Victor Wembanyama, 7 feet 4 inches tall, the guy who just took the San Antonio Spurs to their first NBA Finals in years, went to Tokyo during his offseason, joined a local soccer club called Tomato FC, and curled a free kick into the top corner of the goal. Then he did the Ronaldo “SIUUU” celebration. I’ve watched this clip eleven times and I’m not stopping.
https://twitter.com/StokeyyG2/status/2070272848258600970
The thing is, none of this should have been possible. You know how people always do the “what other sport could this athlete play” conversation? That’s a fun bit. LeBron as a tight end. Giannis as a power forward who also plays power forward but in soccer. It’s theoretical. With Wemby it’s not theoretical at all: he actually went to Tokyo and scored that free kick in public, like he’s been doing it his whole life. Which, because he is a genetic riddle wrapped in an impossible frame, he kind of has. Wemby grew up near Paris playing soccer as a goalkeeper and even represented FC Barcelona’s U-14 squad in a youth tournament. So yes, he has the receipts. The rest of us are just now finding out.
I keep coming back to the timing. The 2026 FIFA World Cup is actively happening. Every sports fan on the planet is watching soccer and arguing about the greatest athletes alive, and into this moment walks a 7’4” basketball player who curls one into the top corner from a Tokyo free kick like he’s been training for this. The algorithm did not deserve this gift. Revis — my dog, not the cornerback — was asleep on the couch next to me when I found the clip and I genuinely woke him up. He did not care. He should have. This was important.
The honest question is: what sport could Victor Wembanyama NOT play? There’s no clean answer. He spent part of this offseason training with a 34th-generation Shaolin warrior monk in China, so “martial arts” is apparently also on the table now. What we’re really watching, through the lens of what the Spurs are doing this offseason, is a franchise trying to figure out how to keep the greatest athlete alive committed to one sport when that athlete keeps threatening to become interesting in all of them. For the rest of us following NBA coverage, the answer is simple: we let him cook and we watch every single second of it.
Jockey. The answer is jockey. He couldn’t be a jockey.
