San Antonio Spurs star rookie huge man Victor Wembanyama joined rarefied air Friday in opposition to the Denver Nuggets.
Wembanyama recorded his a hundredth three-pointer and two hundredth block of the season, changing into solely the second participant in NBA historical past to perform the feat, per NBA.com.
Raef LaFrentz was the primary to do it. He recorded 104 threes and 213 blocks with the Nuggets and Dallas Mavericks in 2001-2002 however would not repeat the feat over a 10-year profession.
In the meantime, Wembanyama is on tempo to surpass LaFrentz’s season in simply his first 12 months. To take action, he wants 5 three-pointers and 14 blocks over the Spurs remaining 15 video games.
That wasn’t the one little bit of historical past Wembanyama made on Friday. In keeping with Basketball Reference, he additionally grew to become the primary rookie to document 200 blocks in a season for the reason that 1997-1998 marketing campaign. The final first-year participant to do it? Former Spurs star and Corridor of Famer Tim Duncan.
Likewise, Wembanyama posted block No. 200 in simply his 59th recreation. In keeping with Spurs broadcaster Dan Weiss, that makes him the fifth-fastest participant to succeed in 200 blocks in a season. The one gamers who wanted much less time had been David Robinson (54 video games), Shaquille O’Neal (52 video games), Alonzo Mourning (50 video games) and Manute Bol (41 video games).
As has been the case for a lot of the season, one other Spurs loss overshadowed Wembanyama’s accomplishment. This time, falling to the defending champs, 117-106, dropping to a Western Convention-worst, 14-52.
If there is a silver lining to this difficult 12 months for the Spurs, Wembanyama is offering it on a near-nightly foundation. He already has the makings of a generational expertise and is effectively on his option to probably profitable a number of offseason awards with lower than a season below his belt.
Per BetMGM, Wembanyama has the perfect odds of profitable the Rookie of the Yr award (-10000). In the meantime, he has an out of doors shot at being named Defensive Participant of the Yr (+750), holding the second-best odds behind three-time winner, Rudy Gobert (-900).
