While he is playing his 16th season in the NBA, Nicolas Batum observes Victor Wembanyama’s first on site from afar. He therefore took advantage of his recent intervention on RMC to analyze the beginnings of his young compatriot across the Atlantic.

This would almost come close to a handing over of the baton. In all likelihood, Nicolas Batum is preparing to finish the last NBA season of his career.

At the same time, Victor Wembanyama made his very first there and was already proving formidable for his opponents.

The captain of the Blues is well placed to know this, he who for example proved incapable of containing him during an action last January:

Nicolas Batum impressed by Victor Wembanyama

Opposed to each other on the NBA courts, Batum and Wembanyama should, barring disaster, find themselves as partners during the offseason. Both will indeed try to offer an Olympic gold medal to the French team during the approaching Paris Olympics. It would also seem that this deadline is already in the back of their minds, as the veteran admitted in Stephen Time :

I find that Victor is someone who is quite mature and very, very, very ahead of his age. When he has questions, he asks them and he asks a lot. So yes, we talk from time to time, and we mainly discuss this summer. We talk quite a bit about the French team, about this summer, about the Olympic Games… He is very involved.

Despite his 20 years, Wemby can actually be concerned by this meeting, knowing that he should play a major role with the Blues. In any case, it’s not Batman who risks trying to steal the spotlight. On the contrary, the latter says he is impressed by Victor’s performance in the NBA and even believes that he exceeds the high expectations that surrounded him before his draft:

Last year, during the Draft, I said that if he went 18-8-1.5 against, in my eyes, that wasn’t bad. There, he is at 21-11-3.3 in 28 minutes on average. And over 36 minutes, his stats would be monstrous. So for me, it is above expectations. And even beyond the stats, in the way he plays and influences the matches he plays.

Suffice to say that the young interior has already put his captain in his pocket with a view to the Olympics.

If he already expected big things from Victor Wembanyama this season in the NBA, Nicolas Batum admits that the Spurs rookie is doing even better than expected. He is certainly not the one who will complain about it as the Paris Olympic Games approach.