Ira Winderman: Heat poised for their Wembanyama ‘Wow, you’re tall’ experience
Things are looking up for the Miami Heat.
On Sunday in San Antonio, there will be no other choice, as they head into their first regular-season game against Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 Spurs big man who handles like a point guard, shoots like a shooting guard and blocks shots like a cross between Rudy Gobert and Manute Bol.
This won’t be the first exposure for the Heat to the 2023 No. 1 pick out of France, having faced the Spurs in Wembanyama’s preseason home debut.
And yes, the experience left an indelible impression.
As the Heat looked ahead to Sunday’s game at Frost Bank Center, center Thomas Bryant found himself still trying to wrap his head around what he experienced during the Heat’s preseason visit to San Antonio.
“That,” Bryant said, “was something very different.”
Bryant is 6 feet 10.
“There’s not too many people that I actually have to look up to,” he said with a smile of both bemusement and trepidation of what comes next, “and that was one of the very few times, I think probably twice in my life, where I actually had to look up to someone and say, ‘Wow, you’re tall.’
“I never thought that would come out of my mouth, to ever say that. It was something different.”
Wembanyama on that night went for 23 points, four rebounds, four assists and three blocked shots in 22:51.
It was just a warm-up act.
Already, there has been a 38-point performance in a road victory over the Phoenix Suns, a five-block game against the Toronto Raptors and a pair of games with three 3-pointers.
“He’s gonna take the world by storm,” said Bryant, who is in his seventh season and has seen plenty already. “I don’t say that about a lot of people. But him, you get a different sensation with a No. 1 pick like that. But then, also the hype that goes along with him, he lives up to every last bit of the hype, He’s one of the real ones.”
Having played for the Spurs, Heat swingman Josh Richardson said there could not have been a better landing spot than in San Antonio under coach Gregg Popovich.
“First of all, Pop’s coached some great international players in Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, Manu Ginobili, the list goes on, even Jakob Poeltl.
“Pop is going to have the right people around him. He’s going to have him playing the right way. He has teammates there who already play the right way.”
Richardson, 30, said even as a veteran he felt growth under Popovich. Now the NBA’s most experienced coach gets to mold his latest big man in the lineage of David Robinson and Tim Duncan.
“He gets to grow under Popovich,” Richardson said of Wembanyama, “and Ginobili is around, still working there, David Robinson’s always there. Tim’s there. So all the guys can gather around him and help him grow.”
When the Heat faced the Spurs in the preseason, most of the veterans remained behind.
That leaves Sunday as what could be an eye opener for Bam Adebayo, Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, Kevin Love, among others who got to sit out that October exhibition.
Among those who played for the Heat that night was forward Haywood Highsmith, who was limited to 2-of-9 shooting and one rebound against the NBA’s next big thing.
“I mean, he’s 7-4, 7-5 and he can already do guard things, play great defensively,” Highsmith said of the 19-year-old. “And you can tell he’s a competitor and wants to win. He’s not just out there just playing. He really loves basketball and he loves playing.”
Typically, veterans limit praise for such neophytes, somewhat take joy in their travails, as the Knicks did with Wembanyama’s struggles on Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.
But after just one exhibition matchup, Highsmith said he has seen plenty.
“He’s the full package,” he said. “He’s definitely like a different player than anybody I’ve ever seen. You try to compare him — he’s not like anybody.”
