Victor Wembanyama felt the love from the Paris crowd from the moment his name was announced.
Wemby comes out to a ROAR in Paris 🗣️🇫🇷
— NBA (@NBA) January 23, 2025
Spurs/Pacers on NBA TV pic.twitter.com/GlIsECLmnD
It didn’t stop there. When he walked out to center court, took a microphone and said “bonjour” to the crowd pregame, another 30 seconds of cheering exploded inside the Accor Arena in Paris. The young French star returned home with his NBA team — for a two-game set between the Spurs and Pacers — and was greeted with a hero’s welcome.
He didn’t disappoint. Back in the city where he played before being drafted, then led France to a silver medal in the Paris Olympics, he put on a 30-point show in the Spurs comfortable 140-110 win.
WEMBY PUTS ON A SHOW IN PARIS 🇫🇷🤩
— NBA (@NBA) January 23, 2025
30 PTS
11 REB
6 AST
5 BLK
4 3PM
More Victor in his home country coming... Pacers/Spurs Saturday at 12pm/et on ESPN! pic.twitter.com/VUtRMh9hCI
The game’s biggest highlight was Wembanyama throwing an alley-oop to himself off the backboard.
WEMBY OFF THE GLASS TO HIMSELF 🤯😱
— NBA (@NBA) January 23, 2025
Putting on a show in his home country 🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/wEEwDpzVkM
This was a great moment for the NBA and the game of basketball, even if the Pacers didn’t particularly enjoy it. The NBA is a global game — the last six NBA MVPs were born outside the United States, and this season that very likely becomes seven (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from Canada or Nikola Jokic from Serbia) — and as LeBron James, Stephen Curry and the current generation that has been the face of the game steps away, Wembanyama will be the star that replaces them.
Wemby is loved in San Antonio and by basketball fans across the United States. But he will never be loved there like he is in Paris, where he gave his hometown a show on Thursday.
