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Pressure mounts on Victor Wembanyama, France in basketball at Paris Olympics

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Pressure mounts on Victor Wembanyama, France in basketball at Paris Olympics

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PARIS – The timing is exquisite.

In the same year that French phenom and San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama won NBA Rookie of the Year and unveiled the heretofore unseen possibilities of what a 7-foot-4 basketball player could do on that court, the 2024 Olympics are in his country.

During the Olympics, even more people can see Wembanyama’s ability and potential, his home fans can celebrate him and his corporate partners can push products featuring his image.

“I’ve been preparing for it since I first saw the Olympics on TV, and as I grew up it became a goal,” Wembanyama told reporters earlier this summer. “It’s a unique event in sport, the biggest event in the world.”

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But it doesn’t take long at the Olympics for France’s men’s 5×5 basketball team’s best plans to go askew. While Wembanyama has provided exciting plays, France’s play has generated public bickering between players and Coach Vincent Collet, especially after Germany’s 85-71 victory over France to win Group B put France in a quarterfinal matchup against Team Canada. The loser will not have a chance to medal.

With the Games in Paris, there is pressure on France to medal, and that pressure is taking a toll. After France failed to reach the knockout round of last year’s FIBA World Cup, Nic Batum said, “I’m scared to go home because we let a lot of people down.”

As players and coach sort through this week’s the finger-pointing, Wembanyama said ahead of the Tuesday’s quarterfinals game, “I have this feeling of responsibility.”

It’s a heavy burden.

On the court in three Olympics games, Wembanyama has delivered monster dunks, blocks and steals. He averaged 17 points, 10.7 rebounds, 2.7 steals and 2.0 blocks.

He is trying to enjoy the experience. He may not be the face of the Olympics, but eyes are on him. And he’s on the verge of becoming the face of the NBA for the next 12-15 seasons, at least.

To that end, Nike has placed ads of Wembanyama throughout Paris’ subway and a giant image of him is plastered on scaffolding on the under-renovation Sainte-Trinité church and on Centre Pompidou in Paris. Nike also made him one of its featured athletes in its “Am I a bad person” ad that is narrated by Willem Dafoe.

His impact is global, but the pride France has is uniquely homespun.

Noam Netter said one imperfect measure of Wembanyama’s popularity in his country is that his mom knows who he is.

“My mother is definitely not into basketball,” said Netter, a 17-year-old high school student and regular at a popular outdoor basketball court in Paris’ Quai de Jemmapes neighborhood that was renovated a few years ago, partly with funds donated by former NBA player and French star Tony Parker.

Netter said he got hooked on basketball after his father introduced him to Michael Jordan – the Chicago Bulls great’s style of play, his relentless athleticism, but also the shoes.

“I have many pairs of Jordans,” Netter said Sunday, as several dozen hoopers jostled in the background on a community court in a gritty but gentrifying area.

The court goes by several names. When it was opened more than a decade ago it was christened the “Baltizone,” a reference to some of its users’ then-favorite drama series, Baltimore-set “The Wire.” Younger players, such as Netter, now refer to it, and tag it on Instagram, as “144,” because of its street address: 144 Quai de Jemmape.

Netter said that many people in France, like his mom, have been captivated and charmed by Wembanyama.

“Off the court, he’s just so humble. He has presence. He deals with all the pressure. On it, it’s his size and his handles. He bosses everyone. He’s just incredible.”

Gotham “Gato” Raj runs the @le__144 Instagram account and is never far from the court. He is its self-styled promotor. In fact, Raj, 23, has ambitions to buy it one day from the local authorities, something he said he’s not allowed to do − “yet” − because it is owned by the city.

Raj said that it’s not just Wembanyama that has spotlighted France’s basketball talent. He pointed out that the Atlanta Hawks selected French teen Zaccharie Risacher as the No. 1 overall pick in 2024 NBA draft. Another Frenchman, seven-foot forward Alex Sarr, was selected at No. 2. by the Washington Wizards.

The Wizards also selected Bilal Coulibaly with the No. 7 pick in the 2023 draft, and France’s Nolan Traore is a projected top-five pick and compatriot Noa Essengue is a potential lottery pick in the 2025 draft.

Raj said that unlike in the U.S., the French game has long resisted “trash talking.” But he said that’s changing as more and more amateur French players pay closer attention to the NBA.

“We’re proud of him representing us in the U.S.,” he said of Wembanyama. 

Raj said that soccer is still the most popular sport in France by far.

Asked whether he favored Wembanyama, as a sports figure, over Kylian Mbappé, France’s global soccer star who captain’s France’s national team, has won domestic titles with the Paris Saint-Germain soccer club and is known for his exceptional speed and dribbling, he said that was a “rough” choice to have to make.

“I’m choosing Mbappé but that’s only because Wembanyama needs more time to show the world what he can do.”

Time. Wembanyama has plenty of it, but Collet, the France coach, points out that many impatient people want Wembanyama to reach his potential now.

“In France, everybody waits for him. I don’t know which word to use (in English), but everybody waits for him,” Collet said. “You have the people who know basketball and they understand he’s only 20 years old, but people that they like sports but they don’t know basketball, they think Victor is already Michael Jordan. Take time. Take time.”

When a reporter suggested Wembanyama was “almost Jordan,” Collet said, “He’s not far but still near.”

Parker, the Basketball Hall of Famer and former Spurs star, owns a majority stake in ASVEL, a team in France’s top basketball league, and Wembanyama helped ASVEL to a title in 2022.

“With that experience, I knew right away that he’s going to be fine,” Parker said. “He has a great family. … He has an unbelievable support system, and he doesn’t need any advice.

“He knows what he wants, he knows where he is going and he knows how to handle pressure.”

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