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The Victor Wembanyama Hype is Insane

As most basketball fans know, the next generational prospect was welcomed into the NBA last Thursday. Victor Wembanyama is a 7'5" big man and has been touted as the best draft prospect since LeBron, and some say he's a better prospect than him. I'm skeptical about all of the hype, and I think it is unfair to Wembanyama, and I'll explain why in this article.

Victor Wembanyama after he was picked
via Hiroko Masuike / The New York Times

Let's start with the LeBron comparisons. LeBron was claimed to be "The Chosen One," and some said that he could be on an NBA roster at 15 years old. LeBron had massive expectations to live up to, and he exceeded them, becoming a top-2 basketball player of all time. Now, exactly 20 years later, we are putting another NBA phenom on this pedestal, hoping for the same results as LeBron.

I hope Wembanyama is great, and I actually think he will be great in his career. But we are setting him up for failure; as people have said, if he's not on Hakeem's level when his career is over, it's a failure. It's an unrealistic expectation to have for someone, even though we have seen someone exceed it before.

Not to mention that Wembanyama's stats with his Mets 92 basketball club were good but not great. He averaged 21.6 points on 47 percent shooting from the field, 27 percent from three, and 82 percent from the free throw line, while also having 10 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 blocks per game. Wemby being as tall as he is and shooting 47% is concerning, especially when stats show his threes weren't falling at an outrageous clip either. It is also hard for guys of his size to stay durable; examples are Yao Ming and Manute Bol. I hope Wemby is great, but I don't know if he will live up to this insane hype.


Victor Wembanyama at his introductory press conference
via Caitlin Smith / NBAE / Getty Images

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