Just by walking onto the court before tip-off, Victor Wembanyama gets the crowd roaring, bouncing up and down. The public address announcer sings his name like music.
Wem-ban-YAMA!
Just by taking a foul shot, he starts the fans screaming again.
“When they chant ‘MVP’ at the free-throw line,” he says, “the least I can do is make it.”
Basketball’s newest phenom and NBA rookie of the year, Wembanyama has risen to the level of pop icon at these 2024 Summer Olympics. Standing well over 7 feet tall, the prodigious 20-year-old is a generational talent who can dunk, block shots and shoot three-pointers.
Also, he’s a Parisian.
If the French have been enthusiastic about these Games, lining up outside stadiums and filling the stands, even for a Japan-Slovenia handball match, their passion for Les Bleus has bordered on frantic.
They have showered their country’s athletes with cheers and serenaded them with spontaneous renditions of “La Marseillaise.” As swimming star Leon Marchand put it, “What has been going on the last few days is incredible.”
With the early games of men’s basketball played in Lille, about three hours north, the fervor around the French team had been building for more than a week. It wasn’t until the quarterfinals on Tuesday night that Paris — and its favorite player — got a real taste of “Wembamania.”
Crowds began to congregate outside the pyramid-shaped Bercy Arena more than two hours before the scheduled 6 p.m. tipoff between France and Canada.
People dressed in the national colors of blue, white and red. Some painted their faces or draped flags over their shoulders. Regis Colomb showed up early “just to feel the ambience, the excitement.”
“The game will be full of stress,” he said. “I am waiting.”
By tipoff, an agitated rumble filled the arena, punctuated by air horns and the aforementioned singing.
Marchand had seen something like this at La Defense Arena, where he became a celebrity by winning four golds and a bronze. Teddy Riner, a judo standout, had seen fans scrambling for tickets to watch his matches at Champ-de-Mars.
Even French pole vaulter Anthony Ammirati, who failed to make it past qualifying, became an internet sensation by knocking the bar down with an unusual part of his body.
But basketball is an even bigger deal here and Wembanyama has been a star since making his EuroLeague debut in 2021. Last season, he jumped to the NBA as a No. 1 draft pick for the Spurs. In San Antonio he’s known as Wemby and has charmed fans with his talent and desire to embrace the city’s food and culture.
Grant Hill, managing director of USA Basketball, talked about the frenzy Wembanyama has sparked.
“His game, I mean, it’s scary,” Hill said. “He’s going to add something in terms of what you’re going to see in [Paris] and the buzz around the sport.”
The hype, the expectations, they all got to Wembanyama a few days before the opening ceremony in Paris. His coach could see it.
“You have people who know basketball and they understand he is only 20 years old,” Vincent Collet said. “People that like sports, but don’t know basketball, they think Victor is already Michael Jordan.”
Collet sat him down for a talk. Wembanyama also had veteran teammates such as Clippers forward Nicolas Batum and Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert to lean on. But nothing could fully prepare him.
“I knew it was going to be crazy,” he told the Le Parisien newspaper. “I didn’t think it was going to be this crazy.”
In the opener against Brazil, he seemed rattled at first but settled down with a couple of jump shots. Then came a monstrous dunk just before halftime. Teammate Evan Fournier marveled: “I’m pretty sure his head was above the rim.”
His play grew more consistent in a win over Japan and a loss to Germany. Still, he seemed so young at times, so whipcord thin. Opponents tried their best to disrupt him by pushing him around.
“As much as you can play on that big stage, it is only going to help your confidence,” U.S. star Kevin Durant said of the rising star. “It’s a great experience and another stepping stone for him.”
France took the court on Tuesday night with a revamped lineup and different plan of attack, partly because Collet had four days to prepare for Canada and partly because Gobert had secretly undergone finger surgery the night before and would spend most of the game on the bench.
As for Wembanyama, he focused on trying “to not force things and take the shots that were open to me. I think we all had to realize our roles.”
Whether it was strategy or just an off night, he struggled to get open, missing from three-point range, finally settling into a pattern of passing the ball, pounding the boards and playing defense.
That worked for most of the game, with teammates Isaia Cordinier and Guerschon Yabusele providing enough offense to give France a 45-29 lead at halftime. But when Canada fought back to within five points in the fourth quarter, the French needed their big man.
“I think he has to understand the game is different from the NBA, it’s so much more physical,” Fournier said. “He has to use his length.”
As the minutes ticked down, Wembanyama grabbed a handful of critical rebounds and passed for two assists on three-point shots. Then came a putback for two points and a shot block on defense.
His final statistics — seven points, a team-high 12 rebounds and five assists — were hardly spectacular. He mused: “I think if I had made my shots, we would have won the game even earlier.”
The fans did not seem to mind. They cheered and chanted and sang to the very end, ecstatic about a victory that puts their team in the semifinals on Thursday. That means they get another chance to watch their favorite player.
