“It’s like watching Tiger Woods hit a golf ball… If he were 7-5.” – ESPN color commentator Jay Bilas
It’s relatively easy to exaggerate the feats of athletes, even great ones. It’s almost impossible to exaggerate the feats of San Antonio Spurs generational superstar Victor Wembanyama.
The ESPN crew on Wednesday night’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, Ryan Ruocco and Jay Bilas, pretty much spent the whole game marveling, and who could blame them?
One of the best lines, in addition to the one above from Bilas, came when Ruocco pointed out that every time Wemby takes off, you wonder if he’s going to reach the rim. And he always does, they concluded.
Ruocco described that with two words: “Perpetual arms.”
More like perpetual everything.
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Wembanyama has it all.
Sure, he dunks everything when he’s even remotely close to the basket.
He also blocks everything when the opponent comes remotely close to his basket.
But then he’s got crazy guard skills for a guy who is something like 7-foot-5 and might actually be taller.
There was one sequence where Wemby blocked a shot, then at the other end, looked like he was going to drive on Dereck Lively. Instead, Wembanyama pulled out some iso dribble moves, eventually working a crossover into a stepback for a knocked down 3-pointer.
There is genuinely nothing this dude cannot do.
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The Spurs’ bench players spent much of the game coming up with new ways to react to seeing mind-blowing feats on the court — and these are the guys that see Wemby in practice every day.
Even the Mavericks took on an air about them that felt like, “Well, there’s not anything we can do to stop this, oh well.”
And this is just game one of Wemby’s first season. He hadn’t played a regular season game in eight months after dealing with a scary blood clot diagnosis of deep vein thrombosis.
There is so much more ceiling to be reached by Wembanyama. And good thing, too, because he can touch the ceiling by himself.
There truly has never been a player like this. There’s no blueprint to know just how high he can climb.
At his height, and his talent, and his drive, Wembanyama might just soar beyond anything we’ve ever imagined.
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Victor Wembanyama stats tonight vs. Mavericks
Victor Wembanyama’s final stats vs. the Dallas Mavericks on opening night of the 2025-26 NBA season:
- 40 points
- 15 rebounds
- 3 blocks
- 1 steal
- 1 assists
- 15-21 FG
- 1-2 3FG
- 9-11 FT
- +31
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He capped his night off by getting to 40 points (his fifth 40-point game) on a ridiculous right corner fadeaway that swished the entire net and nothing else. Perfection.
It’s the most points in a season opener in franchise history.
