PARIS (AP) — Sports often are a secondary attraction in Paris, with athletes having a difficult time standing out in a cultural sphere driven largely by food, fashion and the arts. Victor Wembanyama may use the Paris Olympics to be the first homegrown sports star to dismantle that dynamic. The 7-foot-4 French-born phenom made San Antonio Spurs NBA games appointment viewing as a this past season, boosting his already swelling global brand.
Now the 20-year-old is returning home for the Paris Games as by far the biggest name in his country’s Olympic delegation. Wembanyama literally will be a center of attention this month, and not just because of what he can do on the court, but because he’s become a central figure with the charisma to draw in both ardent sports fans and casual French citizens alike. “I tend to underestimate the fan enthusiasm for me.
I don’t pay more attention to it than that,” Wembanyama said recently. “But when I returned to France a few weeks ago for the first time, I felt the enthusiasm of the public that was different from before.” The arrival of “Wemby” in the NBA, the world’ most premier basketball league, had been anticipated for years as his reputation and skill set stood out while he came up through the ranks of French basketball.
It was not unlike the rise of 25-year-old French soccer star Kylian Mbappé, who at just 18 helped lead France to a World Cup title in 2018 and another World Cup final in 2022 while simultaneously taki.