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Andrew Lopez, ESPN
VICTOR WEMBANYAMA’S OLYMPIC dream started years ago. But as a youngster in France, he wasn’t thinking about the 2024 games in Paris. Or even the Tokyo games. He wanted to play right away.
“When I was a kid, when I just started basketball, I always told my parents, I wanted to be in Rio in 2016 with the basketball team,” Wembanyama said at the end of the San Antonio Spurs regular season. “So I’m a little bit late, but it’s all good.”
Wembanyama was just 12 years old during the Rio Games and wasn’t even born when the French team won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics. But his dreams were just as big as his 7-foot-4 frame.
Coming off a rookie season in which the 2023 No. 1 pick was the unanimous Rookie of the Year and became the first rookie in NBA history to make the league’s All-Defensive first team, Wembanyama has carried the momentum into the lead-up to the Olympics for France in hopes of achieving success on his home soil.
In the five tuneup games he played, Wembanyama averaged 18.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.2 blocks while shooting 56.9% overall, 40.0% from 3 and 90% from the line.
As much as there has been pressure on Wembanyama on the court to lead his team, he’s also one of the faces of the Olympics in his home country. His image has been plastered all over the city. He has done a constant series of interviews in both French and English. He’s a large part of Nike’s Olympic campaign, which includes a massive banner of Wembanyama that adorns the entire side of the Centre Pompidou, a library and modern art museum in Paris. And as one of the tallest Olympians in history, he certainly will stand out.
Now Wembanyama and the French national team will tip off their Olympic campaign against Brazil on Saturday as the French look to win their first Olympic gold medal. They would become the first host nation to do so since the United States at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
To win the gold medal that has eluded France in world competitions — three silver medals in the Olympics and a pair of bronze medals in the World Cup — Wembanyama is ready to embrace that pressure that comes with being the host nation in the most competitive field in Olympic history.
“The few times I’ve [played for France] in the past were incredible already, but now that it’s official and the biggest competition, ” Wembanyama told ESPN in May. “I can’t even imagine how it’s going to be.”
Wembanyama was still just 17 years old and not quite ready to make his national senior team debut for the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Even without Wembanyama, the French squad beat Team USA in group play, 83-76, their first win over the Americans in Olympic play. France advanced to the gold medal game — a rematch against Team USA — falling 87-82 and bringing home its first silver medal since 2000.
Wembanyama had been a part of the U19 World Cup and U16 European championship teams, but both of those squads also settled for silver. Wembanyama averaged just 9.0 points and 9.6 rebounds in 2019 at the U16 European championships but had a whopping 5.3 blocks per game.
At the U19 World Cup in 2023, Wembanyama famously matched up against Chet Holmgren, who finished second to Wembanyama in the Rookie of the Year race last season after a standout year for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Holmgren and the Americans took home the gold after an 83-81 win in the final despite a 22-point, 8-rebound, 8-block performance by Wembanyama.
Wembanyama finally made his much-anticipated debut for France’s senior national team during the FIBA World Cup qualifiers in November 2022. In his first four games, Wembanyama averaged 19.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 2.8 blocks in 25 minutes per game. After completing his season with French team Metropolitans 92 and playing two summer league games with the Spurs, Wembanyama opted against playing at the 2023 World Cup as he prepared for his rookie season. Without him, France crashed out in the group stage with just one win and two losses, a disappointing finish after winning bronze in the previous two iterations of the event in 2015 and 2019.
“I’m really, really excited. I know that wearing the jersey, even with the [youth] teams, it always brings some different kind of energy. So I’m really excited, ” Wembanyamana told ESPN in May.
The lead-up to the Olympics, however, has not been what the French national team has had in mind. After exhibition victories against Turkey and Germany (who played without Franz Wagner or Moritz Wagner), the team has now lost four straight. France dropped one to Germany (with Wembanyama sitting out) before losing to Serbia, Canada and Australia — who beat Les Bleus on a last-second layup by Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels on an inbounds play.
“There are good lessons we’re taking from our preparation because we all know it’s better to get into trouble before and to be ready after,” Wembanyama told reporters on Wednesday. “We’re on the right track because the energy in our group as a whole — staff and players — is incredible.”
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McAfee and CP3 discuss Wemby and the NBA’s crop of young stars
Chris Paul joins Pat McAfee to break down Victor Wembanyama’s effect on the game and the league’s crop of young stars.
While France added Wembanyama to its roster this summer, the team did miss out on the possibility of adding Joel Embiid, who’s from Cameroon but also could have played for France instead of his selected choice of the United States. But even without the former NBA MVP, there’s still plenty of NBA experience on the French roster heading into the Olympics.
Last season’s Defensive Player of the Year and a four-time winner of the award Rudy Gobert will man the middle with Wembanyama giving the French one of the most imposing frontlines possible. Nicolas Batum, who signed with the LA Clippers this offseason, also joins the team after previously playing in the 2012 and 2020 Olympics. The only other active NBA players on the roster are Bilal Coulibaly of the Washington Wizards, who was a rookie in 2023 like Wembanyama, and free agent Evan Fournier who spent last season with the New York Knicks and Detroit Pistons.
Frank Ntilikina, Guerschon Yabusele and former EuroLeague MVP Nando de Colo all have NBA experience under their belts, as well.
“We are lucky to have a team with experience, but we know if we want a chance to go all the way [we need] to be strong defensively. Our defense will fuel our attack,” Gobert told reporters ahead of France’s game against Brazil. “We are working very hard to be able to maximize our strengths and qualities with consistency.”
That consistency has eluded not only Wembanyama but the rest of his teammates, as well. In France’s past three exhibition games, the team has been outscored in the fourth quarter. The losses to Serbia and Canada were by double digits. Still, France is favored to win Group B (featuring Brazil, Germany and Japan) and currently has the third-best odds to win the gold, according to ESPN BET, (+1200) behind only the United States (-400) and Canada (+900).
And making history on home soil could mean defeating the heavily favored Team USA — a challenge that Wembanyama looks forward to if the two teams meet in the knockout rounds.
“Of course, I mean, even though I’ve been playing against those guys in the regular season,” Wembanyama said. “I’m excited to play against any good teams, but it’s really about us. We’re trying to make it as far as we can to the gold medal. So it doesn’t matter who our opponents are.”
