Wemby Vs USA Olympic Update

you would, thank you very much. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Spurs fans, basketball fans, it doesn't matter today We're going to be talking Olympic basketball, talking a little bit about Victor Wembanyama, of course, and his appearance in these twenty twenty four Olympics, and we'll be talking a little bit about his stats. We'll talk about the Olympics in the past as well. We'll talk a little bit about that kind of bump in the road for the United States in two thousand

and four. Yeah, we'll talk a little bit about that we had a good team, why couldn't we play well? We'll talk about some of the players on that team, and we'll go from there. We'll talk a little bit about the legacy of Lebron James, just a little bit because this is a Spurs network, of course, and we're going to talk more about Victor Wmbanyama and the loss for fran What did this do for the country as

a whole. The women's Olympic team went to the gold medal round against France as well, so a good showing for United States and French culture when it comes to the game of basketball. And if you watch the games, there were a lot of surprise teams this year. Serbia played very well. I think could have played a little better. I think they really tried to lean too much on the joker, and this is why they kind of fell to the wayside. You had some surprise teams like the

su Dan giving the United States a scare. That was a scare. I don't care what you guys think, and I think that woke up the sleeping Giants saying we don't want to end up like the two thousand and four team the last time the United States won a bronze and big round of applause though to the United States plays with everything we've been going through. The Avengers went over there, got another gold medal. This is our

fifth straight Olympic basketball men's gold medal. And no matter how you look at it, some people say, yes, they're expected to win the gold. They are every year. They're the New York Yankees, they're the Dallas well we won't say Dallas cutboys. Sorry guys, no cheering, turn that off. We wanted more of this. There you go, Thank you, mister movie phone. I know you're a cowboy fan.

of the basics are gone. Everybody wants to break angles, they want to put posterizing on people, and they want to pull up from half court like Steph Curry. But what wins games in the end, hitting your free throws, making shots and being humble. That's what it comes down to at the end of the day. I know three pointers have really taken over the sport of basketball, but bringing in people like Yanasaka Patumbo, bringing in people like a Joe LMB, Joker Luca and now Victor Winbinyama doing

different things at these heights we've never seen. The game is going to evolve back into a big man sport. But I think the big man will become get ready to laugh. I know you want to laugh, your point guard. I think the talent will get bigger and bigger and bigger. And I think the addition of ways to train these days make a level playing field for anybody at any size. I just do. I know that's a crazy thing that I just threw at you, ol, but I honestly believe that.

And these big men are gonna be the ones to change the game. Maybe they won't go to point guard. Even though Wemby brought the ball up thirty percent of the time last year. Want you to keep that in mind. Thirty percent of the time he brought the ball up. I mean, we see that with Kukadonic in Dallas, we see that with the Joker in Denver. Will we see that in San Antonio. I think Wemby's going to be good enough to play just about any position on the floor.

I think you're going to see him bring the ball up once in a while. I think you'll see him on the wing mostly. And it's crazy to see if you watch these Olympic games. Let's transition to that Olympic game real quick. In the Olympics, the team France was using Wemby the same way that the Spurs did at the beginning of the year. For some reason, they just wouldn't get him the ball in the position he needs

the ball. There were several opportunities throughout the whole game against the United States, Wemby wide open on a cut to the basket, Wemby wide open at the top of the key. Maybe they didn't have trust in the youngster to carry them. This is the way that I look at it. You had a lot of veterans on the floor for France. I think a lot of aging players go bear fourgnier da colo. I think they're all getting up there a little bit. Now, there's a reason why

Dicolo got traded from the Spurs. Dacolo on team France. Great player, good player. Let's downgrade that though, to a good player better than me, but just good player. And you saw his defensive breakdown in the final minute thirty eight, ing in Steph. If you miss that, then you're not a basketball fan. If you thought it was just all chef Curry cooking up sauce. Yes, yes, to make the basket, I get it. Yes, there's talent behind shooting the basket. Yes,

Steph is one of the greatest of all time. Yes, Steph is one of my favorite players. Yes, but let's pump the brakes a little bit. Pump the brakes. Three defensive letdowns by Diacolo. Go back and watch the end of the game when the US won. Watch the mannerisms of the players. Diacolo was heartbroken. And I don't mean because he just lost the gold medal for his country, but a big major reason, ladies and gentlemen, if you

watch he lost the gold medal for his country. I think the team, in the long run, lost its self. They needed to be a little bit better behind the arc, the free point arc. I think they were five or six threes. Well after Steph hit his three day in the game, I think they were about eight or nine three pointers behind the United States as far as makes.

Also one thing that absolutely drives me bonkers, And if we had a drop in the background here, I'd probably drop a breaking of glass or pulling my hair out if I had some. I hate it when people can't hit free throws. Yes, continue to laugh for a little minute because they're called free throws. France missed a lot of free throws. This game should have been would have been a lot closer. But this is why they play

the games. This is why they play the games. And I know it sounds like I'm heartbroken that the US one. I'm going to give you my breakdown of me watching this game in a minute. I'm an American, I'm a Texan, and I'll be honest with you. I'm a whimby guy. Now I'll tell you where my allegiance lied on this day. Now back to the game a little bit. What I

love about the Olympics. I'm sitting and watching it with my ten year old and he sees that Lebron only has seven points at halftime, and I look at him and I said, the international game is completely different. The physicality of the game is more physical than the NBA. If you're saying it's not, you're insane. In the NBA, they want scoring to be one thirty eight point twenty. They want to see two three hundred points a night put on the board so they can put fans in

the seats. Offense sells seats, Defense wins championships. Well, in the Olympics, you're going for the ultimate championship. You're representing your country. You're representing each and every person that are back here in their states watching their countrymen. I think a bigger honor than the NBA title. Anthony Davis put it best for the Olympics. He said this is one game. This is not a seven game series.

of ad revenue. This why you're going to see people like Wembin Yama and Luca be your first ever one hundred million dollar players a year. Don't be surprised when Wemby goes to sign that rookie contract that it's close to ninety million a year. He may be close to the first ever billionaire athlete. I want you to think about that. Would you give Luca a billion dollar contract? Joker? Where are they at in their career in the middle right, Luca's on the verge. Luca's the next one that'll get

a title. He will. I believe it could be as early as this year or next. Sorry, Spurs fans, I think will be in the mix, but I honestly believe around year four is when Wemby's going to be completely dominant with a team that he is gelled with. We'll talk about the future of the Spurs here to close the podcast today, but to see this type of play

is different. A lot of battling looks like there's a lot of goaltends, a lot of euro side steps that look like you're traveling, and a lot of the plays today, like I was talking about earlier as I coached my young kids, plays today, we forget to teach them basics. Everybody wants to teach that crossover killer. Let's get forty two cones out, jump over them, do a flip, try to be like Jet Lee on a basketball court. It's because of the damn video games. Video games have made

it seem like sports are easy. But I want to give a shout out to legendary YouTuber Jesser, who has a great basketball channel. We watch it all the time in our house. Jesser did a workout of Russell Westbrook. I think it was just a warm up of what Westbrook goes through before a game. Insane. Now imagine the effort they put into practice, training and games. This is what they train for people. You're not an athlete. I'm

not an athlete. I am in my yard. That's cool enough to make me look like a superhero to my kids. That's all I care. But if you're sitting there saying, oh, I could do that, No you can't. Young kid maybe, but us armchair quarterbacks, you can't do it. So this is why I love teaching the kids basics, because we need the basics first. And the difference between the international game and the United States game, as we're talking about

more physical. I laughed at Barkley and all them at the beginning of the year when they talked about when bin Yama getting thrown around really well, you forget about how quick Euros are. Europeans seem to be a lot quicker than us. We may be more bred to be bigger, physical, muscle slender, but Euros have a lot of different passing techniques, different speed drills. And the crazy thing that I love about the eurogame, I'm going to watch more of Foeba

because Foba's just really fun to watch. Is it's a team game. The movement on the floor, the passing of the ball. It kind of reminds me of the Spurs against the Heat the year they dominated them. I think it was four to one. They beat them in the series, I believe. I can't remember the one where Qui just went off. This is the same thing, just a different game when it comes to phoeba. So United States had to adjust, They had to gel. You have this many people,

this many egos, ladies and gentlemen. It takes a little bit to gel. It truly does. In the United States comes out on top. A great game from Devin Booker, a great game from Steph and let's close the United States Olympic gold win with this. Steph Curry put on a Jordan esque moment, and I'm gonna give it to him. It was great to see, really great to see, you know. And this is where Lebron James can get a rock be caught between a rock and a hard place. And

I understand where he's coming from. You're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't. I was getting ready to make funny of you, but then I just realized, you know what, Lebron doesn't have to score seventy points in a foeba game. He can average nine points a game. Even one of the greatest to ever do it, Kobe Bryant, only averaged fifteen points in the Olympics because he had a squad around him. You have four or five players that can average thirteen, fourteen to fifteen points a game.

That's sixty points in the FOBA game, seventy five if you average fifteen points times five. I know that was fast for some of y'all. Right there, we've got a brain like a calculator. But that's all you really need is you need five really good players that could score average. You're averaging seventy five points a game in Foeba, and that's why FOBA can win. This is why you see players like Joker Luca Wemby be better than some of these players just because of their skill set. So they're

averaging twenty points a game or more. But congratulations to the United States picking up their fifth gold medal in a row twenty straight years. If you really want to break that down, and the last breakdown for the United States, let's talk about it a little bit. I was going to go through all the rosters and see why we won, why we lost. But let's go just to the loss We haven't talked about this in a very long time. We had a very strong line up here in twenty

twenty four. A lot of ego driven mentalities on this team. And that's one of the reasons why I'll tell you who I went for in a moment now. The two thousand and four Athens Summer Olympics, the men's went bronze baby, and that's because of Manu Genovai Yep and Argentina. See how I led that into the San Antonio Spurs Weekly podcast right there. Manu, this was his year. He put the league on notice. In twenty four at the Athens Summer Olympics. Of course, the winners of the gold medal

was Argentina. Argentina beat the United States to get into the gold medal round. Argentina went on to win. Here's that team for the United States in two thousand and four. Carmelo Anthony, who was who was the leading scorer in the Olympic history. Now that belongs to who took that over? Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant just took it over Carlos Boozer, Tim Duncan on this team, Alan iverson lebron James Richard, Jefferson, Stefan Marberry, Sean I, Marion, Lamar odom A Mecca Okaphor,

Amari Stademar and d Wade. Larry Brown was your coach Spurs fans. Can you see where they went wrong? Larry Brown was the coach. Larry Brown fantastic coach. Don't get me wrong. He had a lot of talent here in San Antonio. He should have won a title here. Larry Brown at the time was great for coaching because the team, the game was making a transition. It was going more back to fundamentals, the big man in the middle, the fast point guard. This is something Larry Brown could coach.

But at the time, right around the mid two thousands, beginning of the two thousands of the euro game was really changing the way America looked at their game. And I believe this was your downfall. A mix of different types of basketball. And finally the United States put their ego to the side and said we need to start looking at European players more to draft. This is why

you have the Jokers, the Wemby's. We'll throw Tim Duncan in there, mister and Islands, Tony Parkermanu genomally, the whole Spurs team really showed what international ball was all about. Let's be honest. Yes, you had your Tony co coaches of the world. You also had your Man Sharuna's Marcelonis, I'll go back Paedristajakovic. You had your Europeans that came over here and made an impact. But then to see what they all can do together as a team. The

Spurs started doing that. They kind of still do that. They developed the international flavor and when we started winning all the titles in ninety nine, oh three, oh five, oh seven and fourteen international teams, Poris Diou came along other players like that. You're like, oh another French player, Oh another Serbian player, Oh oh Tiago Splitter. This was the Spurs. So the game change and I believe this is why two thousand and four men's Olympic team struggled.

But if you look at this roster, Carmelo, you can't go against Carmelo. He had an amazing Olympic rung. He has three I think he has three gold medals and a bronze. I believe Carlos Boozer though Tim Duncan definitely Iverson definitely, James definitely. I love Richard Jefferson as a person, but not as an Olympian. Stefan Marberry in two thousand and four, Marlberry maybe Marion no Odum, no okafor no stod Omeyer at that time. Sure d Wade a young

d Wade. Absolutely, So half this roster was booty. Let's be honest, people, Booty, I'm calling it booty. Good players, some future Hall of Farmers, some good coaches right now, but Booty. You had a mix of players that played basic to ankle breaking, egotistical to humble. This was not a good team. Carmelo attitude, Lebron Young attitude, Duncan, mister fundamental, You think you fit in with this group? No, he didn't. This is why we lost and got the Browns medal.

Then you take a look at the team we had to win the goal this year. And let's get ready to close with this on the show today. Thank you for sticking around. We had a lot to talk about this year's team. Beast Beast Bama Byo right off the bat. Love him, Steph Curry, love him, Devin Booker, love him, Anthony Davis, good pick, Kevin Durant, amazing defense in the Olympics, Anthony Edwards amazing defense in the Olympics. Joel Embiid, We'll move on. This man gets more injured than a toddler

bumping around for the first time walking. Great player and this ain't don't say because he put up seventy against the Spurs. I swear I'll come through this podcast at you. But the funny thing is great player. Love Embiid. I just don't think he was a good fit. Or actually, you know what, I don't think he was used right. Kurt didn't use him right because he's not used to having a big man. Keep that in mind. Tyrese Haliburton

didn't see a lot of playing time. I thought it was a good pick as far as mister fundamental and a shooter. Drew Holliday loved this pick. A leader, a guy, I'll do what he needs to do to win. Lebron James needed to be on this team for his last one. Same thing with Steph. We needed that veteran leadership. And it's hard to look at Lebron and Curry and say, man, they're at the end of their run. We need that veteran leadership man. But they can still do it, can't

they They both had great tournament runs. Jason Tatum a man who can't play defense. I love Tatum too. I wanted him here in San Antonio at one time play defense.

talk a little bit about that. Wemby actually struggled just a little bit in the Olympics, and it's understandable. Maybe this is why he didn't get the ball a lot. He's twenty years old. He just went from fever rules to pro rules back to feb rules. It's difficult to do so for the Americans to win five straight goals, that's astonishing because they have to learn those rules over and over again. I was taking look at his stats and as stats were decent for FOEBA and decent for

the Olympics because I compared. Of course, I looked up Kobe, and Kobe was fifteen points a game Wemby Yama through five games played in the Olympics. Here, it's decent for what he did. You look at the first couple numbers, you're like, oh, that's all right for FEBA rules. He played almost thirty minutes a game. That's what he averaged in the NBA, just under thirty's points per game. We're

about fourteen. Big game was twenty six rebounds, ten assists, three steals, two blocks, two but two turnovers a game. Those turnovers hurt Wemby last year, and I believe this is something he'll clean up a little bit as the years to come. But what really killed me as a Spurs fan, and it probably killed Popovich. Field goal percentage Wemby was atrocious, thirty seven percent from the field of sixty four. A lot of his points were put backs,

ali oops, setups. His shot was not there in the Olympics three point shot twenty six percent, eight of thirty from behind the arc. I am not demeaning this young man because I am a huge, active advocate, the advocate of when beIN Yama. I have been since we drafted him, I always will be. I look at him as a David Robinson, not necessarily the game, but someone who's going to change this team and the culture around I believe that he is a Spur. He's fit to be a Spur.

The Spurs are trying to line up a decent contract for him already. You can see that by trying to put a new workout facility in place at the Rock here in San Antonio. You can also see that they're putting money into a new stadium downtown. There's something going on in the world, and we don't know what it is. Aerosmith used to say, Well, we're saying that now as Spurs fans. There's something in the air. You kind of sense it. You don't know what it is. Well, I'm

gonna tell you who it is. It's Victor Wimbinama. Regardless of a poor shooting performance in the Olympics, the final game was his coming out party. If you think about it, it took a couple of games in the NBA right for him to get going well. Against Dallas the first game he came out a little bit, but to really get in that rhythm Foba is the same way. When you're only practicing and playing with the French national team once a year, that's tough to do. So this is why

he moves down the roster a little bit. They know what he can do. To have a player his caliber, to put him in there is what they need him for. So as Spurs fans, as much as we wanted to see Wimby on the floor and know what he can do, guess what he's being protected because this year is going to set up an amazing and this is why we love wem Beanyama. Here in San Antonio after the game, the humility of this young man was second to none.

I have not seen a player cry like that since Michael Jordan grasping the title the year after his father died. When our Americans do it, it doesn't seem genuine. It doesn't. I didn't see anybody crying on the Olympic team, and you can send me an email or clip if I missed it. But wembin Yama was in a great embrace with Kevin Durant. This is his favorite players, the equivalent of Kobe coming over to Lebron Jordan coming over to Kobe.

Lebron gave wemby the name the Alien. Kevin Durant, one of the ambassadors for the sport over the last fifteen years along with st and Lebron, became the ambassador to speak for the elders. You could see it in the embrace. You can see Kevin saying, this league is yours. The league is onnotice because of you. Look what you did here today for your team to keep you guys in it. And he did it wasn't just him man Vaselli. Can we give a big round of applause for number seven

Vaselli on France. This man played over here, played okay, but didn't get the contract he wanted, and he did something unique. He kind of reminds me of the movie Jerry Maguire. When he went into his final year of his contract, he either could play or re up his contract. If he re upped his contract, he got less money, but if he played well his final season, he becomes a free agent on the market and would make tons

of money. Well, he risked it and said, I'll play for the contract I'm under right now and next year I'll become a free agent. Well, you kind us kind of have seen this the passing of the torch, and Wemby is lining up the same way, mister humility. It was good to see the embrace with Kevin. It was good to see him go over to his mama and cry because I think of my children at six and ten, winning little championships, losing championships, crying and being happy in

the emotions. That's the same emotion we saw in this kid. Wemby, if you're listening, this season is yours. Don't let the ego of that statement infect your mental It's just motivation. They're putting out great commercials for you. Your face is on things. Slowly, you are slowly becoming the face of the NBA. And in what a great face, What a great face. We didn't really see that in San Antonio with Tim Tony Manu David as super superstar. They were superstars.

But this kid's an enigma. It's going to be a different ride here in San Antonio. Folks, be ready and Wemby, if you're listening, you are a spur Son. You are you fit the mold. You humility, your respect, your honor for the game. You're bringing it back you're bringing it back, and we applaud you. This is why Chris Paul's a great fit. Mister ambassador of the NBA, in the players Union, mister NBA outside of the court, works with the community

and people. You don't know what the Spurs are going to do, and we end every show that way, but they're prepped, primed, and ready for a pretty good run. The West is deep, we know this. I don't see the Spurs winning seventy games. I don't see any team eclipsing sixty in the next couple of years to win the West. And we're going to see a lot of teams that don't win the West at the one seed, win the conference at the end of the year and represent the Western Conference Finals and the NBA Finals for

the West. These are my beliefs on the future of the Western Conference in the NBA, even though you have teams like the Lakers kind of slipping. But I believe that JJ Reddick experiment is fantastic. He's a great college recruiter. He understands the collegiate game as well as the NBA game. So to understand the collegiate game, you see who's coming up, who he'd like who would fit the system. I think the Lakers are going to be a different team in the next five years. It's gonna be fun to watch.

But it's nice to see when Ben Yama bringing back humility to San Antonio. And I'm not saying the other players didn't. Devin Vecelle, Jearmy so Hand Collins, they are all that San Antonio Mold, Harrison Barnes, Chris Paul, they're here. They got rid of the people that are a little egotistical. I didn't understand the David Boston junior signing. We'll talk about that later on because Davante Graham was the same player. But I understand we had to move Davante to get

certain pieces. But Davonte Graham, even though he's a great player, love watching Buzzard beaters by him, great player on the floor, he just wasn't a Spur. Wasn't a Spur, and you know certain players are not Spurs. And Dennis Rodman but did what he had to do while he was here in San Antonio. And that's what you see right now with a lot of these other players. But the San

Antonio Spurs may I get ready. They are prime prepped and ready and I am so excited just because of the additions of Chris Paul and how wem Bin Yama lost in the finals against the Mighty Avengers of the United States. He almost became Theenos, almost became thenos on this day, ladies and gentlemen. But he will be Fatos because he will have the hardware and the rings to prove it in the future. The NBA knows it, we

know it. But we've got to be prepped, ready and be patient and get ready for the twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five season with the San Antonio Spurs. A couple of weeks already starts the preseason.