The San Antonio Spurs hope Victor Wembanyama will play in NBA Summer League, according to league insider Marc Stein.
The Spurs will draft Wembanyama with the first overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.
“The Spurs are hopeful, I’m told, that Victor Wembanyama will indeed be a participant to some degree in summer league play in Las Vegas,” Stein wrote. “Wembanyama’s French League season finally ended Thursday when the MVP and his Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans 92 team were swept, 3-0, in the championship series by a Monaco team filled with former NBAers.
“The Spurs will draft Wembanyama with the No. 1 overall pick next Thursday and are scheduled to play in Sacramento’s California Classic summer league July 3-5 before proceeding to Las Vegas. Wembanyama’s precise availability for summer league play is TBD.”
Wembanyama was ecstatic after the Spurs won the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery on May 16 in Chicago. The 19-year-old French prospect can’t wait to play for the Spurs, who are a popular team in France since fellow Frenchmen Boris Diaw and Tony Parker played for the franchise and won championships.
“My heart’s beating [fast],” Wembanyama told Brian Windhorst of ESPN. “I’ve got everyone I know, everyone I love around me. It’s a really special moment I’m going to remember the rest of my life.”
According to Windhorst, who was with Wembanyama in Paris during the draft lottery, Wembanyama “smiled and shook his head in disbelief as ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski opened the lottery broadcast by saying NBA teams viewed him as maybe the most highly anticipated player to enter the draft and ‘maybe the greatest prospect in the history of team sports.’”
The Spurs won only 22 games this past season, but their tank job worked to perfection, as they now get to draft a 7-foot-5 player who is a unique three-level scorer and stout defender.
“I’m trying to win a ring ASAP,” Wembanyama said. “So get ready.”
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