Game by game, San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama is nestling himself into historical statistical company alongside some of the most vaunted NBA names ever.
Wilt Chamberlain. Hakeem Olajuwon. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Charles Barkley.
Wembanyama used Game 1 of the Western Conference finals to place his name with the greats once again. His 41-point, 24-rebound performance Monday night in the Spurs’ 122-114 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder was the 13th such game in NBA playoff history, according to Stathead, in which a player recorded at least 41 points and 24 rebounds.
And he did it on the day Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was awarded his second consecutive league MVP trophy, with Wembanyama — who finished third in the voting — looking on.
“I want to get that trophy,” the 22-year-old Spurs’ star said postgame.
This was the first such game since Barkley dropped 44 points and 24 rebounds against the Seattle SuperSonics in Game 7 of the 1993 Western Conference finals. What makes Wembanyama’s accomplishment even more remarkable, however, is the age at which he is producing some of the greatest playoff performances the sport has ever seen.
The Frenchman is the youngest player to post such a stat line at 22 years, 134 days old, surpassing Abdul-Jabbar, who was 22 years, 352 days old when he recorded 46 points and 25 rebounds on April 3, 1970. In just his third year in the league, Wembanyama is competing in his first playoff run and only his 11th postseason game.
In his fifth career playoff game, Wembanyama set the playoff record with 12 blocks in a Game 1 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round. The record book seems to expand with every passing day he plays.
When asked postgame about how this performance elevated his standing among the league’s best players, Wembanyama played it coy.
“The world is 8 billion people,” Wembanyama said. “There are a billion opinions.”
But not everyone does what he did Monday. Only generation-defining players have. Chamberlain accounts for eight of the 13 instances when players recorded at least 41 points and 24 rebounds in a playoff game. Wembanyama is just the second player to need two overtimes to accomplish the feat after Olajuwon posted 41 points and 26 rebounds against the Dallas Mavericks in 1988.
The Thunder had the ball with 40 seconds left in the first overtime and a three-point lead. Seconds later, Wembanyama stepped into a 27-foot 3-pointer to tie the game. It was the start of Wembanyama outscoring the Thunder 12-7 by himself across the second overtime to seal the victory.
His Game 1 showing was a display of dominance reserved for only the rarest players.
And at such a young age, it suggests there is still far more to come from Wembanyama.
