Spurs star Victor Wembanyama’s former team on brink of collapse

Rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs overall had a very successful 2023-24 season despite not winning a whole lot of games. Although the Spurs finished at the bottom of the vaunted Western Conference standings, Wembanyama turned himself into arguably already a top 20 player in the game today and won a rare unanimous Rookie of the Year vote when the award was announced last month, and the Spurs now have the number four and number eight overall picks in the upcoming NBA Draft following the announcement of the lottery order on Sunday.

Of course, Wembanyama’s basketball career began during his time in his native France, where he most recently played for Metropolitans 92, which has apparently felt the crater-sized hole that Wembanyama left behind when he departed the franchise, as it has since been reported that the organization has gone bankrupt.

“Metropolitans 92 have informed the French basketball authorities that they can no longer participate in any competition. Although the club was looking for investors in the meantime, they have not been able to come up with any potential buyers,” reported BasketNews, via Le Parisien.

It was during his time with Metropolitans 92 that Wembanyama became arguably the most highly touted prospect in NBA history, using his unbelievable combination of size, strength, wingspan, and agility–combined of course with his basketball skills–to become the number one overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft and joining the Spurs.

An unbelievable season

To say the very least, Wembanyama looked every bit the part of the best prospect of his generation during the 2023-24 NBA season, despite the Spurs’ struggles to stay in the win column with much consistency.

The talent was clear as early as last year’s preseason, when Wembanyama dazzled the Chase Center crowd in San Francisco with an array of blocks, dunks, and three-pointers early on in the Spurs’ preseason game vs the Golden State Warriors.

That momentum would continue into the regular season, as Wembanyama had several monstrous performances on both the offensive and defensive ends of the floor and proved why he was taken number one overall and is now viewed as arguably the league’s most valuable player for the next ten years considering his talent and age.

“I can’t say enough about how much I loved my first year here and how thankful I am for the way my career started,” said Wembanyama in a statement released by the Spurs on YouTube, shortly after winning the Rookie of the Year award. ” Winning this award only made me want to recognize and emphasize all who contributed to make this season unforgettable, and also thank them directly.”

Wembanyama went on to thank former Spurs legends like Tim Duncan as well as the Spurs’ loyal fanbase, which has seen the worst stretch of basketball in franchise history recently but now certainly has a beacon of hope for the future in the form of Wembanyama.

In any case, with a full offseason ahead to continue to refine his game, it seems that the sky is the limit for the French phenom.