“It’s Almost the Meaning of My Life”
Victor Wembanyama on winning the Larry O’Brien, his teammates, and the relentless hunger that drives him.
NBA Finals · Post-Game Reaction
Winning the Larry O’Brien — it’s a childhood dream. And having a real shot at it, having a tangible chance at winning it, at realizing a dream — it’s a lifetime chance. You never know when it’s going to happen again. The day we win it, speaking for myself, it’s going to be an amazing day of real realization of a dream. It’s hard to put into words. It’s almost like the meaning of my life.
I’m not worried about them. I’m worried about us winning. That’s what I’m thinking about.
On Luke’s block
That was big. That was big. There were so many big-time plays. So many guys stepping up. Oh my god. It’s an unreal chance. My life is amazing and being with these guys, living these things with these guys that I love so so so much — it’s amazing. I want to have this feeling plenty plenty more times in my life.
On Julian
Julian’s amazing. He deserves everything that he gets and he’s the type of guy that makes you want to die for him on the court because he gives so much effort and he’s got such an amazing story. He got cut in the NBA a few years back. He’s had tough moments, but he keeps pushing and now he’s taking this team to the NBA Finals.
On the team emotion
I’m most excited about feeling what I felt when that buzzer went off — again and again and again and even more. You work all these hours, we put in — it’s for these type of emotions. I want to win so bad. It’s like my life depends on it.
“I want to win so bad. It’s like my life depends on it.”— Victor Wembanyama
On re-evaluating the season
You re-evaluate everything all throughout the season. When you step into a game in the regular season you don’t even look at the big picture of the season. You look at what you need to do tonight, what you need to do in the first half, on the first possession. And when you lay a brick like this every time you got a chance and you lay it perfectly fine — at the end of the day, you get a big castle, a beautiful house. And this is just the entry hall of our castle right now.
On Luke’s winning play
That’s the definition of a winning play — whoever wanted it more.
On Pop
I can’t answer that question. I don’t know what it means for him. That’s a guy who’s got more experience as a coach than almost anybody and has been through so many things in his career and so many things right now. He goes through some things we can’t even imagine. I need to call him. I need to see him. I need to talk to him — because there’s no way I can understand right now how he feels. When I talk to him, it’s going to be only stored in my head. I need to talk to him so quick.
On what he learned about himself
What I learned is I can go through hurdles that I didn’t know they could — those hurdles could get so high. Just pushing through. I found resources inside of relentlessness. I already knew that, but doing it at this level — this is the best basketball on the planet that’s being played right now. And the crazy thing is, maybe I’m crazy for that, but I want to do that 15, 20 more times. Let’s hope it doesn’t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.
“I found resources inside of relentlessness. Maybe it is already an addiction.”— Victor Wembanyama