Victor Wembanyama, expected to become the No. 1 in the NBA draft on Thursday in Brooklyn, signed autographs for fans who greeted him upon his arrival at Newark airport from France on Monday.
The 19-year-old prodigy, the world’s greatest basketball prospect at 2.24m tall, should be selected by the San Antonio Spurs in three days, the team with which he will make his debut in the world’s highest league in october.
No sooner had he set foot in New Jersey than dozens of fans, some dressed in Spurs jerseys, handed him basketballs, jerseys and collectibles for him to put his signature on. . What he did patiently, with a smile.
“I don’t know how they knew what flight I was on,” Wembanyama said in a video posted by the NBA on social media. “It’s fun to see that you can have such an impact on people.”
Wembanyama will speak, along with a number of draft candidates, on Wednesday in New York during a press briefing, on the eve of the big night. Unless there is an unlikely turnaround, he will be chosen Thursday evening by the Spurs as N.1 and will then fly to San Antonio where a press presentation is scheduled for Saturday.