SAN ANTONIO (AP) — The marquee outside of Madison Square Garden in December 1949 once promoted the following event, which was happening a couple of days later: “Geo Mikan vs Knicks.”
Not “Minneapolis Lakers vs. Knicks.” Just George Mikan. The NBA’s first one-of-a-kind big man.
It feels like history repeating itself now. The NBA Finals start Wednesday, with the San Antonio Spurs facing the Knicks for the title. And the marquee for this series — in San Antonio, in New York, in Paris and countless other points around the globe — may as well say “Wemby vs Knicks.”
Victor Wembanyama keeps stepping onto bigger and bigger stages. The latest version of the NBA’s one-of-a-kind big man — a title once held by the likes of Mikan, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O’Neal — will have all eyes on him in this series, and probably for every game he plays for the rest of his life. He’s not “on the way” to superstardom. He’s there. And this series is giving him his first chance at putting champion on his resume.
“This is the best basketball on the planet that’s being played right now,” Wembanyama said after San Antonio won Game 7 at Oklahoma City to capture the Western Conference title. “And the crazy thing is … I want to do that 15, 20 more times. Let’s hope it doesn’t become an addiction. Maybe it is already.”
It may as well be an addiction. San Antonio is clearly addicted to him.
There’s no Major League Baseball in San Antonio, no NHL team, no NFL team. As far as big-time pro sports go, it’s the Spurs and nothing else. And those who drive five minutes in any direction in this city will see the proof.
School’s out in San Antonio. It’s summer. The city’s public library was buzzing Monday, and a few kids just happened to be noticing a new display not far from the front desk. “Read Like Wemby,” it said, and it featured five books that Wembanyama has been known to read in the past. An Instagram account — wembybooks — starting posting images of him with books, local media in San Antonio caught on and the library came up with an idea.
“We want to make sure people have access to those and people can read them,” said Scott Williams, the marketing manager for the San Antonio Public Library. “And so, we thought, ‘Let’s do a display and let’s do a book list and make sure that people can easily find what Wemby’s reading so that they can read it too.’”
The results?
“The interest has been huge,” Williams said. “Ultimately, we’re looking at two things. We want people to pay attention to the library, we want people to come here and notice us, and we want people checking out these books and reading. It’s been a success on both fronts.”
So, Wemby gets people reading.
He also gets people to visit seafood restaurants — even when they’re closed.
Rudy’s Seafood isn’t open on Monday. In a 15-minute span Monday afternoon, four cars showed up. They weren’t there for lunch. They were there to see the Spurs murals — current players and coaches are featured, alongside a freshly re-painted Gregg Popovich, a newly added George Gervin and Manu Ginobili, among others.
Mark and Christina Lerma have family in San Antonio, but they live in Nebraska. They’re not going to the NBA Finals — ticket prices are way too high — but they headed to Rudy’s to pay homage to their favorite team. Mark was wearing a newly acquired Spurs NBA Finals hat and Wembanyama jersey; Christina was dressed all in black and showed off video of a Spurs dress she was wearing on Sunday.
They’ve loved the Spurs forever. And Wembanyama, as one might guess, has quickly acquired a special place in their fandom.
“He’s dominant,” Mark Lerma said. “He changes the game.”
They proudly pointed out that Wembanyama has been to the restaurant to see the tribute to the Spurs, which has been up for years and gets updated as needed.
“A lot of people stop and do selfies,” said Roland Ramirez, who owns the restaurant. “They’re doing graduation pictures with the backdrop. It’s pretty nice for the community. You know, the Spurs are pretty big right now here in San Antonio.”
He has met Wembanyama in the past and was blown away by how he carries himself.
“The first vibe I got off of him was he was just very humble,” Ramirez said. “He talked to my wife … he was very humble with everybody. You could see all the emotion he had when he won the Western Conference finals and the crying, he’s just a very emotional guy, very humble, very, very nice guy. That’s what people are really feeding off. He’s humble, but he’s hungry for a championship. And when he gets on the floor, he’s a whole different monster.”
He’s different. Just like Mikan was 77 years ago. Wemby vs. the Knicks. A marquee matchup awaits.
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