As the new NBA season gets up to speed, a lot of eyes are back on the San Antonio Spurs. A team that dominated the Association for a time many moons ago may be setting up for a big season after years of mediocrity.
The big (and we really mean BIG) reason for that is Victor Wembanyama. The number one draft pick is turning heads and getting tons of attention. At his size, it’s hard to NOT get attention. Even at this early stage of the season, Wemby has already touched on some NBA history, set by our man Shaq many years ago.
Earlier this week, the Spurs were playing the Phoenix Suns. A game they won, BTW, 132-121. Typical west-coast shootout. In that game, Wembanyama became the first player to post at least 85 points, 35 rebounds and 10 blocks in his first five NBA games. Since when? Since Shaquille O’Neal did it back in 1992.
Nice bit of Shaq-history and NBA stats. And quite the showing for the new kid. We can place a pretty safe bet in saying that any rookie big man who matches O’Neal is very likely on his way to a pretty strong career. But for Wembanyama, a Shaq comparison is especially satisfying because of O’Neal’s critical talk in recent seasons about the smaller and smaller roles big centers have played in the game. Maybe “smaller” is the wrong word… hahaha.
On TNT’s Inside the NBA, Shaq pulled another hot take that left looks of surprise on his fellow panelists. Rather than compare Wemby to himself, he brought up another name… a current player in the game.
Shaq: “I wanna go at Reggie [Miller] a little bit. He talked about how he’s never seen a guy like Wembanyama. Yes you have, his name is Bol Bol. Wembanyama is just way more consistent than Bol Bol, but Bol Bol is the first seven-footer that we see doing that.”
Of course it’s too soon to tell if Wembanyama will be a star in the game in years to come. The size and skills are indeed awesome, but a lot more goes into creating and sustaining a superstar career. For Bol, that’s been a bit of an issue. He’s now in his fifth NBA season, and he’s been a consistent part of a rotation just once.
Like Shaq, he started in Orlando. He’s spent time in Denver, and now he’s with the Suns. So far in his stop-and-start career, Bol’s career scoring high is 26 points. Wemby had that at the end of the third quarter in the game against the Suns, as Bol watched from the bench.
So far, it’s safe to say that Bol has not played up to his potential and the hype. While Shaq may have put Bol into the conversation, the stats show that for now at least, Wembanyama is indeed a lot more like the Shaq of old. Let’s see how the season goes!