Victor Wembanyama Throws First Pitch At Yankees Game Two Days Before NBA Draft
By Melanie VanDerveer on June 22, 2023 at 4:45 PM EDT
Victor Wembanyama might want to consider sticking to basketball, but was a good sport when he gave baseball a shot earlier this week.
The 7-foot-5-inch baller is presumed to be the No. 1 NBA draft pick on Thursday night. But on Tuesday, the 19-year-old from France tried his hand at baseball by throwing the first pitch at the Yankees game.
Victor Wembanyama Threw The First Pitch At The Yankees Game Ahead Of The Draft
Embracing American sports, Wembanyama, who his fans call "Wemby" gave baseball a shot by throwing the first pitch at the Yankees game on Tuesday. Wearing an open Yankees jersey and shorts, he pitched a fastball that ended up outside of the catcher's reach. Not letting that deter his mood, he smiled and shrugged his attempt off.
Victor Wembanyama's first pitch at Yankee Stadium ๐โพ๏ธ pic.twitter.com/WWydat2ECa
โ YES Network (@YESNetwork) June 20, 2023
Many people comment on how tall Wembanyama is and how normal everyday things look out of the ordinary for him.
Official NBA Buzz shared a photo on Instagram showing what the size of a baseball looks like in Wembanyama's hand.
They captioned the video, "Victor Wembanyama holding a baseball is INSANE! ๐ณโพ๏ธ."
View this post on Instagram
Many NBA fans dropped into the comments to leave their thoughts on how little the baseball looked being held by the 19-year-old.
"Alright I can see how that would be hard to throw a baseball. Itโs the equivalent of us average people throwing a marble ๐," one person wrote.
Another person added, "Looks like heโs holding a stone."
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Official NBA Buzz also shared a clip of Wembanyama riding the NYC subway captioned, "7-foot-5 Victor Wembanyama riding the New York City subway is a site to see! ๐Wemby even jumped the turnstile! ๐"
Victor Wembanyama "Can't Wait"!
According to ESPN, on Wednesday during the pre-draft news conference, Wembanyama said he's not concerned about the hype surrounding him.
"I don't let this, all this stuff, get into my head because I got such high expectations for myself that I'm immune to all this stuff," he said. "So I really don't care."
The San Antonio Spurs get the first pick during this year's draft, so Wembanyama is expecting that will be his team, and he's excited about it. Regardless of how the draft works out, he will be the tallest player in the NBA.
"For me, San Antonio is synonymous with winning. When, on lottery night, when the Spurs got the No. 1 pick, I was just thinking, I was feeling lucky that they had pick as a franchise that has that culture and that experience in winning and making, creating good players," he said. "So I really can't wait."
When asked by a reporter during the pre-draft news conference what advice he would give his younger self, he said he doesn't remember "seeing a future Victor coming and telling me anything."
"So if I had the chance to talk to my younger self, I wouldn't say anything because I wouldn't want to disturb how it went," he said. "If I have to do it again, I would do it exactly the same. So I wouldn't say anything to my younger self."
Wembanyama said he plans to play in summer league games next month, and when he does step foot on the NBA court, he will be bringing the same skillset he has up until now.
"You saw me play at 13, and I've played the same. I've been playing like that. And honestly I'm just trying to be myself. You said I'm a hybrid. It's just I'm myself," he said.
"No one is going to stop me from dribbling the ball, bringing the ball up and shooting 3s. Nobody is going to stop me from doing that. Even though sometimes coaches in my career would try to stop me from doing that because they had to win right now. So it was really an everyday fight to stay true to myself, and, yeah, this is something that I'm never going to lose, for sure."