Why Victor Wembanyama is BEST PLAYER in the NBA | San Antonio Spurs | Colin Cowherd Podcast

Why Victor Wembanyama is BEST PLAYER in the NBA | San Antonio Spurs | Colin Cowherd Podcast

Welcome to the official YouTube channel for the Colin Coward podcast. Go on, hit that subscribe button if you’re new so you don’t miss any of our great football content this season. So, I had to scrap my lead today. Literally, with 20 minutes to go, I scrapped my lead. We had I thought I was getting uh Kosh Patel on the show. Oh, what happened last? I thought I was Yeah. Wow. I hope everybody realizes that in 30 minutes against the best front line in the league, WBY did wilt. 40 points, no turnovers. Oh, hell yeah. Let’s talk about it. Okay. Time out. What is he? 22. Yeah. Okay. 40 points, 30 minutes, three blocks, no turnovers, 15 rebounds. Lost in all of this. That’s one of the top five lines in league history. 30 minutes in 40. He shot 70% from the floor and Dallas has the best front line in the league. Yeah, it it broke my basketball brain. Like I I feel like listen, I have loved him ever since I’ve seen him as a prospect. Everyone has. I’ve talked about him in like pretty like lofty terms because of what he can be, but the maturity of the offensive game that he showed last night. Um, I put together like a list of superlatives today on on First Things First that I ran past Nick in the segment that we do together on Thursdays. And I was like, like which of these do you think at the end of his career we’re going to be able to cross out the names of the guys who currently have the records and it’s going to be him. So like three guys have the record for most defensive player of the year awards with four. Oh, he’ll win 12. That’s what I’m saying. I but it’s like Ben Wallace, Rudy Gobear, they have four like I I would I would lay minus 500 that he gets more than four def. I mean obviously the the game minimum threshold is like the only impediment to that, but like he’s 22. He’s going to he I agree 12 is on the board. Only player ever to win the scoring title and defensive player of the year. Michael Jordan did it once. Feels like Webyama could be the second think. You know what I thought about watching him last night. What’s that? I always had this feeling that if you did a oneon-one tournament, Michael and LeBron, Kevin Durant would be up there. The the bigs Giannis would be good, but he doesn’t have the ability um you know, cuz there would be three in the key to make it fair. I looked at that and I thought to myself, I’m not sure how many points LeBron in his prime would score on Wimpby. I I’m not sure. He blocked a shot. He got a rebound over Derek Lively last night and Jay Bilis said it. Lively 6’11. He looked like a sixth grader, right? He he blocked a shot. These guys that are 610 and long, big turn around. Wimby moves off his player. He’s blocking the ball near the elbow, somewhere between the wrist and the elbow. And I think to myself, if you added 6 in to Kevin Durant and had the same quickness and a little more length, I like I’m watching him and I’m like, I’m not really sure how you defend it. You don’t really defend this. No, you don’t. You don’t defend it. Um, and like I just I I I’ve been thinking about it like basically all day. Um, I think we’re going to just see things that we’ve never seen before that we’re not even going to fully realize what we’re seeing. Like, uh, he did something last year that I like demanded we get into Breakfast Ball cuz I’m like, I promise you no one cares about this game, but I promise you no one’s ever seen this. He shot a three-pointer and it was like, you know, he was like fading back a little bit on the three, like a pure jump shot, like he wasn’t like running towards the hoop. He shot a a normal three-pointer and he could tell off his hand that it was long. So, he lands from the jumper and charges and he tip slammed. He put like a put back slam his own missed three-pointer. Like we’ve seen that on free throws, but on a three-pointer, it was insane. And I I I just think we’re gonna we’re like, did he take two dribbles from half court and dunk like, you know, I think I think we’re going to just like start to like Yes. re we’re gonna have to have like re-calibrate what is actually possible. That’s Mike. There’s a story about Mike Shasheesky. Um, and I think Mark F was there and Jim Beahheim. It was Olympic basketball and it was one of their first looks at LeBron playing in a practice. And I I’d heard this story. I don’t know if it was from a friend of Jay Bilis or it was somebody that and I like by the way Jay Bilis on pro basketball. I think he does a good job. I really do. I think he really he clearly cares. Like he clearly care. He he does his homework. He keeps it to the game. Yeah. He’s very good. Yeah. Jay’s really good. the um and I think it was a friend of Jay Bilis that told me Jay had told him they were doing a practice and Shashesky was at half court kind of arms folded sitting back on the bench and there was a loose ball and LeBron picked it up full steam swooped in to pick it up and dribbled twice and dunked it and Shashevsky just was beside himself. He’s like, “That’s six dribbles, maybe five with Jordan.” And it was, to your point, like Shasheesky was taken back by it. He he turned to the Beheim or Few or both and just went, “What what did we just watch?” Steve Kerr through a friend told a story, one of the first times he um had to face LeBron and it was just like I give up. I don’t even know whatever. Like, what do you want me to do? So I think um I think WBY similarly I just I I I I was watching with my wife. I said, “See that guy in the shoes that are the bright shoes? I see he’ll probably the best player in the league this time next year.” And I said it today. Luca and SGA can’t dominate a game on the defensive end. And Giannis can’t shoot, you know, beyond 16 ft. Joic is a more complete offensive player, moderate mid defensive player by the All-Star break. I mean, Jesus, Danny, six more games like last night. Is he the second best player in the league? Football season’s here, and if you want to go to an NFL or college football game, Game Time is the place for you. The Game Time app just gives you the advantage back to you, the fans. It’s a hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in a few taps. I love it. Easy to use. The game time guarantee means you can trust you’ll get a 100% authentic tickets on time and at the best price 100%. So they even let you preview your seat on the app. That’s special. Plus fees are always included. So what you see is what you pay every time. Take the guesswork out of buying professional football tickets with Game Time. Just download the Game Time app. Create an account. If you use the code Colin C I N 20 bucks off your first purchase. Terms apply again. Create an account, redeem code o l i n. 20 bucks off. Swipe tap ticket. Go download the game time app today. Yeah. I mean like it. So I think that this is it. It all depends on how we define this. Like I always define that question by like the literal definition of what that means. Like like a scout’s eye. Like the best basketball player. Yeah. basketball people and media really just and not just basketball because I think we do it in football too. We like like I don’t think Tom Brady is the best quarterback because I he is the most accomplished. Sure. He is the GOAT. Yeah. But like but like best quarterback is not goat to me. To me. Yeah. Because because it’s like a scouting term, right? The guy last night’s the best player. WBY is WBY is the best player because let’s I obviously agree with you. Joic is a better offensive player, right? He’s not more polished. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. I agree. But like how much better is he offensively? 10%. 15%. Is he 20% better offensively? We 100% better defensively than Joker. So like, you know what I mean? Like like the gap between like Nick was saying today that Anthony Davis would have been like the number one pick in the draft to like guard Wem. I would say it would be Giannis younger, stronger, more like like stronger basically than Anthony Davis. But like they’re both it’s they’re two of the top three or four guys that you would choose to to try to guard to guard Wemby. But so like the gap between WBY and the second best defensive player in basketball is the Atlantic Ocean compared to the gap between Joic and the second best offensive player in basketball. Right. Right. Like so he’s incredible. It and so I but in basketball we usually say like you have to do it in the playoffs. You have to win an MVP. you have to win a title before you can have like the best player alive title. I don’t agree. Like I personally am like Aaron Rodgers in his prime, Patrick Mahomes in his prime, they’re better than Tom Brady or Drew Brees. They’re not yet more I mean Mahomes is actually not more accomplished than Breeze, but like you know what I mean? Like they’re not had more yards, whatever. But that guy last night, he’s going to have a quadruple double this year. It’s only happened four times in the history of the league. It would not surp No one’s ever done it more than once. David Robinson did it once. Hakee did it once. It would not at all surprise me if Victor Wanyama has multiple quadruple doubles this season at 22 years old. Well, it’s almost like it’s almost like in Hollywood, you don’t have to win an Oscar. I mean, I can remember the first um remember the movie uh Capot. Yeah, of course. Um Philip Seymour Hoffman. Yeah. Yeah. And I I I remember watching that movie and he was in Boogie Nights. Everything he was in, he was great. Yeah. But I remember I remember watching that and thinking, “Oh, that’s the world’s best actor.” That that if you go back and watch Capot and you and you look at Truman Capot’s personality and what he did, it doesn’t sound anything like any other character. And I remember watching it and just thinking, it doesn’t matter if he wins an award. That’s the best performance of the year. I I don’t even know. And so like I see this all the time in sports where I’m like and we’ve seen this in tennis like you know Federer was the most profound but you know you’re watching the Jookovic at some point that was younger and you’re like well that’s the more that’s the more ferocious player that that’s the more intimidating player. His winning points are more impressive than Federer. Federer is just like Brady. He’s efficient. He’s smart. you know, he has this capacity to play his best on the very best points, but he loses many points. So, I I agree with you. I think I watched Webby and I I didn’t say this on the air, but I thought if he did that game like two more times in a week, you’re like, “That’s the new standard.” Well, that’s the best player in the league. Well, no. Right. And listen, it it is of course possible that they keep his minutes low all year and that the offensive efficiency cannot sustain at that level. you know, like it it’s possible that that’s not like a majority opinion by the end of the year, but like unless he gets hurt. Yeah. I legitimately think he will win the next 10 defensive player of the year awards. I’m not I I I think every year he plays the 65 game minimum into his mid early to mid30s, I think he will win the defensive player of the year award every single year. Yeah. And then if you’re a top 10 offensive player and the defensive player of the year, you’re the best player. That’s just how it works. I’m sorry. It is a two-way sport. Like offense is more important than defense, but like he How many shots do you think he altered last night? Or how many shots do you think people didn’t take because he was there last night? Like it’s cuz he’s like, “Oh, he he had three blocks, but he had to have altered 12 shots. 15. How many times did Deion Sanders get attacked in his prime? He just threw to the other side of the field. It’s like if people like Willie only had 12 interceptions, it’s like that’s cuz nobody threw to his side. His his interception percentage based on targeted throws was through the roof. Yeah. You have to you have to watch the game. Like you have to watch the game to be like, “Oh, a 6-9 dude is dribbling into the paint and then retreating.” Like that doesn’t happen. They all try to get fouled. Like they all try to just jump over someone cuz they’re 69 and the other guy’s maybe 6’11. No, he’s 75 and doesn’t foul. Like it’s it’s unbel and they I know people keep wanting to give them Giannis. That would be insane. Obviously, if Giannis and WBY played together, they would win the title this year. I wouldn’t screw up their I think between Stfan Castle, Wem, their recent draft picks. I would their starting five is excellent. Yeah. I I mean, I think I could see them trading De’arren Fox. Like if if if if if Dylan Harper is what NBA people think he was gonna like I I had an NBA person tell me that they could not believe like he’s like people are underelling the fact that they got the second pick in the everyone’s like oh man it would have been amazing if it was Cooper flag like yeah they’re like Dylan Harper’s going to be awesome and he had 15 points last night in his NBA debut and like looks smooth like well you know if that if that’s a real player they they’re going to be great this year. So the last couple of drafts have So last year’s draft was very good. 2026 NBA draft supposed to be great and two things are converging. The NIL money American college programs are buying the best Spaniards. They’re buying the best European players. Yeah. So you’re getting about 10 to 12 European players that were not in college basketball 3 years ago. Also about 6 to eight guys are staying in college one more year. Did you see the story? Those ISO comments about the kids who went or the kid who went from the G-League to college. Yeah. I don’t know how I that doesn’t So like can LeBron go play four years at Duke? Like I I’m confused. Like I know that like you can get paid internationally and you can get paid in the G- League and you can get paid in college. Like technically you have eligibility. So, what’s the difference? But like come on. We got to put a cap on it somewhere. Like I don’t understand. Like I was I like is those is those comments like like oh that’s kind of an old man yells at clouds thing. I was like no like I haven’t been following the story very closely but like I think I’m with him. Like we can’t call it college basketball if you can go play. And I get it for international players. Like if you take if you took money from a under 18 team in Lithuania and then you want to go play at Kansas, like I I got no problem with that. But like if you’re 24 years old and you’ve been in the G-League for three years, you can just go play college basketball. I don’t know if I like that. Yeah, that doesn’t seem right. No. No. I mean that’s the NIL’s got all these like exits on it that are very, you know, people are always yelling, you know, I talked about this today with James Franklin and Billy Napier. Everybody’s like, “These kids make a bunch of money.” And I’m like, “The coaches make 11 million now. You got to beat good teams. Like the whole world’s changed. I used to think it was ridiculous to fire a college coach mid-season. Now I’m like, well, he made 12 million and he was bad against top 20 teams. It’s time to fire him.” Yeah. And and I have no problem with college athletes getting paid obviously. I’ve just like like this is uh it it has gotten complicated like because yeah there of course there will be kids that like go play college basketball and make a few million bucks and stay in college because that’s going to be the height of your earning and that’s great and that’s how it should be. But I don’t know that I love pro basketball still have eligibility. Like we got they got to figure that part of it out. But when Binyama now is like they’re going to be the most popular league pass team ever. Like I I can’t imagine missing these guys games. Like I’m going to put it I’m going to put them on even if it’s just the second second screen just to like keep an eye on it to see if he like dunks from half court. Like it’s it is insane what that guy can do. Here’s here’s a weird thing that popped into my head. The ability to go from the GLeague to college. Like, it’s a line you you’re not comfortable crossing. It’s almost like if you go on a ski vacation with four couples and everybody decides to put on bathing suits and go in the hot tub and you’re mostly naked sitting next to all your wives friends and then one guy just starts making out with one of the other wives. You’re like, “Whoa, that doesn’t feel right to me. I know we’re naked and we’re in water and we have champagne, but that’s a that’s a bridge too far for me. That’s what you’re saying, basically. Oh, that’s a very specific example. Uh that if you want to unpack that a little bit more, uh I know you probably have some houses with hot tubs that overlook the mountains. So, I don’t know what situations that sounds lovely. It sounds like, you know, let your freak flag fly. But yeah, I just I when I read those like my buddy said it to me, he’s like, “What do you think about G-League players playing in college?” I’m like, “They’re not allowed.” I’m like, “They’re not allowed to.” And he sent me the news article. He’s like, “What are you talking about?” ISO went insane over it. And I’ve like read the article. I’m like, “I need to catch up with cuz I’m 100% with ISO.” Like it just it just doesn’t even though you could make more money in college than you can in the G-League. And like maybe there should be a loophole for international or maybe doesn’t feel right. There should be like an age minimum and maximum like there they got to figure something out. You should not be able to go be coached by an NBA organization and then go play for the Missouri Tigers. I just I I don’t I don’t like it. And you shouldn’t make out with your friend’s wife just because you’re half naked in a hot tub with a glass of champagne in Veil. Everybody know in Veil now. Specific. It’s as if it happened. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hypothetically speaking, uh that at the Four Seasons in Bale at the Four Seasons and it was Dom Perion and there were too many strawberries with chocolate, but it was the white chocolate so you understand, right? Oh god. Well, that was fun. That was fun. That hour flew by. [Music]

Colin Cowherd is joined by Danny Parkins to react to the San Antonio Spurs’ win over the Dallas Mavericks on the NBA’s opening night. Does Victor Wembanyama’s performance make him the best player in the entire NBA?

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