There was no suspense. Spurs chose the 19-year-old Victor wenbanyama in the first round of the NBA draft conference in 2023.

Although it was expected by the public and even though he had already been psychologically prepared, at the moment of official publicity, Wen banyama still had red eyes. He made an oath to enter the NBA eight years ago, now the dream shines into reality.

The wait is finally over, but everything has just begun.

01. Sketch youth on the Seine River

One afternoon shortly after his 19th birthday, Wen banama and his agent Medjana came to an Italian restaurant on the Seine River. Wen banama ordered pizza and pasta, his appetite has always been very good. After eating his share, he also tasted Medjana’s steak.

Outside the restaurant is the Boulevard, and some teenagers are sketching on the shore. Wen banyama’s eyes were attracted. He also painted a picture with a pen on the Seine River. Wen banyama grew up in lechese, 40 minutes’ drive from Paris. He was infected by strong artistic atmosphere since childhood. Reading and painting are his favorites, when children of the same age were playing happily when they were young, Wen banyama sketched the scenery in front of the drawing board, often drawing for several hours.

Perhaps, Wen Banya Ma in the parallel world will become a painter, but in reality Wen Banya Ma was born for basketball. His father Felix was 1.98 meters tall and used to be a track and field athlete, he mainly focuses on high jump and long jump. His mother Ford Lao is 1.9 meters tall and has played in the French women’s basketball league. After retirement, he became a junior basketball coach. Sister Eve now plays for Monaco, my younger brother Oscar played in the youth team of ASVEL, the French team.

Wen banama’s talent belongs to the type that can’t be low-key. Karim Bubeck is a senior basketball trainer and serves as a teaching assistant in the Nantes youth team with a history of nearly 100 years, he clearly remembered the scene of watching wenbanyama play for the first time.

“That was the 10-year-old age group Championship held in Paris. He was replaced and then held the ball outside freethrow line. I didn’t exaggerate. He really took only two steps to score. My first feeling was that the child was too unique. When I checked the registration form and found that he was only eight years old, I understood that I had met a genius.”

Wenbanyama joined the Nant youth team and trained with bubecelli. The team found through testing that Wen banyama’s height may exceed 2.2 meters. When he got the physical examination results, bubecley called Wen banyama to his side.

“Do you want to be the best player?” Asked Bubeck.

Wen Banya nodded.

“Then you can practice according to my arrangement, and I promise you can succeed.” Bubecelli handed Wen banyama a pair of goalkeeper gloves and said very seriously.

The training plan designed by bubecelli focuses on ball control, which requires at least two hours of practice every day. Bubecelli hopes that wenbanyama still has fengshui ball skills of controlling guards after growing high. Bubecelli asked Wen Banya Ma to wear gloves and wrap the ball in plastic bags. This was done by increasing the difficulty to cultivate ball playing skill. If Wen Banya Ma didn’t wear gloves or forgot to use plastic bags, will be punished for 30 laps.

In addition to the tailor-made special training, Nant youth team also gave special care to Wen banyama in his life. The team applied for an office in his school, specially assigned person to protect wenbanyama’s life in school. In order to meet the needs of Wen Banya Ma Chang’s body, the team launched a five-meal plan a day, with five meals a day being cooked by special personnel to deliver meals.

As the team expected, Wen banyama’s height grew rapidly with his football skills, and his goals began to become clear. Wen Banya Ma applied for extracurricular training of oral English at school and intended to use English when communicating tactics with coaches.

“I know I will go to NBA in the future, so I need to learn English well.” 11-year-old Wen banyama told the coach.

02. Wenbanyama plan

“When I saw that scene, I immediately called Tony and told him that he had to find a way to get this child named Wen banyama. He was incredible.”

This passage comes from the French star Batum. In the season when Wen banyama was 14 years old, Batum came to spectators and witnessed Wen banyama who was over two meters tall and one meter tall, gao Gao jumped up and expanded his long arm to capture the opponent’s shot from the air. Then he went down at fengshui ball and turned to break through. The defense was torn and killed to the bottom of the basket.

Batum, who had experienced great winds and waves in NBA and international venues, was shocked. He immediately contacted ASVEL’s boss, Tony Parker, who was spurs celebrity, and suggested bringing wenbanyama to ASVEL.

Three years later, 17-year-old Wen Banya Ma joined ASVEL and won the French champion in the first year of his effectiveness. Just as everyone was looking forward to Wen Banya Ma remarking the advanced road of dongcheqi, ruling the European arena and then going out for NBA,ASVEL received an application from Wen banyama to leave the team.

The reason why Wen Banya wanted to change the team was that ASVEL was mainly a veteran and provided him with limited room for growth. Moreover, this team had to play French and Champions League, and the competition density was very high, for Wen banyama, who was still in his long body, he had a heavy load. He hurt his back, shoulders and fingers in ASVEL during the year, and he was out of war for eight weeks.

When I learned that Wen banama was going to transfer, the European giants Real Madrid and Barcelona, as well as the NBAG alliance lighting team, which specially trained the talent show elite, were invited, but they were all rejected by Wen banama’s team, they chose the metropolis 92 team. Since the establishment of this team, the French ranking has never been higher than the third place. Because the economic chain broke close to bankruptcy, it was almost downgraded. It was confusing for Wen banyama to go to such a team.

“They can provide everything Victor needs for development.” Ndiaye, another agent of Victor, said.

There was a tacit understanding between Wen banama and Metropolis 92. His joining brought sponsors to the team, and the copyright of their live game was sold to the United States, which was unimaginable before. Metropolis 92 designed the “Wen Banya MA plan”, and the whole team cooperated with Wen Banya Ma to prepare for the draft.

Colette, the coach of Metropolis 92, was elected as the best coach in France for five times and coached France men’s basketball in the past 14 years. He had already offered his resignation to the team and was ready to focus on leading the national team to prepare for the Paris Olympics, but after learning that Wen banyama joined, he immediately withdrew his resignation.

“Coaching him is a very special thing. In my coaching career in the club, the opportunity is only this time. If I can help him reach the expected level, I will be very happy.” Colette said.

Colette soon discovered the problems existing in wenbanyama. His attack method was more dependent on dry jump shots, which was a common problem for many players with physical advantages. When Colette was teaching Batum, he encountered it, his way of dealing with Batum is to ejection if he has a chance to break through without using it.

This kind of fierce trick can be used to treat Batum, but it cannot be used in wenbanyama. In the plan of Metropolis 92, Wen banyama should be given a higher fault tolerance rate, accept his mistakes and unreasonable shooting choices and adjust slowly.

Colette adheres to this principle and adopts a step-by-step Upgrade Strategy for Wen banyama, starting from receive the ball card position and empty cut, let Wen banyama gradually get used to attacking with the ball in the battle with his opponent, which is the foundation he must lay before entering the NBA.

“The talented players sometimes get used to simply dealing with the game, hitting the opponent with height and dry, while the opponent will respond with high-intensity physical confrontation, making him unable to catch the ball,” Colette said, “Through training and actual combat, we made him adapt to this kind of hand fight. Instead of always going to the outside line to get the ball, we should try our best to find out the way to hit the forbidden zone. He must understand, going to NBA will face the strongest and fastest basketball players on the planet.”

Not only is there the “Wen Banya MA plan” in training and competition, Metropolis 92 also fully implemented the plan outside the stadium. They allowed Wen Banya Ma to choose physical trainers and the team paid the salary, he also provided Wen banyama with a private sports physiotherapist, and even invited an orthopedic doctor to follow Wen banyama every day to pay attention to his physical condition at any time.

Wen Banya Ma did not live up to the team’s efforts. He won the scores of the French league 2022-23 season, rebounder and blocked shots, and was elected as the MVP and best defensive player in the regular season, bringing the former almost downgraded metropolis 92 into the finals.

As for Wen banama’s ruling power in France, camseleri, the head coach of Limoges, has a classic evaluation, after seeing Wen banama cut 33 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 cap against Limoges, he said like this: “We can’t prevent him. Will I feel depressed about this? No, because can anyone defend him? The only way may be not to let him come to the stadium.”

03. Next Duncan?

On October 5, 2022, about two hundred NBA scouts and executives came to the game of Metropolis 92 and lighting team. This game was wenbanyama and another talent show hot Henderson (finally elected to explore flowers) the duel.

Before the game began, the executives were bored and brushed their phones one after another. But suddenly, a general manager of the team stood up and asked excitedly, “What is he doing?”

Wen banyama, who came to the field, took off his sneakers and socks and crawled on the edge with bare feet. After several back and forth exercises, he took over three tennis balls from alquire, a private trainer, like juggling, it was passed between two hands.

The 30-year-old Alguire has a master’s degree in sports and physical training. He started his career as a professional coach eight years ago, mainly serving young basketball and rugby players and helping them play in professional leagues. Alquel has a good relationship with endiaye, the agent of wenbanyama. When wenbanyama started the draft preparation, alquel was invited to become his personal trainer.

In the training plan designed by Alguire, the strengthening of foot strength and hand-eye coordination are key projects, and crawling and tennis practice are corresponding solutions. Wen Banya Ma has a net height of two meters and two meters and two meters and six meters in height, two meters and four meters in arms, and three meters in height when standing and touching. This kind of player with this figure is extremely talented, however, it is usually accompanied by the hidden danger of foot injury. Alguire’s training is to try to minimize the injury.

“In basketball games, jumping, changing direction, and card positions need strong feet and physical coordination. If you practice these well, you can bear the strength of the NBA level. Otherwise, the landing will not be stable, or being stepped on by opponents in the confrontation may bring the danger of serious injury, especially Victor’s height.” Alguire said.

The outside world has been discussing what shortcomings Wen Banya Ma has. He is a big man with both height, arm show and agility. He can control the ball and project like a small player, and his defense covers half court, it can build a no-fly zone under the basket, and it can also reach relieve a garrison to downtown. If it is necessary to look for a flaw which doesn’t exist, it is that his body is too thin, and can his body withstand the impact of NBA players?

Alguire received a lot of suggestions about the need to gain weight in wenbanyama, which he did not agree with. When Alguire communicated with the coaching staff of Metropolis 92, he set the weight gain as a content free of talk.

“He will gain some weight, but it is definitely not 10 pounds or 20 pounds a month. It is not suitable for him at all, but it will put more pressure on his knees and feet.” Alguire said.

The Spurs who chose Chinese class Yama is a pioneer in player load management. Their last top star Duncan has a 19-year career, which is rare among big players, but Duncan played in college for four years. When he entered NBA, he was already a “finished product” in terms of body shape. Any confrontation could not defeat him, however, Wen banyama is “semi-finished products” in NBA competition “.

In addition to training in the United States and playing two games with the lighting team, Wen banya had no background in American basketball, which was similar to Yao Ming, who was elected as the champion in 2002, yao was slender when he first arrived in NBA, and then gained weight in order to adapt to the demand for confrontation. Although he played an all-star level, he also brought a crisis of foot injury, and eventually his career was destroyed by foot injury.

Now it is the era of small balls. Players of this technical type of wenbanyama do not need to gain a lot of weight, but if the countervailing power is not enough, it will also cause injury problems, last year’s draft list Holmgren and wenbanyama were relatively close in size and style. They hurt their feet without playing in a regular season and directly scrapped a season.

Whether Wen banama can take over the torch delivered by David Robinson and Duncan and bring a new center era to Spurs, the key is the durability based on health, he only played one game a week in Metropolis 92, while NBA played three to five games a week. The density of the game was much different, which was the challenge Wen banyama had to face.

No team knows better than Spurs what the big man with twice the best body will bring. Wen banyama will be the last “work” of 74-year-old Popovich baby before retirement “, just like the paintings of banyama, a young man, from the moment of writing, it carries a beautiful expectation for the future.

Looking forward to whether it can be fulfilled, only time can give the answer.

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