French NBA rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama is no fan of Las Vegas.
Following his first NBA regular season matchup against No. 3 overall pick Scoot Henderson, against whom he played in exhibition games last fall in Las Vegas, Wembanyama was asked about his impressions of competing under the bright lights of Sin City.
And while Wembanyama was honest about how much the matchup mattered to him as his first game on United States soil with NBA rules in the lead-up to the 2023 NBA Draft, he couldn’t help but be blunt about the city.
“To me, probably on Earth, it’s the closest thing to a dystopia,” Wembanyama told reporters during his postgame press conference. “I’m not the biggest fan of Vegas.”
Wembanyama was incredible in the two exhibitions in which his Mets 92 visited G League Ignite. At the NBA Summer League nine months later, Wembanyama was more inconsistent but still flashed the ingredients that make him unique, with eight blocks and three three-pointers across two games.
However, Wembanyama was also introduced to the wacky side of American culture at Summer League. Pop star Britney Spears approached Wembanyama at a restaurant and was injured after a security guard stepped in. Wembanyama then drew the ire of Britney Stans after his disappointing debut.
Wembanyama focused on basketball, discussing his Vegas experience this week.
“It was special indeed,” he told reporters.
With the expectation that Las Vegas will get an NBA expansion franchise in the coming years, Wembanyama may need to dominate again in the dystopia sooner rather than later.
And overall, for someone whose most recent homes were in Paris and San Antonio, it’s hard to fault him for casting aspersions on the wonderland in the desert.
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