A Golden Age of USA Basketball Came to a Close in France as Victor Wembanyama Heralds a New Future

LeBron, Durant, and Curry are all doubtful for the next Olympics, and Anthony Davis, Jrue Holiday, and Joel Embiid will all be close to or just past 35 years old by then. At the same time, talent is increasing around the world. In the NBA, international players have dominated the biggest awards in the last decade. Rudy Gobert has won the Defensive Player of the Year (DPOY) award four times while Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic have two and three Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards, respectively (Giannis also has a DPOY for good measure). The 2023-2024 all-NBA first team only featured one American, Jayson Tatum, with Jokic, Luka, Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Giannis taking the other four spots. 

All this was before the invasion of Victor Wembanyama from France, the biggest prospect in basketball since the King himself. Everything about Wembanyama is alien, unfamiliar and thrilling to the basketball world. It’s like seeing Rudy Gobert get stretched out another few inches and, like a Monstar from Space Jam, steal and wield Kevin Durant’s offensive game. It’s unnatural and frankly unsettling to see a 7’4” player with an eight-foot wingspan and 9’7’ standing reach handling the ball 28 feet out, go between his legs, then hesi into a sidestep, step-back three, but it happens at least once a game with Wemby. He snatches passes and shots out of the air at unexpected times and unthinkable angles; his dunk radius stretches out nearly as far as Michael Jordan’s in Space Jam when MJ puts the game-winning dunk on the heads of the Monstars from half-court. 

Wembanyama lived up to the hype as a rookie and is already etching his name into the record books. He won Rookie of the Year, just the sixth to do so unanimously. He also became the first player in NBA history to record 1,500 points, 700 rebounds, 250 assists, 250 blocks, and 100 made 3-pointers in a season. Despite being a rookie and on a minutes restriction the whole season, Wembanyama still led the league in blocks last year with 3.6 per game, one more block each game than anyone else. As the Ringer pointed out in their case for the Wemby DPOY, “The only other player in the last 15 years to average at least three blocks and one steal per game was Jaren Jackson Jr. last season, when he won DPOY.” While Wemby didn’t win DPOY this year, he was the runner-up. He did, however, become the first rookie ever to make the All-Defensive First team. 

Looking like a stranger in a strange land every time he steps on the court, Wembanyama does at least one thing a game I’ve not only never seen before but also did not realize was even possible to do. He is one of one, something new on the court, unfamiliar enough for LeBron to dub him “an alien.” Watching Wembanyama play feels like seeing the future of basketball personified. He is the shooting revolution embodied in a mobile, 7’4” center who will win multiple DPOY awards while draining step-back threes from Steph Curry range. He takes the emphasis on skill by international players to new heights, which has already given the league two of its seminal stars in Luka and Jokic, as he handles the ball on the wing like Durant, deftly crossing up defenders before fading away from 16 feet then rushing back on defense to shut down attacks at the rim.

But more than that, Wemby is a harbinger of a new era in the NBA and international play. While Paris was a beautiful coda to the greats of this generation of American basketball, it was also the capstone to an era of unrivaled American dominance in international basketball. Team USA is no longer the colossus of the international game, and this Avengers squad may be the last Dream Team-sized group we ever send.

This is not to say that the U.S. will fall short in 2028. They will still bring the most talented team, led by Tatum, Devin Booker, Anthony Edwards, Bam Adebayo, and Tyrese Halliburton. Despite the many question marks as to who will step into the vacuum left by LeBron, Durant and Curry on the roster, the U.S. still has the deepest talent pool to pull from. But today, multiple teams, including France, Serbia, Canada, and Germany, are stacked with NBA talent, even NBA MVPs, and can challenge the U.S. even on its best day. That there’s even a doubt as to whether we will win gold again in 2028 is a sign that we’re entering a new era of truly competitive international basketball for the first time since the Dream Team was assembled. 

Wemby is coming. The Alien has landed and is demanding to be taken to your leader. Wembanyama, fresh off of leading France to a silver medal at the Olympics, where he dropped 26 points in the final, has a warning for planet Earth: “I’m learning, and I’m worried about my opponents in a few years.” Asked if he meant in the NBA or abroad, Wemby simply replied, “everywhere.” Consider this your final warning, America.