The San Antonio Spurs are apparently superb at getting the highest choose within the NBA Draft when a franchise-changing huge man is on the road. The group beforehand obtained the No. 1 choose in 1987 when David Robinson was out there for choice, and did it once more in 1997 when Tim Duncan was within the Draft.
In 2023, the ping pong balls bounced the team’s way once more, and consequently, the overwhelming chances are French huge man Victor Wembanyama will begin his NBA career as a member of the Spurs. And because it seems, one of many franchise’s different No. 1 total picks goes to have a vested curiosity in serving to him get used to life within the league, in line with Marc Stein’s latest newsletter.
On the behest of longtime Spurs patriarch Gregg Popovich, Tim Duncan agreed to hitch Pop’s teaching workers for the 2019-20 marketing campaign interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. That one season was sufficient for Duncan to reaffirm what many suspected and what he certainly already knew—full-time teaching isn’t for him—however the expectation is that he’ll often go to the group’s apply facility to work with Wembanyama when the Spurs are dwelling.
As Stein point out, Duncan has beforehand served on Pop’s workers, however stepped down after 16 months on the helm. On the very least, he’ll be about pretty much as good of a mentor for Wembanyama as he can get early on in his profession.