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🏀 Billups arrest on gambling charges
🤯 Wemby’s monster opener
🏈 NFL trade needs

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He just keeps getting better

Victor Wembanyama vs. Cooper Flagg may end up being one of the great rivalries in this era of the NBA, but it was completely one-sided on Wednesday night. 

The  Mavericks met their intrastate rival, the Spurs, last night in Dallas for Flagg’s regular-season professional debut, but it was Wembanyama who emerged on top in this battle of No. 1 picks. Wembanyama scored 40 points on 15-for-21 shooting with 15 rebounds, three blocks and no turnovers in a 125–92 Spurs win. Flagg had 10 points on 4-for-13 shooting with 10 rebounds and three turnovers. 

Wembanyama (7'4") is the tallest player since 1994 to have at least 40 points in 30 minutes of action or fewer. (Rik Smits is the only other player of Wembanyama’s height to accomplish that feat.) He’s also one of just six players in NBA history to score that many points in that little playing time without hitting multiple three-pointers. 

Wembanyama’s excellence can never truly be captured in a box score. Sure, 40 points in 30 minutes is very impressive, but it’s been accomplished in recent years by players like Immanuel Quickley, Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy III. What makes Wemby so much fun to watch is the fact that he does things we’ve never seen anyone else do on a basketball court. Calling the game last night on ESPN, Ryan Ruocco referred to Wembanyama’s “cosmic grace.” Broadcast partner Jay Bilas went a different route: “It’s like playing against your dad in the driveway when you’re eight years old. What do you do?”

Perhaps Wembanyama’s best play of the night may have come late in the first quarter.. Mavericks center Dereck Lively II did a good job closing out on Wembanyama as he thought about trying a three-pointer. So instead, Wemby passed to rookie Dylan Harper and immediately cut toward the basket. Harper passed it right back and Wembanyama threw down a dunk all over Lively. 

The best plays Wembanyama makes are always the ones where he displays the athleticism of a much smaller player. Like this one, where he fooled Lively with a crossover, stepped back and drilled a three-pointer (while drawing a foul). Or this one, where he calmly dribbled into the corner while being hounded by a defender and hit a fadeaway jumper. 

Wembanyama has been making plays like that since he entered the league in 2023. The difference now is that he’s making them more frequently and more consistently. He said after the game that he’s feeling better than he ever has.

“I’m much more in control of myself,” he said. “The mind, I’m not worried about, because I saw what it was like to be confronted with potentially losing a lot, whether it’s your career or your health. So I’m not taking this for granted anymore. The body, I’m having more fun. I’m not struggling to move as much and I know I still need to get better and I’m still going to get better.”

Wembanyama’s sophomore season was cut short by a blood clot in his right shoulder, which put a damper on the progress the Spurs were making. After going 22–60 in Wembanyama’s rookie season (the same record as the season in which they landed the No. 1 pick to draft him), the Spurs were 23–29 when he was shut down. They went 11–19 the rest of the way. 

With Wembanyama healthy again, the Spurs can finally reach their full potential. They took a big swing last season in trading for De’Aaron Fox, but he and Wembanyama only played five games together before Wembanyama’s season ended. Fox missed the opener with a hamstring injury that isn’t considered serious. Soon, he’ll be back on the floor with Wembanyama, reigning Rookie of the Year Stephon Castle, No. 2 pick Harper, sharpshooter Devin Vassell and others. That’s bad news for the rest of the league. 

The best of Sports Illustrated

The top five…

… things I saw last night: 
5. A goal right off the faceoff for the Devils’ Arseni Gritsyuk. 
4. A stepback dagger for Anthony Edwards. (He finished with 41 points in the Timberwolves’ win over the Trailblazers.)
3. An amazing reverse layup by Cooper Flagg. 
2. A great save by Flames goalie Dustin Wolf despite playing in the dark. (Lighting issues in Calgary delayed the start of the game for about 10 minutes before the officials decided to start the game in dimly lit conditions.)
1. Sixers rookie VJ Edgecombe’s 34 points in his debut. That’s the most points in the first game of a player’s career since Wilt Chamberlain. Edgecombe had 14 points in the first quarter, breaking a record previously set by LeBron James (12) for the most points in the first quarter of a player’s first game. (Quarter-by-quarter stats have been tracked since the 1996–97 season.)


This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | Victor Wembanyama Drops 40 as Spurs Spoil Cooper Flagg’s Debut.