Victor Wembanyama has not won an NBA title yet, but he has already started an argument that will not go away: at 22 years old and in just his third season, is the league already his?
The question dominated a spirited segment on ESPN's Get Up after the San Antonio Spurs dethroned the defending-champion Oklahoma City Thunder in a Game 7 to reach the NBA Finals. Wembanyama finished every game of the Western Conference finals with at least 20 points and a block — only the third player since blocks became an official statistic in 1974 to manage that in all seven games of a conference final, joining Shaquille O'Neal and Hakeem Olajuwon.
Wembanyama left the floor in tears, and his explanation was raw. "We work all these hours we put in. It's for these type of emotions," he said. "I want to win so bad. It's like my life depends on it."
For host Mike Greenberg, the verdict was simple. "This is Victor Wembanyama's league right now. I don't care what anybody says," he argued, calling the Frenchman the best, most impactful, most popular and most talked-about player in the game.
Kendrick Perkins was not ready to go that far. "Hell no," he shot back when asked if it was already Wembanyama's league. "Can he actually win a championship? Can he win a regular-season MVP first?" Perkins pointed out that no team has gone back-to-back in eight years and that the NBA is on track for its eighth different champion in as many seasons. "I'm not taking anything away from Wemby's greatness," he said, "but now he has to go out and complete the mission" — and then prove he can do it more than once before anyone hands him the league.
Jay Williams tried to split the difference, drawing a line between owning the league and being its face. "Wilt Chamberlain was a cheat code for his era. That means Victor Wembanyama is the software update," Williams said. "We are watching something that is supposed to not exist in the game of basketball." If Wembanyama completes the mission, Williams argued, the debate stops being whether he can be an all-time great and becomes where he ranks among them.
Vincent Goodwill framed the stakes differently, suggesting the more important shift is how the rest of the league now has to build. "There isn't a Wemby stopper, just like there was no such thing as a Shaq stopper when Shaq was in his absolute prime," Goodwill said. Win or lose this series, he argued, every front office from now on has to construct its roster with one question in mind: what do we do about this guy?
The panel could not reach a consensus, which may be the point. Wembanyama has dragged a still-incomplete San Antonio team to the Finals as, in Goodwill's telling, a player who has yet to reach his ceiling. Four more wins would not end the argument — it would only change its terms.
