2023-05-15 23:18:02
Michael Douglas loves basketball. The Oscar winner is a fan of Miami, mainly from knowing Pat Riley, the president of the Heat. He has been watching the NBA for decades.
He’s also been to a few French league games in recent weeks for a reason: Victor Wembanyama, the 7.3-foot (2.2-meter) French phenom who has captured the world’s attention.
“I’ve seen Victor twice in person, twice on television,” Douglas, who has been playing the role of Benjamin Franklin near Paris, told The Associated Press. “I went specifically to see him play.”
As Douglas said in his renowned role as Gordon Gekko: “I want to see where it goes.”
The same as everyone else. Finally we will have the answer. On Tuesday, Chicago will host the Lottery Draft, an event in which 14 ping pong balls enter a tombola and the numbers of the first four balls out will be matched against a team.
The team that wins will get the first selection. Spoiler: They will use their pick to pick Wembanyama on June 22.
“Pray for Victor,” Houston owner Tilman Fertitta told television station KPRC in February during a Mardi Gras celebration when the Rockets were in the midst of their atrocious season and with the team in the lottery slots.
Wembanyama did not say. It was not necessary. Everyone knows who you mean.
Houston, San Antonio and Detroit have the best chance of taking the French player —14% each.
The odds drop as the lottery line progresses: Charlotte (12.5%), Portland (10.5%), Orlando (9%), Indiana (6.8%), Washington (6.7%), Utah (4.5%), Dallas (3 %), Chicago (1.8%), Oklahoma City (1.7%), Toronto (1%), and New Orleans (0.5%).
“I am alive, I have ears and I can watch TV and there is a lottery. Yeah, I’ve thought about it,” admitted Spurs coach Greg Popovich on the final day of the season in April. “Duh, do you think I hadn’t heard? Do you think I live in a phone booth?”
NBA rules prohibit teams from discussing player eligibility publicly until they are announced in the Draft. Keyword: publicly. For a couple of years everyone has been talking to each other about Wembanyama, trying to describe a towering teenager who can shoot, pass, dribble and defend.
Also many NBA players, even the biggest stars. LeBron James described him as “an alien” and Giannis Antetokounmpo — who said he enjoys knowing that Wembanyama considers him one of his favorite players — insisted the boy is sure to make an immediate impact.
“At the end of the day, as we know, NBA players also want to give him an understanding of what it’s all about when there’s so much fuss over somebody,” former star and soon-to-be Hall of Famer Pau Gasol said. “They are going to challenge him. But don’t great players thrive on challenges? So I hope it moves forward and continues to improve and show why people are so excited.”
There are other players who are fixed in this draft and who should reinforce any team: Brandon Miller (Alabama), the twins Amen and Ausar Thompson (Overtime Elite) and Scoot Henderson (G League Ignite). Just on Monday it transpired that Henderson will be mentored on and off the field by Stephen Curry, the four-time champion with the Golden State Warriors.
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