Victor Wembanyama: The Future of French Basketball and the San Antonio Spurs
It’s a chilly evening on January 15th, and the Frost Bank Center in San Antonio is buzzing with excitement. The legendary Tony Parker strolls down the hallway, his mauve bomber jacket sleeves casually rolled up. Every few steps, he pauses to acknowledge the cheers from fans who are eager to pay tribute to the greatest player in French basketball history. Parker, a Hall of Fame point guard and four-time NBA champion, is a symbol of the past for both the San Antonio Spurs and France.
Just a few feet away, Victor Wembanyama, the present and future of the franchise, French basketball, and possibly the entire NBA, waits in the locker room for second-half instructions. He’s just finished an impressive first half, blocking eight shots and helping the Spurs build a 63-51 lead over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Unfortunately, the lead doesn’t hold. The Spurs, showing their inexperience, fall to the Grizzlies by 14 points. Two nights later, they suffer another defeat at home to the Grizzlies, this time by 28 points, even without the presence of star guard Ja Morant.
Despite these setbacks, the 21-year-old Wembanyama remains optimistic about the Spurs’ future. His faith in the franchise is unwavering, even after a challenging 22-win rookie season and a recent stretch of losing six out of seven games. As the team heads into the 2025 NBA Paris Games, set to tip off Thursday against the Indiana Pacers, Wembanyama’s confidence is evident.
“The organization has proven over and over they’re willing and they’re doing the right things,” Wembanyama said after the Spurs’ 140-112 loss. “The most important thing is trust and also communication. It’s a balance and the will [between both parties] to keep that balance over the years. This is what’s going to pay off.”
During the predraft process, Wembanyama was not only considered the consensus No. 1 pick but also a generational prospect. He repeatedly expressed his desire to join San Antonio, a team known for its international scouting prowess and a history of developing stars from around the world, including France. The Spurs’ five NBA titles and 22 consecutive postseason appearances are a testament to their success.
When the Spurs selected Wembanyama in the 2023 NBA draft, it was a dream come true for the young player. “The greatest thing I could have asked for,” Wembanyama said. “The greatest franchise, the greatest team, the greatest culture, the greatest fans.”
Tony Parker’s journey with the Spurs was different. Selected with the 28th pick in 2001, Parker was an anomaly at the time—a French point guard in the NBA draft. Fellow Frenchman Boris Diaw, who played alongside Parker and won an NBA title with the Spurs in 2014, shared a story at Parker’s jersey retirement ceremony in 2019 that captures the essence of the Spurs’ culture.
Diaw recalled being invited to coach Gregg Popovich’s home for Christmas dinner by Parker, then a 19-year-old rookie. During the dinner, Parker and Popovich disappeared to review game film, with Popovich offering his trademark tough love. “I go look around the house,” Diaw said. “Then I see Pop doing film with Tony about the game the night before. Pop was yelling at Tony.”
“And I’m like, ‘Wow.’ So, in the same night, you could have the family setting, all the loving and care, and at the same time caring about making Tony a better player on Christmas night. That’s when I knew Tony was in good hands and that his career was going to be great.”
More than two decades later, that culture remains strong for the next generation of players.
The Rise of French Players in the NBA
The current NBA landscape features a record-tying 14 French players, including two Spurs: Wembanyama and Sidy Cissoko, the 44th pick of the 2023 draft. The 2024 draft marked a historic moment for France, with three players—Zaccharie Risacher, Alexandre Sarr, and Tidjane Salaun—selected in the top 10, a first for any country outside the United States. A record four French players were picked in the first round, with five overall.
- 14 French players in the NBA
- Three French players in the top 10 of the 2024 draft
- Record four French players in the first round
“Every time I go to a city, I’m like, ‘Oh man, there’s a French guy,'” said Washington Wizards forward Bilal Coulibaly, the seventh pick in 2023 and Wembanyama’s former teammate on France’s Metropolitans 92. “It’s like we really did something.”
Popovich and the Spurs foresaw this day coming. The longtime coach, who suffered a mild stroke in November, has been away from the team. Over the years, the Spurs’ roster has featured seven Frenchmen, including Parker, Diaw, and Nando De Colo, who was traded to the Toronto Raptors in February 2014.
Popovich’s background in Soviet studies and his experience playing on military basketball teams across Europe gave him a unique perspective on international talent. He was surprised that the NBA hadn’t fully tapped into the European talent pool when he entered the league as an assistant coach in the late 1980s.
“There was a prejudice [against European players],” Popovich told ESPN. “A little hesitancy because they wouldn’t play defense, won’t assimilate, they won’t like it here. We’d played against some of these guys, and they were awesome. So, I knew they were out there. They were everywhere.”
Now, some 30 years later, opening-night rosters featured 125 international players from 43 countries.
Brett Brown, who has been with the Spurs organization for a decade over two stints, recalls a dinner that highlighted the global nature of the NBA. “I’m sitting at a dinner table with Boris Diaw, Tiago Splitter, Patty Mills, Sean Marks, Manu Ginobili and me,” Brown told ESPN. “I look around and there’s Argentina, there’s France, New Zealand, Brazil, there’s Australia. They’re heavyweights on the global basketball scene, stars outside of the country. I think they see the world and the sport just from a much wider lens. They really sort of see things differently.”
Tony Parker’s Journey and Legacy
It wasn’t easy for Parker. As a rookie, he often found himself in the showers after practices, tears in his eyes, wondering if he could ever meet Popovich’s high expectations. Despite being named the Spurs’ starting point guard just five games into his first season, Parker faced intense scrutiny.
“I make the joke, but it’s true,” Popovich said. “I should’ve been arrested for abuse [for] the things I did to that kid.”
Nevertheless, Parker thrived during his 17-year tenure with the Spurs, setting a franchise record for assists (6,829) and earning top-five rankings in games played (1,198), scoring (18,943 points), and steals (1,032). He became the first European to win NBA Finals MVP in 2007.
“During training camp and the first couple of games, I was really tough on him, gave him a lot of things to think about, a lot of things to do,” Popovich said. “And he showed he had the fortitude and courage to do this. I gave him the ball and said, ‘This is yours. Figure it out.'”
Parker did just that, becoming synonymous with French basketball. “French basketball is Tony,” Diaw said. “Tony is French basketball. There is no way you can talk about French basketball without the name of Tony coming up.”
It almost didn’t happen. If Popovich had his way initially, France might not have become the most represented European country in the NBA for the past 18 seasons. Parker’s first workout with the Spurs left Popovich unimpressed, but Sam Presti, then working in the Spurs’ scouting department, convinced him to give Parker another chance. The rest is history.
“R.C. was ahead of his time,” Parker said during his jersey retirement ceremony. “Him and Sam Presti. You took a gamble on me. I was terrible in my first workout with the Spurs. Pop didn’t want to hear about Tony Parker. He was like, ‘I’m done. I want another point guard.’ And R.C., man, you kept talking to Pop, kept showing him the videos. I’m so lucky you gave me a second workout and I was able to show you I wanted to be a Spurs point guard.”
For Wembanyama, the stakes are even higher as he leads a franchise entering its next evolution. The Spurs have recently opened a new $500 million training facility and have plans for a new downtown arena. While Parker started the international movement in San Antonio, the Spurs need Wembanyama to carry it into a new generation of sustained dominance.
Wembanyama’s Journey and Aspirations
Two days after being drafted, Wembanyama sat at a dais in San Antonio, the latest international phenom to captivate the NBA and the newest French prospect to wear the Spurs’ black and silver uniforms. Next to him stood a 58-inch-tall Lego replica of the Eiffel Tower, a nod to his love for Lego sets.
The Spurs had been eyeing Wembanyama for years before drafting him. “It’s amazing,” said Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year who grew up in Saint-Quentin, France. “It’s great for all the people that paved the way, the first ones, the first generation like Tony [Parker], Boris [Diaw]. All these guys showed Americans, showed the NBA, they could dominate in this league and be great players in this league coming from Europe. Now, we have kids that are not scared about dreaming about the NBA. All the kids that are courageous enough to dream about that can have role models they can look up to and then try to follow their path.”
While five players from France landed on rosters after the 2024 draft, four more—Nolan Traore, Noa Essengue, Joan Beringer, and Noah Penda—are expected to feature prominently in the 2025 draft.
“We love basketball,” the Wizards’ Coulibaly said. “At first it was soccer. Then to see all the greats like TP, Boris Diaw, all these guys getting rings and everything. It was like, ‘Oh man, I want to do this too.'”
Wembanyama believes there’s even more room for growth in French basketball, especially on the international stage. He played on the French squad that fell to Team USA in the gold medal game at the Paris Olympics in August.
“It’s something I’m very proud to be a part of, these waves of players coming,” Wembanyama said. “But I think we’re not there yet. What we lack right now is international titles for French basketball. This is a great adventure. But French basketball is not near its full potential right now.”
Neither is he. Still, he is confident in San Antonio’s plan to build a winner around him for the long haul.
“I’m confident with the group we have, the people in the organization and the people I’ve been on board [with since] day one,” Wembanyama said. “We know this season it is not going to be a straight line. It’s going to be ups and downs. This is not easy. We’re not going to go 82-0 in a season. We’re going to have losing streaks. But I’m very confident in the will that my guys have.
“The long term is never being questioned.”
Originally Written by: Michael C. Wright
