Part of the reason Victor Wembanyama is such an exciting prospect as he prepares to enter the NBA revolves around his ability to do things that come straight out of a video game. One example came earlier this season when he pulled up from three, missed, and executed a putback dunk on his own miss. It is one of the more wild things someone has done on the basketball court, and during his recent cameo on “The Old Man and the Three,” Wembanyama explained that this helped win an old teammate a bet.
Two of @vicw_32’s Nanterre teammates bet on if he’ll ever throw down a putback dunk off his own 3-point attempt. And it happened sooner than expected.
Full episode with @jj_redick and @talter: https://t.co/f8jxB4Xvh4 pic.twitter.com/Kwoe5hDioH
— TheOldMan&TheThree (@OldManAndThree) June 21, 2023
As Wembanyama tells it, during his time with Nanterre 92, a pair of teammates were laughing and looking over at him. He asked what was going on, and he was told that a bet was placed where money was put on the line over whether he could miss a three and then do a putback dunk. This is, of course, an insane thing to bet on, but fast forward to this season and Wembanyama managed to do just that.
“I actually did it this year!” he said. “I didn’t try to do it, it was just natural. So, a couple days after the game, I called one of these teammates and I told him, ‘Yeah, it happened.’ He was like, what? ‘What? You don’t remember? You just won a thousand bucks, this bet with that teammate that I would do that in my career, it happened sooner than expected.”
My question is how this idea could even pop into a person’s head, but credit to that ex-teammate for cooking this up, and credit for Wembanyama for helping them win some cash.