Golden: Victor Wembanyama will develop, but he'll do it the tried-and-true Spurs Way

Victor Wembanyama, welcome to the biggest sleeping giant in the NBA.

His new employer was dynastic at one time, riding the broad shoulders of a couple of former No. 1 picks, David Robinson and Tim Duncan, as well as backcourt greats Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, all under the auspices of crotchety and sometimes lovable coach Gregg Popovich.

The San Antonio Spurs have fallen on some Depression era-like hard times given their history, but help has arrived from, of all places, the Paris suburbs. Unlike Duncan, who teamed with Robinson to give the league the best version of the Houston Rockets' Twin Towers of Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson, the youngster isn’t some missing piece to a championship puzzle.

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He’s the key piece, but more are needed.

If anything, the 210’s tallest resident just landed in the perfect spot to grow his game and help return this franchise to the NBA's elite.

With time.

This is no quick fix.

Wembanyama met with the media at the team’s practice facility Friday and immediately gave an indication of how much the game means to him, lamenting that he needed rest after playing in the LNB Pro A —  the toughest pro league in France — and will skip the upcoming FIBA Cup to prepare for his rookie NBA season.

“Going more than two years without a rest is too big of a risk," Wembanyama told reporters. "It's really big events coming up like the Olympics that I don't want to miss. So to be available for the national team for the next I don't know how many other years, I felt like I needed to miss this one.”

Is Wembanyama the NBA's next great one?

Wembanyama, 19, probably has enough energy to play every day between now and the 2024 Paris Summer Games, but the smart move is to be fresh for the biggest season of his life come this fall.

The first French-born player drafted tops overall and the most high-profile foreign player taken by a Texas team at No. 1 since the Rockets tabbed China's center Yao Ming in 2002 has brought a much-needed buzz back to a city that hasn’t won a playoff series since 2017.

While we’ve witnessed some unique floor talent enter this league over the past decade — from Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo to newly crowned league champion Nikola Jokic in Denver — we’re getting something different in this newest phenom, who takes freakish athleticism to another level. Did you see him miss a 3-point shot from the wing and dunk it on a putback seemingly in one motion?

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“Everybody’s been a unicorn over the last few years, but he’s more like an alien,” LeBron James told Sports Illustrated before the draft. “No one has ever anyone as tall as he is, but as fluid as he is and as graceful as he is on the floor.”

The biggest news coming out of the Alamo City had to do with his height — he’s officially 7 feet 3½, down from reports of 7-5 ever since he hit the international hoops radar a few years back — and the organization entering him in the Las Vegas summer league, which will begin play Friday with the Spurs taking on the Charlotte Hornets.

He has already learned that the Spurs are the NBA’s equivalent to the Waltons. They’re a family, and players who have been a part of it never seem to go anywhere, outside of Kawhi Leonard, maybe.

While the organization’s Hall of Famers are no longer part of the actual playing landscape, Robinson, Duncan and Ginobili continue to reside in the Alamo City and understand that developing this prodigy into a prodigious superstar is priority one. They didn’t have to be told of his importance to the organization.

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It’s just something inherent to being a Spurs legend. Your work isn’t over just because you’re no longer running up and down the court.

Carrying on the legacy: the Spurs Way

To that end, Duncan, Robinson, Ginobili and fellow Spurs legend Sean Elliott took Wembanyama out for grub June 23, and a photo of the quartet quickly made the rounds on social media.

“It’s so comforting to see that these people who are so important to the people of San Antonio and to the franchise are such kind people and generous because they genuinely wanted to share with me their experience,” Wembanyama said at his introductory press conference. “I feel like they have already started to take great care of me.”

Not present was four-time champion Tony Parker, who, if things go to plan, will one day go down as the second-greatest French player of all time.

This is the Spurs Way. Wrap up young rookies in the team cocoon, allow them to focus solely on the game, and when it’s time to fly, great things are bound to happen. When Duncan arrived in 1997 as a cherub-faced, soft-spoken center from Wake Forest, he immediately found comfort under the wing of Dream Team member Robinson, who was already a top-three center in the league.

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Ginobili and Parker later benefited from having the best two-headed monster manning the lane and protecting their backs in their early days.

The Spurs won their final title in 2014 with young star Leonard coming into his own as the Finals MVP. What didn’t always get mentioned was that the locker room leaders shouldered most of the media responsibilities, even the notoriously media-shy Duncan, while Leonard slowly grew into his role.

They understood that speaking to the cameras wasn’t on Leonard’s favorite things list, so they did the interviews and allowed the kid to develop.

What we didn’t see coming was a nasty divorce, with Leonard entering his absolute prime, prompting a trade to Toronto, where he captured another championship before leaving for his hometown Los Angeles Clippers and becoming the poster child for load management.

For Wembanyama, and for the Spurs, the future starts now

With Wembanyama, the question will eventually be answered. Will he be a Spur for life like the Admiral, Timmy and Manu or will his light become so bright that he will inevitably be scooped up by a large media market power like the Lakers, who returned to prominence with the signing of Shaquille O’Neal in the late 1990s, or the New York Knicks, who haven’t tasted championship champagne in 50 years?

San Antonio is unapologetically a smaller market, but it’s a place where he can settle into the massive expectations that are already on his shoulders. Sure, there are pundits out there saying he'll be a Knick before his 25th birthday, and while that could play great on Madison Avenue — he’s already the most popular athlete in France and the tallest box office attraction since late wrestling legend Andre the Giant — 1 AT&T Center Parkway will be the best proving ground for a young man who'll have to find his way not only on the basketball court, but culturally off it as well.

He’s well adjusted, and it’s obvious he's extremely comfortable in front of the cameras. If the Spurs get it right — and they have on several occasions — they will get another Duncan-like career from a soft-spoken giant who will put the game ahead of the fast lane and the Hollywood lifestyle.

And if Wembanyama can deliver the way Timmy did, and if the 74-year-old Popovich sticks around for another handful of years, the Spurs will be back in the chips, based on their tried and true method of success.

It will take a few more pieces.

And time.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: The San Antonio Spurs will groom top pick Wembanyama for greatness