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2023 NBA Draft: Spurs select Victor Wembanyama with No. 1 overall pick
7-foot-4 French phenom becomes San Antonio’s third No. 1 overall pick in franchise history after David Robinson (1987) and Tim Duncan (1997)
NEW YORK — It’s official. Victor Wembanyama is heading to San Antonio and joining Hall of Fame head coach Gregg Popovich and the Spurs. The 7-foot-4 French phenom is the best prospect to hit the NBA since LeBron James 20 years ago. The Spurs have been planning for Wembanyama’s arrival since May 16 when it was revealed they would get the first pick in the 2023 NBA Draft for the third time in franchise history.
Wembanyama was poised and joyous throughout the week, but finally being selected No. 1 caused a slew of emotions.
“I can’t really describe it. It’s still fresh. One of the best feelings of my life. Probably the best night of my life. I’ve been dreaming about this for so long. It’s a dream come true. It’s incredible,” Wembanyama told reporters after being drafted.
Victor Wembanyama answers questions for the media upon arriving at Barclays Center before the NBA basketball draft Thursday, June 22, 2023, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
The last two No. 1 picks the Spurs selected brought tremendous success to the organization. First, it was David Robinson in 1987 and then Tim Duncan 10 years later. All five of the franchise’s NBA championships were won with either Robinson or Duncan, with the duo winning two together. Both are Hall of Famers and were part of the league’s 75th anniversary team.
Wembanyama is the first No. 1 pick to ever come out of France and the first European player who didn’t play NCAA college basketball to be selected first overall since 2006 when the Toronto Raptors picked Andrea Bargnani out of Italy. Wembanyama follows a long list of talented French players who have played in the NBA, including current Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, current Detroit Pistons guard Killian Hayes and former Spurs guard Tony Parker, who won four NBA titles.
Wembanyama led all players in the French LNB Pro A league in points (21.6), rebounds (10.4) and blocks (3.1) per game and was named the league MVP. His team, Metropolitans 92, made the LNB Pro A Finals where they were swept by Monaco just days before the NBA Draft.
Wembanyama said when he got the call from the Spurs’ front office informing him that he’d be selected No. 1, it was “very, very casual” then quipped about his new head coach, Gregg Popovich.
“He’s not intimidating yet, but I’m sure he’s going to get intimidating when I see him in real life,” Wembanyama said.
The Spurs big man also has a few things he’s looking forward to upon arriving in San Antonio.
“Breakfast tacos. I’ve heard a lot about breakfast taco,” he said. “I can’t wait to wear my first Spurs jersey. Yeah, I can’t wait. It’s the start of such a great adventure. You never know what’s going to happen, and this is what’s exciting. That’s it.”
Victor Wembanyama’s impressive résumé
Wembanyama has exceeded every expectation that has been put on him since he hit the scene at a young age. At just 14 years old, Wembanyama helped France’s JSF Nanterre U18 team become the French League runner-up, despite being three years younger than most of the players. Around this time, Wembanyama started to get noticed by other scouts around Europe. From there, he played for Parker’s professional squad, ASVEL Basket, before switching to the Metropolitans 92 this past season.
In two exhibition games in the Las Vegas area last October, Wembanyama averaged 36.5 points, 4.5 blocks and scored from all over the court against Scoot Henderson and the G League Ignite. He hit long, step-back 3s and grabbed impossibly high lobs for dunks in transition. In the first game, he had a season-high seven 3-pointers and added five blocks.
How Victor Wembanyama fits with the San Antonio Spurs
The young core of Keldon Johnson, Devin Vassell, Tre Jones and Jeremy Sochan are all 23 years old or younger. Wembanyama will be able to grow alongside this group and has already played with Sochan at a camp when they were 12 and 14 years old.
“It was at Tony Parker’s gym in France,” Sochan told Yahoo Sports in February. “He wasn’t as big as he is now, but it’s exciting to see what he’s doing. I truly believe he’s going to live up to everything and it’s going to be exciting. He can add [to the Spurs] his energy, his versatility and the way he moves. He’s so smooth and he’s a one-of-one.”
During his last year in France, Wembanyama made every player around him better, no matter what the rotation was. He has the tools offensively to spread the floor and draw the double-team and the size to find the open teammate when the defense collapses. Johnson led the Spurs in points last season with 22 points per game and Wembanyama will join 6-foot-11 forward Zach Collins in the frontcourt, adding much-needed length and rim protection in the lane.
Battle of the bigs: Victor Wembanyama vs. Chet Holmgren
A budding rivalry is brewing between San Antonio and the Oklahoma City Thunder with 7-foot-2 Chet Holmgren returning to the court this upcoming season. Holmgren will be eligible for all rookie honors in the 2023-24 season after sitting out his first year with a foot injury.
The pair have already gone head-to-head during the FIBA U19 World Cup where Wembanyama recorded 22 points, eight rebounds and eight blocks but fouled out in the fourth quarter. Holmgren earned MVP tournament honors as Team USA beat France, 83-81. Holmgren finished with 10 points and five assists in the final game.
“I’m not going to give my scouting report on him since I’ll be playing him soon once he gets to the league,” Holmgren told Yahoo Sports before the 2022 NBA Draft. “He’s definitely talented and someone that’s going to be a problem once he hits the NBA.”
The Wembanyama era has officially begun and all eyes will be on him when he hits an NBA court for the first time in July during NBA Summer League.
The crash site of the helicopter carrying Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi has been located, Iranian state news agency IRNA and semi-official news outlet ISNA reported on Monday.
The helicopter crashed in a remote part of the country on Sunday.
As president of Iran, Raisi is the second most powerful individual in the Islamic Republic’s political structure after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini. He became president in a historically uncompetitive election in 2021, and he has overseen a period of intensified repression of dissent in a nation convulsed by youth-led protests against religious clerical rule.
The crash comes at a fraught moment in the Middle East, with war raging in Gaza and weeks after Iran launched a drone-and-missile attack on Israel in response to a deadly strike on its diplomatic compound in Damascus.
As the sun rose Monday, Raisi and the others on board remained missing more than 12 hours after the likely crash, with Turkish drone footage suggesting the helicopter went down in the mountains. Rescuers rushed to the site.
The incident comes as Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month and has enriched uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels.
Iran has also faced years of mass protests against its Shiite theocracy over an ailing economy and women’s rights — making the moment that much more sensitive for Tehran and the future of the country as the Israel-Hamas war inflames the wider Middle East.
Raisi was traveling in Iran’s East Azerbaijan province. State TV said what it called a “hard landing” happened near Jolfa, a city on the border with the nation of Azerbaijan, some 600 kilometers (375 miles) northwest of the Iranian capital, Tehran. Later, state TV put it farther east near the village of Uzi, but details remained contradictory.
Traveling with Raisi were Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran’s East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. One local government official used the word “crash,” but others referred to either a “hard landing” or an “incident.”
Neither IRNA nor state TV offered any information on Raisi’s condition in the hours afterward.
Early Monday morning, Turkish authorities released what they described as drone footage showing what appeared to be a fire in the wilderness that they “suspected to be wreckage of helicopter.” The coordinates listed in the footage put the fire some 20 kilometers (12 miles) south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border on the side of a steep mountain.
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‘I’ll bring my plane… I plan on keeping it for another four years’ – Biden on second debate with Trump
President Biden and former President Trump agreed to hold a second debate Sept. 10 hosted by ABC News.
The two candidates had already accepted an invitation earlier Wednesday to attend a CNN debate on June 27, and both confirmed later in the day on social media that they plan to attend the ABC debate in September.
“I’ve also received and accepted an invitation to a debate hosted by ABC on Tuesday, September 10th,” Biden posted on the social platform X. “Trump says he’ll arrange his own transportation. I’ll bring my plane, too. I plan on keeping it for another four years.”
Biden, of course, is referring to the presidential jet, Air Force One.
“It is my great honor to accept the CNN Debate against Crooked Joe Biden, the WORST PRESIDENT in the History of the United States and a true Threat to Democracy, on June 27th,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “Likewise, I accept the ABC News Debate against Crooked Joe on September 10th.”
It marked a whirlwind few hours that started with Biden’s campaign publicly proposing two deabtes in June and September and ended with both candidates agreeing to a date and host.
ABC News had planned to host a GOP primary debate in New Hampshire, but it was canceled after Trump and Nikki Haley said they would not attend. Martha Raddatz of ABC co-moderated one of the 2016 presidential debates; the network did not host a debate in 2020.
The candidates have chosen to go around the Commission on Presidential Debates, the organization that has arranged the showdowns dating back to 1988.
Biden campaign chair Jen O’Malley Dillon suggested working with outlets that hosted GOP primary debates in 2016 and Democratic primary debates in 2020 to avoid any perceptions of bias.
ABUJA, NIGERIA — Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Women Affairs says it is investigating a plan by a lawmaker in central Niger state to marry off some 100 female orphans of unknown ages later this month.
Speaker of the Niger State Assembly Abdulmalik Sarkin-Daji announced the mass wedding last week but called off the ceremony following widespread outrage.
Minister of Women Affairs Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, speaking to journalists in Abuja on Tuesday, condemned the plans.
Kennedy-Ohanenye said she had petitioned the police and filed a lawsuit to stop the marriages pending an investigation to ascertain the age of the orphans and whether they consented to the marriages.
“This is totally unacceptable by the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and by the government” of Nigeria, she said.
Last week, Sarkin-Daji announced his support for the mass wedding of the orphans, whose relatives were killed during attacks by armed bandits. He said it was part of his support to his constituents following an appeal for wedding funding by local traditional and religious leaders.
The mass wedding had been scheduled for May 24.
“That support I intend to give for the marriage of those orphans, I’m withdrawing it,” he said. “The parents can have the support [money], if they wish, let them go ahead and marry them off. As it is right now, I’m not threatened by the action of the minister.”
Despite national laws prohibiting it, forced or arranged marriage is a common phenomenon in Nigeria, especially among rural communities in the predominantly Muslim north, where religious and cultural norms such as polygamy favor the practice.
Poor families often use forced marriage to ease financial pressure, and the European Union Agency for Asylum says girls who refuse could face repercussions such as neglect, ostracism, physical assault and rape.
Raquel Kasham Daniel escaped being married off as a teenager when her father died and now runs a nonprofit helping children, especially less-privileged girls, get a formal education for free.
She said the ability of women to avoid forced marriage in Nigeria depends on their income and education.
“I was 16 when I lost my dad and I was almost married off, but then I ran away from home. And that gave me the opportunity to complete my education, and now I have a better life,” Daniel said.
“So, the reason why I prioritize education is to make sure that other girls have access to quality schooling so that it will help them make informed decisions about their lives. Education not only increases our awareness as girls about our rights but also enhances our prospects for higher income earning,” she said.
Thirty percent of girls in Nigeria are married before they turn 18, according to Girls Not Brides, a global network of more than 1,400 civil society groups working to end child marriage.
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