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Is Victor Wembanyama the Most Interesting Person in Sports?

He’s a contender for the spot not so much for who he is now but because of the person he is clearly becoming.

Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs warms up before their game against the Sacramento Kings on March 17, 2026, in Sacramento, California.

Apologies for drawing upon a beer commercial for inspiration, but the one about “the most interesting man in the world” who advises us to “stay thirsty” is never far from my mind when watching San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama. The impossibly tall basketball wunderkind from France is just 22 years old, and no one born in the 2000s—no one whose life is shorter than LeBron James’s entire career—should ever be allowed to be in the running for the “most interesting person” honorific. And yet Wembanyama makes you open to the idea.

Already, in just his third season in the NBA, the seven-foot-four-plus Wemby is a singular phenomenon: a player with an eight-foot wingspan who can handle the ball, shoot like a guard, and also be tough and nasty down low by the hoop. In a sport that has been around since 1891, he is like no player any of us has ever seen—truly one of one. And this season, he became the first player in NBA history to win the Defensive Player of the Year award unanimously.

But even that achievement understates how impressive he is on the court, where he covers ground like he’s wearing rollerblades. To watch him play defense is to watch giant 30-year-old men shrink from his shadow. In his presence, if they’re not missing layups, they’re having their shots rudely blocked. He turns opponents into baby brothers.

On Monday, playing against the juggernaut NBA defending champions, the Oklahoma City Thunder, in game one of the Western Conference Finals, Wemby’s performance was a work of art worthy of........

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