Nikola Vučević is shuffling backwards, ankles in distress, crowd on that half-gasp, half-laugh noise that only happens when everyone knows what is about to happen and nobody can stop it. Victor Wembanyama toys with the dribble, rises into a step-back three that looks like it was filmed with a weird camera lens, and drills it right over him in Chicago.
The Bulls crowd groans. The Spurs bench loses its mind. Somewhere, a thousand “is this guy even real?” group chats light up at once.
That single isolation possession is a tiny snapshot of what the league is dealing with now: a 7-foot-4 cheat code with guard skills, a wingspan that seems to wrap around entire offensive sets, and a statistical profile that is already veering into “are we sure this is allowed?” territory.
So here is the loud, slightly ridiculous question: can Victor Wembanyama actually become the best NBA player ever? Not just “most unique,” not just “tallest alien,” but the person at the top of the sport’s all-time food chain.
Let’s wander through it. Carefully. And with just a tiny bit of awe.
Wembanyama is an athletic FREAK
The Night Chicago Learned What Was Coming
Let’s start with that Monday in Chicago, because it feels like a hinge moment.
Against the Bulls, Wembanyama drops 38 points on 11-of-19 shooting, pours in 6-of-9 from three, grabs 12 rebounds, dimes out 5 assists and swats 5 shots as the Spurs steal a 121-117 win on the road.
That stat combo is not just “great game” territory. It is “someone just patched the sliders” territory. That performance also made him the first player in NBA history to hit at least 35 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 5 blocks and 5 made threes in a single game.
And the wild part is that the 6 threes and 5 blocks thing is already kind of normal for him. He now has six career games with at least five made threes and five blocks. No other player in NBA history has ever done that even once, let alone turned it into a recurring bit.
That is usually the stuff of guards and wings in the GOAT conversation. Wembanyama is doing it while also living above the rim as an elite rim protector.
The Numbers Already Look Like A Future MVP
Through the early stretch of the 2025-26 campaign, Wembanyama is averaging 26.2 points, 12.9 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game on 50.2 percent shooting from the field. Those marks currently place him 13th in scoring, 2nd in rebounding and tied for 54th in assists, with a top-50 field goal percentage despite taking a diet of step-back threes and self-created looks that would tank most big men’s efficiency.
Add in the blocks and you get the full picture. He has extended his streak of games with at least one block into the mid-90s, passing Mark Eaton on the all-time list and sitting behind only Dikembe Mutombo and Patrick Ewing.
All of this stacks on top of a rookie season where he led the NBA in blocks, was a unanimous Rookie of the Year, and became the first rookie ever to make All-Defensive First Team, while finishing second in Defensive Player of the Year voting.
You do not crown anyone off two and a bit seasons. But if you tried to cook up “early statistical profile of a potential all-time great” in a lab, it would look a lot like this.
Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle are now the youngest duo in NBA HISTORY to both have a triple-double in the same game surpassing Michael Jordan & Scottie Pippen 🔥
— Basketball Forever (@bballforever_) November 13, 2025
AREA 51 👽 pic.twitter.com/Tnr01LQLhe
Zenbanyama: The Summer At The Shaolin Temple
Here is the twist in the story that feels almost too on the nose.
In the summer before this season, Wembanyama chose not to spend his time bouncing between luxury resorts. Instead, in the wake of his injury, he shaved his head and went to live at the Shaolin Temple in China for a ten-day Buddhist retreat, training in Chan meditation, Shaolin Kung Fu and traditional practices with monks.
🚨 Breaking News 🚨
— 365Scores (@365Scores) February 20, 2025
Victor Wembanyama will miss the remainder of the NBA season due to injury! pic.twitter.com/1S5pG6fgWs
That is not standard modern-superstar behaviour. It is also not just a quirky travel story. Reports out of Spurs camp since have painted a picture of a player who came back calmer, more intentional, more patient with his own mistakes.
You can see it in the way he plays late in games now. In Chicago, the step-back three over Vučević comes from a deliberately slow isolation, almost a meditative tempo, where he scans the floor, waits, then attacks. There is less rushing and less rookie trying to prove everything at once.
Plenty of legends have gone searching for some form of spiritual or mental edge. What makes Wembanyama different is how early he is doing it. If that inner work helps him handle the pressure cooker of being a global phenom, the Shaolin detour might age as a more important career decision than any shoe deal.
What “Best Ever” Really Demands
Before we build a statue, it is worth being harsh about what “best ever” actually means. The bar is absurd.
To sit in that conversation, you usually need:
- A decade-plus at or near the top of the league.
- Multiple championships as a central driver, not just a passenger.
- MVP-level seasons, often several.
- Playoff runs full of iconic moments that define an era.
- Some kind of stylistic or cultural impact that changes how the sport is played or viewed.
So when people toss out “greatest of all time” for someone who is barely old enough to rent a car, it can feel a bit silly.
Right now, Wembanyama is checking exactly one of those boxes: stylistic transformation. Even that is in its early stages. He is warping what we thought a centre could be, building on the work of Kevin Durant, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kristaps Porziņģis, but stretching it into something stranger and more extreme.
The rest of the list, though? All unresolved. No titles yet. Only one All-Star nod so far. One playoff run at most on the horizon. He is a long way from the pantheon.
Which is fine. That is how this works.
The Case For Wembanyama Crashing The GOAT Debate
Start with the ceiling. He has already produced stat lines that literally have never existed before, from multiple games with 20-plus points, 15-plus rebounds, 5-plus blocks and 5-plus threes, to that absurd 38-12-5-5-6 line in Chicago.
He stacks those on top of five-by-five games, 30-and-10-with-10-blocks games and a block streak that has him sitting in the same sentences as Mutombo and Ewing before age 22.
Then there is the age factor. He is already anchoring a playoff-chasing team, already the clear best player on his roster and already driving global interest. If he stays roughly at this level or improves from it for, say, twelve years, and the Spurs build a contender around him, the awards and deep playoff runs are going to pile up almost by accident.
There is also something unsettling for opponents in the way his skill set ages. Most shot-blocking bigs decline when their mobility goes; most high-volume shooters drop off if the legs go. Wembanyama has such a ridiculous margin for error on both that even a slightly slower version of himself in his 30s could still be a top-tier defender and impactful scorer.
In other words, his decline phase might still look like most people’s prime. That is where the GOAT path opens up.
So, Can He Really Become The Best Ever?
If you are forcing a prediction, the honest answer probably lives somewhere between “absolutely possible” and “still very unlikely, because that is how history works.”
The safe expectation is that Wembanyama becomes one of the defining players of his era, wins at least one MVP, racks up All-NBA and All-Defensive nods and anchors a contending team for a big chunk of his career. That already puts him in the “inner-circle Hall of Famer” bracket.
The wilder outcome, the one people whisper about after he cooks another poor centre in isolation and casually closes a quarter with a pull-up three and then a chasedown block, is that he keeps stacking seasons like this, the Spurs hit on the right supporting cast and he stays healthy enough to own an entire decade.
If that happens, the GOAT conversation opens its door a bit. Not now. Not next year. But eventually.
For now, the fairest place to land is this: no one in NBA history has ever had Wembanyama’s exact blend of size, skill and early production. The possibility that he could one day be the best ever is not a meme anymore. It is a serious, if very long-term, question.
And honestly, that alone is pretty terrifying for the rest of the league.
FAQs
Q: Is Victor Wembanyama already a top-five player in the NBA?
Yes, I’d say so. With averages around 26 points, 13 rebounds and elite defense, you can at least make a serious argument that he belongs in that group, especially if you value two-way impact.
Q: How many records has Wembanyama broken so far?
A silly amount for someone this early in his career. He has become the first player with multiple games of 20-plus points, 15-plus rebounds, 5-plus blocks and 5-plus threes, the first with a 35-10-5-5-5 game and now the only player ever with six games featuring at least five threes and five blocks.
Q: What is the deal with his Buddhist retreat in China?
In the 2025 offseason, Wembanyama spent about ten days at the Shaolin Temple in China on a Buddhist-style retreat, shaving his head, training in meditation and Kung Fu, and living a stripped-back, monastic routine. He framed it as a way to work on his mind and body, not just his game, and he seems to have returned with an even calmer on-court presence.
Q: How realistic is it that he actually becomes the GOAT?
If you look at history, the odds are naturally low for any one player. Injuries, team-building, competition, all sorts of luck get in the way. But Wembanyama has a plausible path because he combines unprecedented tools with production that is already brushing against historic benchmarks. If he stays healthy, wins big and maintains this level for a decade or more, the conversation will get very loud.
Q: What does he still need to prove?
Pretty much everything that happens after the “insanely talented young star” phase. He needs playoff runs, title chases, postseason signature moments and sustained dominance over multiple seasons. Right now he is writing an incredible first act. The GOAT talk will depend on how the next two or three acts unfold.
By Nicky Helfgott / @NickyH3lfgott on Twitter (X)
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