Spurs forward Julian Champagnie has showered praise on Victor Wembanyama after the latter scored a career-high 50 points. The Frenchman led the San Antonio Spurs to a 139-130 win against the Washington Wizards on Wednesday night.
Wembanyama also registered a career-best eight 3-pointers as he played at his absolute best.
At 20 years and 314 days, Wembanyama is the fourth-youngest player to score 50 points. At 7-foot-4, he’s also become the tallest to achieve the feat.
“My first thought is eventually I want the rest of our performances, the rest of our games, to overshadow this one,” Wembanyama said. “I want to make it where in the future, [this is] just another one.”
“The big fella, man, when he comes out with that mindset, it’s a hard opportunity to deal with,” Spurs forward Julian Champagnie said. “Big praise to him, big shoutout to him. He’s working on his game. I don’t know what it was that he took personal, but he took something personal, went out there and hooped.”
Wembanyama was 8-16 on three-point shots and delivered for the Spurs. Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson was all praise for the youngster for his immaculate shooting.
“If you looked at them, they were good, rhythm shots,” Spurs interim coach Mitch Johnson said. “The gravity that he occupies, or pulls, is unique. So, when he makes shots away from the basket, it’s just going to pull that gravity, for sure.”
The 20-year-old said he doesn’t have much time to celebrate his milestone night as he is looking forward to the clash against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“I love to celebrate the small wins and the big wins for a certain amount of time,” he said. “But tomorrow, we’re already locked in on the Lakers. I’m going to give myself a little bit of time to reflect. It’s definitely a big milestone. It’s kind of a private club. It’s certainly something I’m proud of.”