The San Antonio Spurs are once again the toast of sports talk radio now that they've won the first pick in the NBA draft and the chance to draft Victor Wembanyama, the most heralded prospect in a generation.
Sports analysts have called Wembanyama a better prospect than Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Tim Duncan, and Shaquille O'Neill — and that's a lot to live up to.
"Shaq was so big and thick and strong and so was Magic and so was LeBron. And so was Duncan. He was so formidable," said Colin Cowherd on his show The Heard. "Seven-foot-three and still growing worries me a little bit. But I will say this. I think he landed in the right spot in San Antonio."
He added: "They won't screw it up. They've done transformational bigs: David Robinson, Tim Duncan. They've done international stars: Tony Parker, Manu Ginóbili. They know what they're doing. They're grown ups. They're the parents you want to drop your kids at. Not the party parents. They're the grown ups. You've got your kid you've got to drop them off for a couple of hours, go to the Spurs."
But there are some skeptics on how quickly that success may come for Wemanyama and the young Spurs. They include NBA Hall of Famer and analyst Charles Barkley.
"The Spurs ain't close to winning no championship, young fella. Y'all probably ain't gonna make the playoffs next year," Barkley said on Sirius XM NBA radio, responding to Wembanyama's statement that he aims to win a championship right away. "So this notion that just cause you're getting all this hype and you've been kicking ass in France all these years. ... You're probably going to be the third best team in Texas ... just in Texas."
The latest fuel to the Spurs "Wemby-Mania" discussions: veteran free agent point Guard Kyrie Irving. Las Vegas oddsmakers now have the Spurs as one of the top teams to land Irving.
Whether or not they choose to take a gamble on Irving with his off-the-court distractions in recent years, the Spurs do have considerable cap space to make some more splashes this summer to build around Wembanyama.
