SPORTS & MORE

Wembanyama Entertains Crowd As

Ralph Morrow

... a veteran sports columnist, says the only sport he doesn’t follow is cricket. That leaves plenty of others to fill his time.

ralphmoro1936 @gmail.com

Don’t say you never heard of Victor Wembanyama. I wrote about the 7’5” Frenchman several months ago, previewing his selection as the No. 1 choice in the June 22 NBA draft. I didn’t know at the time which team would take him, but it turned out to be San Antonio.

Marty Smith, an ESPN announcer, was stationed in San Antonio, dressed for the occasion, as he entertained the crowd.

Wembanyama was at the Barclays Center in New York, where he was interviewed by ESPN’s Monica McNutt and his responses entertained the crowd. Later, a private plane took him to San Antonio, where a large and welcoming crowd cheered his arrival.

“Wemby,” as he’s called, was a pleasant choice, a good-looking Frenchman who speaks perfect English and plays perfect basketball, as demonstrated by the many films of him in action. Many basketball minds believe he’ll have no trouble turning the Spurs from an also-ran into a quality team.

The Miami Heat, on the other hand, were the 18th team to select in the draft, having finished in eighth place in the East when the playoffs began and finishing runner-up to champion Denver when it ended. That meant the Heat and team president Pat Riley were choosing well down the line. Of course, Riley and Co. still made good use of their selection. They picked Jaime Jaquez, a junior from UCLA, whom several analysts said would be perfect for the Heat. We’ll see. Having already included their second-round pick in an earlier deal, the Heat had no further selections.

Brandon Miller was selected No. 2 by the Charlotte Hornets, while Scoot Henderson, a 6’8” forward and a freshman at Alabama, went to the Portland Trail Blazers at No. 3.

Henderson sparked conversation about the availability of Portland’s star Damian Lillard. If available, the Heat would be interested. However, the president of that team said strongly that Lillard was not available.

Next up to pick in the draft were the Houston Rockets and the Detroit Pistons, who took twins Amen and Au-