Malinda Words: The importance of not skipping steps

Line art by Gamini Abeykoon

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 227th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below]

Victor Wembanyama, the No 1 draft pick in the NBA, acquired by the San Antonio Spurs, has been widely touted as a ‘generational big man.’ Standing over seven feet with a wingspan of eight feet, ‘Wemby’ has been described as a highly skilled ball handler and passer who is capable of shooting from nearly anywhere on the court.

Will Leitch, a contributing editor for the New York Magazine didn’t hold back on his praise for the 19 year old Frenchman: ‘He is a center who plays like a point guard; he is a mix of sort of Magic Johnson, Steph Curry and Wilt Chamberlain and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with all that kind of comes with that.’

Perhaps a bit of all the above-mentioned greats, but Wembley is clearly not their sum. Not yet anyway. The boy knows where he is and what he wants to be. He says he is modelling his game after those of Giannis Antekounmpo and Kevin Durant, two of the most dominant players in the league. In other words, he acknowledges that he is a work in progress.

The ‘stars’ have seen the potential, nevertheless. Consider what Giannis had to say:

‘We have never seen someone like that before. I think it’s a good challenge for everybody in the league. We gotta get ready for this kid. He has a chance to be one of the best to ever play this game.’

‘The league’s really in trouble when he (Wembley) comes in,’ that’s Durant’s opinion.

And yet, it is unlikely that he will turn around the Spurs’ fortunes in his first year, at least if we were to go by the impact of other top draft picks who were similarly hyped and did in fact achieve greatness.

In 1987, after a forgettable season, the Spurs won the draft lottery and selected David Robinson, a 7’ 1” ‘generational big man.’ Ten years later, again after a terrible season, they acquired Tim Duncan, another generational big man. They are both Hall of Famers and won five championships for the Spurs.

It took time. The obvious reason is that in order to grab the Number 1 draft pick, teams have to have done terribly in the previous season. This means that they don't have rosters packed with stars. It takes time to gather the complementary personnel. Years.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovic wasn’t going overboard about expectations: ‘It's about not skipping steps, which I say often. It's A to B to C to D on a variety of levels.’

Wise words. Applicable outside the basketball court as well. He didn’t talk about such things, naturally, but many generational talents have been brought down over the years due to injuries. Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans, for example. ‘Pop’ has been in the league long enough to know that insulation from injury is a necessary but insufficient precondition for ‘talent’ to grow into ‘greatness.’

There’s the A to B to C to D that is unavoidable. Wemby has uttered those same words (I don’t want to skip any steps). It means he’s listening. Too often though, both players and fans expect magic to materialise overnight. They forget there are no shortcuts. They forget that you can’t jump from A to D and that the only way to get to D is to begin by focusing on how to get from A to B.

Steps. One at a time. Wemby knows he needs to add weight and adjust to the NBA (which is very different to the French league where he showcased his immense talent before being drafted by the Spurs). He knows that there are many ‘From A to B to C to D’ trajectories; the ‘variety of levels’ that Pop spoke of.

He has mentioned that the late Kobe Bryant is a role model. Well, Kobe had some words for young people who wanted to be better: ‘Visit GOAT Mountain,’ he said, GOAT as in ‘Greatest of All Time.’

Whenever he couldn’t get around something, Kobe said, he would go to the greats (yes, that debate is never concluded and therefore there are many GOAT candidates). Kobe covered all the bases, He went to all the mountains, he said. That’s Johnson, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Hakeem Olajuwon, Jerry West, Oscar Robinson and Bill Russell.

That was one of the ways in which Kobe Bryant went from A to B to C to D. At all levels he could think of. He tripped along the way. He picked himself up, he worked harder, made adjustments and that’s how he became extraordinary.

Wemby is fortunate that he has Pop as coach and mentor. It’s a simple and yet profound lesson, so easy to say and so hard to learn and affirm. Victor Wembanyama is young. He seems humble, even as he clearly knows that he has developed a rare skill set. The W’s will come eventually, as long as steps are not missed, for missed steps could result in falls and injuries hard to recover from.

04 October 2023

The importance of not skipping steps

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