Victor Wembanyama simply cannot be human.
The French teenager has taken the basketball world by storm with his absurd frame and out of this world skill level.
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The 19-year-old is the hottest prospect the NBA has seen since a kid named LeBron James burst onto the scene in the early 2000s.
As the superlatives roll in to try and describe just how absurd the 224cm tall talent with a 244cm wingspan is, one photo is blowing minds across social media which shows how truly gargantuan the basketball prodigy is.
Ahead of Friday’s NBA Draft the youngster, tipped to go number one overall, took centre stage for a New York Yankees game.
Invited along by the team, Wembanyama joined a long line of celebrities to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
Unfortunately he showed he isn’t a cross sport athlete as he missed the mark by a long way with his throw to home base.
It means the San Antonio Spurs can breathe a sigh of relief in the notion that he won’t be doing a Michael Jordan and leaving mid-career to take up baseball.
But it was photos taken moments before he made his way to the mound that left social media in utter disbelief.
The photos showed Wembanyama holding a regular size baseball but making it look more like a marble in his hands.
He then went a step further by stepping into the batting cage and making a baseball bat look like a tiny piece of fire kindling.
Former NBA giants Shaquille O’Neal and Yao Ming have a long running history of sending social media wild by making every day objects and even fellow sports stars look infantile.
Wembanyama’s out of this world frame and freakishly long hands look set to follow in a similar path as his NBA career gets underway.
The NBA Draft is set to take place on Friday with the Spurs holding the number one pick and essentially locked in to select the once in a generation talent in Wembanyama.
Wembanyama is being tipped to potentially land an improved $100 million contract with US sporting goods behemoth Nike, eclipsing the $90 million offered to LeBron James when he entered the league in 2003.
If the $100 million figure comes to fruition, it would be the biggest contract ever handed to a player who has not yet played in the NBA.
Sonny Vaccaro, the legendary 83-year-old marketing executive who signed Michael Jordan to Nike and Kobe Bryant to Adidas, believes Wembanyama’s unique talent could command “historic” riches.
“This is unique. But a deserved unique,” Vaccaro told AFP. “In my lifetime of evaluating and making financial prices for athletes, I’ve never seen anything like it. This kid will make history.”
2023 NBA Draft Order
1. San Antonio Spurs
2. Charlotte Hornets
3. Portland Trailblazers
4. Houston Rockets
5. Detroit Pistons
6. Orlando Magic
7. Indiana Pacers
8. Washington Wizards
9. Utah Jazz
10. Dallas Mavericks
11. Orlando Magic
12. Oklahoma City
13. Toronto Raptors
14. New Orleans Pelicans
– with AFP
