The San Antonio Spurs won the draft lottery. Also Victor Wembanyama | Victor Wembanyama

The NBA draft is still over a month away, but your most important question has already been answered. After win the tuesday night lottery draw, the San Antonio Spurs will almost certainly use this year’s No. 1 pick to select French teen basketball prodigy Victor Wembanyama. “Almost certainly” isn’t an exaggeration: according to punters at the time of writing, a $100 bet on Spurs taking Wembanyama with his pick would net the bettor just 50p.

It’s easy to see why Wembanyama is a favorite to be recruited first. At 19 years old and 7-foot-4, he’s already bigger than just about everyone in the NBA and possibly still growing. However, his height is only a small part (metaphorically) of Wembanyama’s appeal. He does things on a basketball court that people have never seen before. He can picking up his own missed three-point shot for a back dunk, score at will on one of the best defenders in basketball and dribble opponents like a player half his size. In what may be the crowning achievement of his fledgling career, Wembanyama even seems to have earned the admiration of most of his NBA elders (not always a given, even for the most hyped prospects). Two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, for example, believes that Wembanyama will eventually serve as the archetype for all future NBA players. predicting that “In 2045, everyone will look like Victor.”

Given his enormous potential, Spurs fans will be celebrating winning the “Wembanyama raffle” for weeks (if not years) to come. They, however, are not the only ones who have reason to rejoice. Wembanyama also won big last night: his career, at least to begin with, will be guided by one of basketball’s biggest organizations.

success in the nba it is primarily the result of the exploits of the players on the field and the tactics of the coaches, of course, but it is also often a consequence of organizational excellence off the field. Some franchises work well for decades, while others just don’t. The reasons for this are not obvious. Personnel changes (including changes in ownership) occur with such regularity that there is often little overlap between a franchise’s decision-makers in, say, the 1980s and 2020s. However, some teams seem to have a bad consistent performance and wasted opportunities.

It’s nothing supernatural (despite occasional allegations to the contrary). Rather, the effects of seemingly small actions (an owner pocketing pennies for a season’s payroll, a player not signing with a team because he hates the weather in his hometown, etc.) accumulate over years at a low persistent performance. As a result, many highly publicized young players have their careers hampered (or even ruined) by being recruited by such teams. Fortunately for Wembanyama, Spurs are clearly No fall into this category.

By almost all metrics, the Spurs are one of the most successful teams in basketball. they are the most successful regular season team of all time by winning percentage and, with five championships won, they have the fifth-most titles in NBA history. Also, unlike other historically excellent franchises, much of the Spurs’ success is relatively recent (they’re also the most winning team of the 21st century). Crucially, one of the people most responsible for the Spurs’ success is still on the team.

San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich is the longest-serving head coach in the NBA, having led the Spurs since 1996 and has been involved in nearly every accomplishment for the team. Popovich not only coached the Spurs to their five championships, but led the team to the playoffs for 22 consecutive seasons (1998-2019), the longest streak in NBA history. Popovich also holds the record for most regular season wins by a head coach and will be inducted into the Hall of Fame later this year. Now, you can add “boosting Victor Wembanyama’s career” to your resume.

Historically, great men have flourished with the Spurs. The team’s only two previous No. 1 selections were 7-foot-1 and 6-foot-11 (David Robinson and Tim Duncan, respectively). Both went on to have Hall of Fame careers, spent entirely in San Antonio, that included winning MVP trophies and multiple championships.

San Antonio also has an exceptional track record when it comes to developing international players. Argentine Manu Ginobili and Frenchman Tony Parker (arguably the greatest French basketball player of all time before Wembanyama) flourished while playing with Popovich, each making multiple All-Star teams and winning multiple titles during their Hall of Fame careers. with the Spurs (Parker being formally inducted later this year at the same ceremony as Popovich).

When considered in summary, the Spurs’ history of consistent success, particularly when it comes to developing international talent and big men drafted, makes Wembanyama and San Antonio ideal pairings for each other. This, however, does not necessarily put Spurs in contention for the next season’s championship (although Wembanyama did). say right after San Antonio won the lottery that he is “trying to win a ring as soon as possible”).

The Spurs have missed the playoffs for four straight years. Some of this can be attributed to intentional “tanking”, that is, a bad game specifically intended to increase your odds of winning this year’s lottery draw. However, some aspects of the Spurs’ poor play can be attributed to a lack of talent; for example, San Antonio did not send players to the All-Star Game this season. They also lack big-name, high-potential young players to immediately pair up with Wembanyama. The Detroit Pistons, for example, had the same odds as the Spurs to win the draft lottery and could have played Wembanyama alongside talented point guard Cade Cunningham, the No. 1 pick. draft 2021. Spurs’ roster, by contrast, remains a relatively blank canvas.

The most intriguing player currently on the San Antonio team is forward Jeremy Sochan. Also only 19 years old, Sochan is coming off a moderately successful rookie season in which he scored 11 points per game and made second-team All-Rookie. The Spurs also have Keldon Johnson (23), a 6-foot-5 forward who has averaged more than 20 points this year. Given his relative youth, along with his complementary positions, sizes and skill sets, it is conceivable that Sochan, Johnson and Wembanyama could crystallize into a formidable ‘Big Three’ in the years to come.

Even if they don’t, in addition to the players already on their roster, San Antonio is sure to attract free agents this offseason as well. Off the pitch, the lack of a state income tax in Texas means players in San Antonio (as well as Houston and Dallas) get to keep a larger percentage of their millions, which is an attractive advantage. Most notably, however, NBA Players Love Coach Popovich, and Popovich already has personal relationships with big league players as a result of coaching the US men’s national team in the last two Olympic Games. One such Olympian is Draymond Green, the defensive maven who has won four championships with the Golden State Warriors and may opt out of his contract this summer. Popovich and Green share an admiration for each other and one can imagine that Green’s defense, play and leadership are exactly what it takes to unite a talented young team into a playoff contender.

Much remains to be decided, but given how well they fit together, it almost seems as if the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama were destined to work together. has a different word for it). Of course, Wembanyama’s potential isn’t guaranteed to translate into real-world success: NBA history is plagued with stories of broken promises. However, if Wembanyama’s career proves to be as forecast, it will be in large part because of where he first landed in the NBA. Yes, the Spurs won the Wembanyama toss last night but, by associating his future with one of the NBA’s great franchises, Victor Wembanyama may emerge as the true winner of the night.