Victor Wembanyama represents promise of the present — and the future — for Team France at 2024 Paris Olympics

Medal table | Olympic schedule | Olympic news

PARIS — Pierre Mauroy Stadium up in Lille was full of waving flags and beating drums. At the Pub St Germain back here in Paris, it was claps and cheers and another round of beers.

There was a cycling race half a block away outside — albeit in the rain — and events across the city on the first day of the Summer Games, but inside this small establishment in the heart of the city, French fans hung on the televised images of their tallest, if not most popular, Olympic star.

Victor Wembanyama.

The 7-foot-4 sensation had 19 points and 9 rebounds to lead France to a 78-66 victory over Brazil in the Olympic opener. He sealed the game by converting a final-minute, contested alley-oop that left the crowd in Lille chanting and dancing in the stands.

The French took silver at the Tokyo Games in 2021. They defeated the United States in group play, only to fall in a gold medal rematch. Now they are back as not just the energy of the host country, but with Wemby leading the way fresh off an NBA Rookie of the Year season with the San Antonio Spurs.

And so with every Wembanyama put-back, every Wembanyama spin and fall-away jumper, the crowded bar came to life.

Wembanyama represents not just the possibility of the present — a gold medal — but of the future. He is an otherworldly talent, the skills of a guard in a big man’s body. It is fair to say he could become one of the greatest to ever play the game.

Just 19 years old, he sees the Olympics as an opportunity. That it's happening in his home country, in front of an excited public, just adds to the stakes.

“We know we have the chance to win gold,” Wembanyama said before the Games. “We won silver at the last Games, so we were not far away. The goal is to bring something new to the table.

“Our goals are something that we have never achieved before and we have to find the means to accomplish them,” he continued.

The United States remains the favorite here, of course. The core of its team is aging, however — 35-year-old Kevin Durant, 36-year-old Steph Curry and 39-year-old LeBron James. The Americans will own the advantage in depth of great players for decades to come, but you can only play five on the floor at a time and other countries are closing the gap.

Quickly.

That is especially true in France.

Wembanyama represents a wave of talent coming out of the French development system. As recently as three seasons ago, the NBA’s French influence consisted of big man Rudy Gobert and an occasional journeyman. Before that it was Tony Parker of those championship Spurs.

Now, the league is flooded with French. Three of the top six picks of the 2024 NBA Draft hail from France, including the No. 1 (Zaccharie Risacher) and No. 2 (Alex Sarr) overall picks. There were nine Frenchmen drafted in the last two years.

That includes 2023 seventh overall pick Bilal Coulibaly, who is on the French Olympic team after averaging 8.4 points a game for the Washington Wizards as a rookie.

Most encouraging is that they are not just generational athletic talents such as Wembanyama. Any country’s system could develop an athletic 7-footer with soft hands and good instincts. It’s the guards and wings that show France is serious about basketball.

The passion for basketball here is significant. Wembanyama is outrageously popular, with both his French national and NBA Spurs jersey for sale in windows and stores across this city.

And basketball is one of the sports with significant focus on it. The French are coming — backed by a wave of fan attention from Lille to Paris — and Victor Wembanyama is leading the charge.