up watching the Picassos. Let me explain what I mean.
Growing Up on the Picassos
There’s a generation of basketball fans — and I’m one of them — whose aesthetic compass was set by four players: Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Isiah Thomas, and Michael Jordan. Add Kobe Bryant a few years later for the encore.
These guys played with rhyme and reason. There was a poetry to it. A cadence. Jordan’s fadeaway wasn’t just a shot — it was a closing argument. Magic’s no-look didn’t just find the open man — it told a story about where everyone was going to be three seconds later. Bird set up possessions like a chess grandmaster who’d already seen the endgame. Isiah dribbled like the ball was on a string attached to his soul. Kobe’s footwork was jazz.
When you grow up on that, you develop a taste. You start to think basketball is supposed to look a certain way. Graceful. Efficient. Smooth. Beautiful.
And then Wemby shows up and breaks the rules of the universe, and your spoiled little brain goes, “Wait. That’s not how this is done.”
I’m not proud of it. But I’m telling you the truth.
It Took Me a Minute to Accept LeBron, Too
Here’s a confession inside a confession: I was late on LeBron.
Early LeBron looked a little clunky to me. Freight-train drives, power moves, that chase-down block that looked more like a hit-and-run than a basketball play. Compared to Jordan’s silk and Kobe’s surgical precision, early LeBron felt like somebody had brought a tank to a fencing match.
Of course, I eventually came around. You can’t watch LeBron for 20 years and not come around. The body control, the basketball IQ, the longevity — you can’t fake any of that. But it took me a minute. My aesthetic radar had to recalibrate.
That’s the pattern I’m recognizing with Wemby right now. Same process. Same reformation. Just compressed into a weekend instead of a season.
The Playoff Debut That Flipped the Switch
Sunday, April 19, 2026. San Antonio Spurs vs. Portland Trail Blazers. Game 1 of the first round. The Spurs’ first playoff game since 2019 and their first playoff game without Gregg Popovich on the bench since 1999 — a 27-year, 170-win stretch that covered five championships.
I decided to watch. Partly because I love a first-round Cinderella narrative. Partly because the meme potential was too juicy to ignore. Mostly because my cousin wouldn’t stop texting me.
Here’s the line Wemby dropped in his playoff debut:
| Stat | Number |
|---|---|
| Points | 35 |
| Field Goals | 13-of-21 (61.9%) |
| Three-pointers | 5-of-6 (83.3%) |
| Free Throws | 4-of-5 (80%) |
| Rebounds | 5 |
| Assists | 1 |
| Blocks | 2 |
| Minutes | 33 |
| Plus/Minus | Spurs won 111-98 |
And that’s before you get to the context, which is where I live as a blogger.
The Historical Context That Made My Jaw Drop
Because I love numbers and I love history, let’s put that 35-point performance in its proper context.
Spurs franchise record for a playoff debut. Wemby broke Tim Duncan’s mark of 32 points, set back in 1998. Duncan — Tim Duncan — was sitting courtside watching his record fall. David Robinson was next to him. Two of the greatest Spurs ever in the house, and the kid outdid both of them on Night 1.
21 points in the first half. According to the NBA’s play-by-play database, that’s the most points ever scored in the opening half of a playoff debut. The previous record was 20, shared by Kyrie Irving and Brandon Jennings. Wemby had it in the books before halftime.
Still shy of the all-time mark. For context on how much room is still above him: the all-time playoff debut record is 42 points, held by Luka Dončić. So Wemby is chasing Luka. Think about that sentence for a second. A 22-year-old 7-foot-4 center is chasing a guard’s scoring record.
The defensive line people aren’t talking about enough. Over 33 minutes, Wemby was matched up against 8 different Portland defenders and scored on every single one of them. On the other end, when he was the primary contesting defender, Portland went 0-for-11. Zero. For. Eleven.
He’s an MVP finalist. Named Sunday, alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić. He’s also a finalist for Defensive Player of the Year — for the second time in his career, at age 22. The last player to win MVP and DPOY in the same season was Hakeem Olajuwon in 1993-94. That’s the company we’re talking about.
When I say the highlights converted me, understand what I mean. It wasn’t that he scored 35. Plenty of players score 35. It’s that he scored 35 different ways. A pull-up corner-three fadeaway. A baseline runner. A drive through two defenders. A lob finish. A step-back. He looked like five different players wearing the same jersey.
That’s when it hit me: the same thing that used to bother me — the fact that I couldn’t categorize him — is exactly the thing that makes him must-watch.
The Wemby Lineage (And Why This Matters for the Future)
If you’re a history nerd like me, this is the fun part.
For most of NBA history, big men had a job description: rebound, defend the paint, score in the post. Russell. Wilt. Kareem. Hakeem. Shaq. Even Duncan, the quiet genius, mostly operated in that zone with a mid-range extension.
Then Dirk Nowitzki showed up in 1998 and started shooting jumpers from 18 feet, and purists lost their minds. Then Kevin Garnett did it at 20. Then KD did it from anywhere on the court. Then Nikola Jokić started throwing 40-foot outlet passes. The big-man job description kept expanding.
Wemby is the next chapter. Actually, he might be a whole new book. He has Hakeem’s footwork, KD’s shooting range, Rudy Gobert’s rim protection, and ball-handling that’s closer to a point guard than a center. Put that in a 7-foot-4 frame and the league has never seen it before.
That’s what I was missing when I wrote him off in 2023. My brain was trying to fit him into a category that already existed. He doesn’t fit one. He’s building his own.
Where This Goes From Here
A few things I’ll be watching for the rest of this playoff run and beyond:
Can the Spurs actually make a run? They’re the 2-seed in the West. They swept their series opener. But the West this year is a gauntlet — Oklahoma City, Denver, potentially the Lakers or Warriors. A first-round win over Portland is a great start. A conference finals appearance would cement Wemby as the franchise player of his era right now, not just eventually.
Does Wemby win MVP? SGA led the league in clutch scoring and his Thunder team has the best record. Jokić is Jokić. But MVP narratives shift on playoff performances, even though they shouldn’t. Another 35-point game or two and the conversation gets louder.
What does Year 10 of Wemby look like? That’s the real question. If this is Year 3, what does peak Wemby look like at age 27-28? We might be watching the early chapters of the next 20-year face of the league.
Are You Like Me, Or Are You Mad at Me?
This is the part of the blog where I want to hear from you.
If you’ve been on the Wemby bandwagon since 2023, I’m sorry I’m late. I’m here now. I brought snacks.
If you’ve been like me — raised on the Picassos, spoiled by poetry, a little suspicious of the 7-foot-4 kid doing things 7-foot-4 kids aren’t supposed to do — I’m telling you to watch Game 2. Tuesday night. Give yourself 33 minutes. That’s all it took for me.
The thing about aesthetics is that they’re supposed to evolve. If you’re still only watching basketball that looks like 1991, you’re missing 35 years of art. I had to teach myself that with LeBron. I’m teaching myself that with Wemby now.
Basketball is a language. Every generation adds new words to it. Wemby is adding a whole new dialect.
And I, a reformed skeptic with pom-poms and a fresh respect for Geoffrey the giraffe, will be watching.
If this resonated with you, share it with the friend who’s been trying to convert you to Wemby for three years. They’ve earned their victory lap.
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