LAS VEGAS — Following his summer league debut Friday night, Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama admitted there were times when he didn’t know what he was doing on the court.
On Saturday afternoon, Wembanyama was able to get some advice from another former No. 1 overall pick in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Wembanyama and Abdul-Jabbar, who sat baseline near the Spurs bench Friday night, spoke on a panel at the inaugural NBA Con hosted by Basketball Hall of Famer Isiah Thomas.
“As of today, I’m just a rookie,” Wembanyama said. “I don’t have one game in me and I just got everything to learn.
“So the truth was yeah, I didn’t know what I was doing and for the next games I’m probably not going to know what I’m doing, too. But it’s going to come as time goes on and hopefully we’ll be ready for the season. But yeah, I’m just like a kid right now. I mean I’m still a kid. Just ready to learn.”
Abdul-Jabbar told Wembanyama that he was in a similar situation when he was drafted in 1969 by the Milwaukee Bucks. He said he was starting in his first exhibition game and didn’t have any time to work his way into the role.
Of course, things turned out fine for the six-time NBA champion and MVP who held the league’s scoring record until it was broken by LeBron James this past season. Abdul-Jabbar told Wembanyama that things do take a while to start happening but he’s confident they will happen.
“You have things to learn but as you see he’s an intelligent young man, he’ll get it done,” Abdul-Jabbar said.
Wembanyama said it meant a lot to him on Friday to see Abdul-Jabbar in the crowd as one of the thousands inside the sold-out Thomas & Mack Center.
“It just means a lot and it shows who the people who care truly are and who the people who are interested in the new generations are,” Wembanyama said, adding that it was an honor to share the stage with Abdul-Jabbar and Thomas.
“And I can never be thankful enough for the chance I have and how lucky I am and to be able to play soon in the NBA in the summer league and with people like Kareem in attendance.”
Thomas asked Abdul-Jabbar about some of the differences he sees in the modern game after pointing out the various ways Wembanyama was used Friday, including bringing the ball up the court and trying to run the offense from the top of the key.
“Isiah, we were over-coached, that’s all I’m going to say,” Abdul-Jabbar said, drawing laughter from the crowd gathered inside the Mandalay Bay Convention Center. “We were over-coached.
“If I tried to bring the ball upcourt, within seconds I’d be sitting next to the coach and he’d be telling me, ‘No, you do that again and your ass is going to wear some splinters in it until you get it right and give the ball to the guard and we’re going to run this play or that play or the other.'”
Wembanyama spoke about wanting to bring championships to the San Antonio Spurs organization, and Abdul-Jabbar also gave him some advice on how to make that happen.
“The difficulty is in learning how you can best contribute to a winning effort,” Abdul-Jabbar said. “That’s what you got to learn how to do with your skill set. And you will find out what that is basically in preseason, you’ll find out a lot about that.”
