2023-01-04 08:00:00
It is today that Victor Wembanyama celebrates his 19th birthday. And today is the day that a lot of other players celebrated their 19th birthday. You know the guy who didn’t understand the concept of birthdays. Come on, small non-exhaustive list of the best prospects in history at 19 years old. What were they doing ? Where were they? Were they swinging 3-pointers on one leg?
ONLY the season in which a player turns 19 is taken into account.
LeBron James – Cleveland Cavaliers
Season of his 19 years: 20.9 points at 42% shooting including 29% from 3-pointers, 5.7 rebounds, 5 assists and 1.6 interceptions in 79 NBA games
A very nice little name, not necessarily a huge career afterwards, but a 19th birthday celebrated on December 30, 2003… in full rookie season with the Cavaliers. We talked about him – before and after his draft – as THE pen that would write the future of the NBA. Fundamentals already well worked out, a drive capacity like a dragster, a shoot to be perfected but correct mechanics: hello the big teenager who lacks weak points. Arguably the greatest prospect of all time. Absolutely everything was there. The hype. Words. The acts. The decor and the storytelling. Just a kid from Akron. Difficult to do better, even when you live in Levallois.
Luka Doncic – Real Madrid
19-year-old season: 12.8 points at 46% shooting including 28% from 3-pointers, 5.5 rebounds, 5.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 17 eval in 28 Liga Endesa games
It is said that Arthur Rimbaud wrote his first poem at the age of seven, Luka Doncic was already at work at 19. Statistics witnessing an immense impact with the White Houseand the CV of a guy who does everything faster than everyone else. A short video published on the channel Real Madrid on the Slovenian’s 18th birthday almost brought tears to our eyes. We had the impression of being called Pedro and of living on the Gran Via since 2003. We leave you with the highlights of one of the greatest prospects that the EuroLeague has seen. Impressive technicality. There too the storytelling is not disconcerting.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar – UCLA
19-year-old season: 29 points at 67% shooting and 15.5 rebounds in 30 NCAA games
We don’t have the cameras or the special correspondents to bring you back the hallway noises of the time, so we will absolutely invent everything. In 1963, at age 16, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar took part in a street match during which he scored 85 points in 17 minutes of play. In the opposite camp, a certain… « Kevin Knox Sr. ». The father of the non-All-Star winger plays in the neighborhood and has made a habit of coming to the playground every Sunday. After the debacle against Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, he will confide on the set of C to you not to have “never seen that” and that his whole team wondered “if KAJ didn’t have bits of Swiss cheese in his pockets”. A superstition from the 1960s suggested that bits of Swiss cheese boosted shooting percentages. Later, after a reconstruction of the scene by the Togolese public service, it was revealed that Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s pockets were empty. The performance is all the more impressive.
Ralph Sampson – Virginia Cavaliers
19-year-old season: 14.9 points at 55% shooting, 11.2 rebounds and 4.6 blocks in 34 NCAA games
Immense prospect that Ralph Sampson, alias the control tower on stilts or the giant with the knees of clay. He never had the expected career. At least not in the NBA. There March Madness 81 ? First Final Four in Virginia Cavaliers history thanks to Sampson and his piglet season. For a long time, all the responsibilities of the world were put on his back. It must be said that at the time, an interior of 2m24 as mobile, able to draw halfway as to go up a ball when the spaces allow it, forces the investment of the staff who surrounds it. Give him everything: the balls, the rebounds, the last shots. This guy can win you a match on one post-up. And if he manages to develop his game away from the basket? Victor Wembanyama before the hour. We wish the French prospect better… “luck” as far as injuries are concerned.
Zion Williamson – Duke
19-year-old season: 22.5 points at 58% shooting, 6.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists in 24 NCAA games
The guy breaks his shoe and brings down the market value of a company, that is to say the scope of the prospect. Before he was drafted in 2019, the big question was whether he was the best prospect of all time ahead of LeBron James. “Yeah but TrashTalk, with Victor Wembanyama today, we are starting to say a lot about a player that he is perhaps the best prospect, right? “. Basketball is changing, more and more young people are able to gallop like antelopes when they measure 2m37, but Zion Williamson was one of those potential buffaloes capable of… doing everything on a parquet floor. The little fat doped with Gatorade that we saw typing 360° with 13 brooms. A successful Julian Newman.
Shaquille O’Neal – LSU
19-year-old season: 27.6 points at 63% shooting, 14.7 rebounds and 5 blocks in 28 NCAA games
The stat line speaks for itself, Shaquille O’Neal LSU version was a monster of dominance. Bigger, heavier, more mobile and well well well (x18) more athletic than the average of its vis-à-vis. A precious stone to polish. Most impressive ? In the palette offensive. Full of moves geniuses that such a bulky interior is not normally intended for. The whipped creams are great. THE “I push you then I crush you” already works fine. It remains to be seen what this beautiful baby will do at the highest level, but in the NCAA, more than a “big yes” it is one knee on the ground and the bread of this day.
It was the absolutely subjective list of the greatest prospect of all time at the age of 19. We could have extended the honorable mentions and added Michael Beasley or Michael Jordan, as you wish, but in life there is an end to everything. Well, we have no more arguments.
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