Basketball from Victor Wembanyama’s point of view — literally

If you’re 5’3” like me — or heck, even a healthy 6 feet tall — you’ve probably often wondered what it’s like to be an NBA player, where being 6’6” is merely average, and it (seemingly) doesn’t take too much effort to dunk on a 10-foot basket. But even for NBA players there are outliers, and Spurs rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama, who is officially listed at 7’3.5” with a wing span of 8 feet, is one such player.

At some point earlier this year while he was still playing for Mets 92 in France, he wore some sort of device that showed the basketball court from his point of view, and it sure feels — small.

Putting myself in his shoes, I feel like my adult self but on the courts from first or second grade, with the basket lowered to 7 feet and playing with a size 4 ball. Seeing the way he effortlessly grips the ball with one hand, seemingly not even having to jump to dunk or lay the ball in, and that 10ft basket appearing oddly close and nearly at eye level — it’s just an odd feeling.

And if you want even more visual to how gargantuan Wemby actually is, here he is practicing with what seems to be a medicine ball, but in his huge hands it doesn’t look that oversized. If it was orange, it might have even escaped me that it wasn’t a basketball.

While we only got a glimpse of Wemby in the Summer League, with one game spent getting a feel for the NBA game before exploding in his second game, knowing he is spending his summer in the Spurs practice facility with his new teammates — and possibly experiencing some harmless rookie hazing along the way — makes waiting for next season to see him in action again even more agonizing. The good news is the preseason is less than two months away.