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With the 2024 Olympics taking place in his home country, San Antonio Spurs rookie phenom Victor Wembanyama intends to play for France.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the 19-year-old said he will be on the French national team next summer.
“Performing well at the Olympics would be a great story,” Wembanyama said. “I’ll be present at the Olympics, and there’s no other goal than gold.”
Even though Wembanyama elected to skip the 2023 FIBA World Cup in order to prepare for his first season in the NBA, he’s been very clear for months that playing in the Olympics is on his list of objectives.
“It’s not an option. I’ll be at the Olympics,” he told reporters in May after the NBA Draft Lottery. “I don’t intend to do anything else. For me, the club and the national team are as important as each other so I have no reason not to want to win titles with my national team.”
Wembanyama’s dream scenario, as he told French broadcaster and writer Pascal Giberné last fall (h/t ESPN’s Sam Borden), “is to beat Team USA in the final” to win a gold medal.
The French men’s national basketball team tied their best-ever Olympic finish with a silver medal at the Tokyo Games. They lost to the United States, 87-82, in the final. It was the country’s first Olympic medal since 2000.
France was one of the most disappointing teams in the World Cup last month. Coming off back-to-back bronze-medal wins in 2014 and 2019, the country finished 18th overall and lost two of its three games in the opening round group stage.
As the host country of the 2024 Games, France won’t have to go through the qualification process.
Wembanyama’s arrival in the NBA has already created a tremendous amount of hype leading up to the Spurs reporting to training camp on Oct. 3. He’s coming off a 2022-23 season with Metropolitans 92 in France’s Pro A League in which he was named MVP, best scorer and best defender.
The Spurs selected Wembanyama No. 1 overall in the 2023 NBA draft. His first game will be on Oct. 16 against the Houston Rockets.
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