NBA (DR)

Before his arrival on the American courts, the main question mark around Victor Wembanyama concerned his muscle mass. 

If some people want to see it thicken, this should not be to the detriment of its effectiveness. 

The pivot also addressed the subject at a press conference recently.

An extraterrestrial. This is what Victor Wembanyama’s body inspires to most basketball fans, he who measures 2m24 with a record wingspan of 2m44.

But if he is immensely long, the Frenchman also remains quite skinny and this worried a good number of scouts before he joined the big league.

Five months after his debut and with his almost 21 points, 10 rebounds and 3.4 blocks on average, the Spurs nugget was able to reassure but he was sometimes subjected to the law of some stronger big men, like Joel Embiid or Nikola Jokic.

He also did not hide from the journalist Benjamin Moubèche that the regular campaign had helped him gain depth, even if it is the coming months which will prove decisive:

Victor Wembanyama concerned about his weight gain

During the season, the goal is to maintain body mass.

This is the challenge for 80% of people. It’s quite successful: I lost a little bit of weight for a while, but I gained it back so that’s good.

But it’s to be continued during the summer, that’s when we gain weight.

But not too much, organically.

It’s like everything we do, it will be calculated and we will take data very regularly, even during the summer.

At the start of the year, Wemby weighed around 95 kilos, a fairly low weight for a pivot and even for a player with a profile like his.

Becoming more robust will allow it to better withstand certain shocks and be less easy to jostle, but the problem is that it must remain mobile as it currently is.

Because it’s a nightmare for his opponents… As for French Internet users, we remain quite divided.

victor a tout interet a gagner de la masse pour moi, il sera probablement jamais un grand tireur mais avec 15kg en + il pourra dominer au post assez facilement

— . (@mag1zm) March 14, 2024

Qu'il ne devienne pas un musclor… Je sais que c'est ce qu'il a dit et que l'idée n'est de prendre qu'une masse raisonnable, mais à mon sens il a juste besoin de prendre aux jambes et aux hanches, point. Plus de masse, c'est + de lenteur, – de cardio et + de blessures graves.

— Limguela (@Limguela_Raume) March 14, 2024

Victor Wembanyama leaves absolutely nothing to chance, especially when it comes to his physique. 

The Frenchman must in fact be careful to gain enough mass to withstand the biggest physical shocks, but without this disrupting his playing style. 

A fairly delicate balance to find.