Victor Wembanyama won’t play in the All-Star Game itself on Sunday night, but he is still one of the featured attractions in Indianapolis this weekend. The Spurs young star is one of the NBA’s biggest draws because he’s as unique a player as we’ve seen come into the NBA, and fans want to get a glimpse of him and his incredibly unique skillset.
Wembanyama got his first taste of All-Star in the Rising Stars Game on Friday night before participating in the Skills Challenge on Saturday night. Ahead of that appearance at Lucas Oil Stadium, Wembanyama joined TNT’s crew for an interview with Ernie, Shaq, Kenny, and Chuck, and was asked about playing for Gregg Popovice. Wemby waxed poetic about the legendary coach, saying he’d long thought he was the best coach in the league before ever coming to the NBA.
"I've always thought Pop was the best coach in the world, years before being drafted." 💯
Wemby already knew that him & Pop would be the perfect fit pic.twitter.com/Rq0jtuCIwn
— NBA on TNT (@NBAonTNT) February 18, 2024
He was also asked about Pop’s tough love approach and in detailing an early example of that, very casually dropped an F-bomb live on air that had the TNT crew in stitches.
The funniest part is that Wemby very clearly didn’t realize he even did it — or that he wasn’t supposed to. After realizing he apologized, with Ernie ensuring the young man that it was perfectly fine. Victor will learn how to do a little bit of self-censoring when delivering quotes on TV, but it’s a funny moment and a reminder that of just how new a lot of this is for the young star.
