Victor Wembanyama was welcomed like a star on his Olympic debut and gave the French fans plenty of reason to cheer.
This was the opening ceremony of Wembanyama. No Eiffel Tower, no Celine Dion, no Zinedine Zidane or Serena Williams, and no floating cauldron required. Just a 7-foot-1 20-year-old with the eyes of the basketball world on him, and he did not disappoint.
Wembanyama had 19 points, nine rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots as France opened its Paris Olympics campaign by beating Brazil 78-66 in Group B play in front of a sold-out stadium on Saturday.
“I knew it was going to be something crazy [the atmosphere] but I didn’t imagine this. I’ve never experienced anything like this. So many people, so much intensity, right from the warm-up, it’s just unbelievable,” Wembanyama said.
Wembanyama — the NBA Rookie of the Year for the San Antonio Spurs last season — and his teammates skipped Friday night’s opening ceremony to rest up for their game on Saturday. The tension for Wembanyama was palpable long before the game at Lille’s Pierre Mauroy Stadium. Fans lined the catwalk railing, jostling for position to take photos with the Spurs star.
He wasted no time in providing highlights: about an hour before the start of warm-ups, he casually hit a half-court shot to a thunderous cheer from the home crowd.
He won the tip-off against Brazil’s Bruno Caboclo, which got the party started. France, trailing by 12 points at the start of the second quarter, eventually managed to shake off the slow start and get back on their feet.
Brazil were powerless to stop Wembanyama. On his first trip across the floor he turned and spanned toward the baseline, flew through the air and despite his head and body being far behind the backboard, used his enormous wingspan to place the ball.
A few possessions later, he turned to center, out-sweeping everyone for a left-handed dunk as he fell to the floor, then threw down a huge right-handed dunk punctuated by a screamer that tied the score at 34-34.
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It was close in the final stages – a Nicolas Batum three-pointer with 1:21 left put France ahead by 10 points, and an alley-oop dunk from Wembanyama on the next possession sealed the win – but with its first win, France is already out of the way.
With Kylian Mbappé sitting out of the home games after Real Madrid refused to release him for the football tournament, Wembanyama has taken up the mantle as France’s global star. He may have missed the opening show on the Seine, but on Saturday he finally made it to his home games. And there’s the promise of much more to come.
France will next play Japan, who lost to Germany on Saturday, on July 30.