'Why Not?' At NBA Draft, Everyone Wants to Play with Spurs' Victor Wembanyama

As for playing with Wembanyama in San Antonio? He was the most reserved of any prospect in the ballroom at the Lotte New York Palace.

"San Antonio is a great organization," Beringer said. "But I'm focused on me."

The afternoon before the 24 invited green room prospects were to hear their named called by league commissioner Adam Silver, they took turns facing a brigade of cameras, microphones and questions.

Several players were completely clueless about where they could end up. Several more were capable of a making an educated guess or assuming a range. All of them wanted to play with Victor Wembanyama.

Georgia product Asa Newell admitted his game would be complementary of the Spurs' young star; Thomas Sorber said the floor would be spacious.

"They'd probably put him on the perimeter and use me as a five," Sorber said, already working the logistics. "That'd be an intangible duo. It'd be special."

The duo even had a nickname.

"Wemby-Sorber," he joked. "I don't know, yet. I've got to think about that."

Since Wembanyama's inception in San Antonio, he's generated copious amounts of attention. As a rookie, he broke NBA social media records with dunks and blocks he made look simple — all of which "aren't to show off."

"I just try to find new ways to improve my game," Wembanyama said. "and I'm not scared of the unconventional."

Wembanyama's capabilities make up most of the allure of playing with him.

"Everybody wants to play with Vic," South Carolina's Collin Murray-Boyles said. "The teams that are in my range play with a certain knack for defense ... it all sounds good to me."

"Being a point guard, seeing him and (thinking about) all the lobs you can throw," Rutgers star Dylan Harper added, "he can bail you out of a lot of spots. How much he impacts the game is amazing."

Harper had the most merit to speak on a potential pairing with Wembanyama in San Antonio as the likely No. 2 pick. He didn't stop there.

"That's a dream of everyone's, to play with him" Harper said. "He covers the paint from arm to arm. He's really a force — nobody can stop him. You can only try to contain him."

"Wemby is Wemby," Newell concurred. "It'd be super tough."

Alexandre Sarr, Zaccharie Risacher, Bilal Coulibaly, Sidy Cissoko, Tidjane Saluan, Wembanyama and now both Beringer and Ratiopharm Ulm's Noa Essengue, who left the Bundesliga Finals to be present at the draft, make up just a small portion of the NBA's recent French surge.

Basketball as a collective has gained popularity, and while France isn't alone in that effort, it's played a major role — if nothing else, by making cleats too small and promoting a 7-foot goalie.

Even without getting personal with Wembanyama, the French prospects behind him are happy to follow the trail he blazed.

"It does mean a lot to be part of that," Essengue said. "To maybe be the next one? It'd be really cool. It'd be a blessing."

And Essengue, on playing with Victor Wembanyama?

"Why not?" he said. "I'd take it."