San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is taking over the league at the age of 22, and he seems to share a lot of similarities to Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Bryant also burst onto the scene at a young age, winning three championships by the time he turned 23. Not only were he and Wembanyama both incredibly gifted players in their early 20s, but they both shared a maturity and desire to be great that isn’t often seen in young athletes.
In fact, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN reported an anecdote about Wembanyama’s agent meeting with Bryant’s former agent and current Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka last offseason to pick his brain about how the legendary guard did some things throughout his career.
Last April, he called Los Angeles Lakers general manager and president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka, who represented Kobe Bryant for much of his career, and scheduled a lunch.
The reason was simple.
“The way they think is different,” Ndiaye told ESPN. “The way they play, the way they stretch themselves. Just their curiosity. How they study and watch things. They’re both very creative on how to solve a problem.”
Shelburne went on to tell a story about how Bryant studying great white sharks during his playing days as a way to help him guard Allen Iverson and other stars. He also studied painters like Michelangelo, which Pelinka explained to Wembanyama’s agent as a way to create something extraordinary under impossible conditions.
The reason for the meeting was for Wembanyama to learn about Bryant’s ways:
“I wanted to understand how Kobe did things,” Ndiaye told ESPN. “So that we could learn from him. Victor is not like anybody else. We have to be creative to build programs that are unique to him.”
Bryant was, of course, known for his Mamba Mentality, a mindset that had him outworking everyone else in the league to be greater than them. Wembanyama clearly shares that same mindset, which is dangerous for the rest of the league as the 7’5″ big man has physical tools that even Bryant could have never even dreamed of having.
While Wembanyama likely has no plans of leaving the Spurs anytime soon, perhaps Pelinka planted some seeds to the French star’s agent as all of the NBA’s elite big men tend to play for the Lakers at some point in their careers.
Magic Johnson warns about Victor Wembanyama, Spurs
Another Lakers legend in Magic Johnson knows he is watching something special in this year’s Western Conference Finals, warning the rest of the league that it will be tough to match up with Wembanyama and the Spurs, as well as the Oklahoma City Thunder, for years to come.
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