Former Spur compares Wembanyama's work ethic to that of NBA legend

Landing a player like Victor Wembanyama in the NBA draft is nothing short of a dream come true. For so long, Wemby was hailed as one of the best draft prospects of a generation, and the hype surrounding him was simply massive before he ever even stepped foot on an NBA court.

The moment the Spurs' name was called in the 2023 NBA Draft Lottery will be forever written into the organization's history books. Of course, Victor still has a lot of work to do in order to live up to the generational hype surrounding his name, but it is fair to say that he has more than embraced that challenge so far. In his first season, Wembanyama was the NBA block champion, made an all-defensive team, and took home the Rookie of the Year award.

If anything, the expectations for Victor have only increased since he entered the league. Many are expecting great things from him, and some would even say the hopes are being set at an unhealthy high level. But the good thing is, we have seen time and again that he has the kind of mindset that will push him to rise to the occasion instead of crumbling under pressure.

We already saw the wild story from Wemby's dinner with Tom Brady, and now former Spur Sean Elliott has some big words for the young phenom as well. Appearing on Sirius XM Radio, Elliott compared Victor to Los Angeles Lakers legend and NBA Hall-of-Famer Kobe Bryant.

Elliott: Wembanyama has the "Kobe mentality"

"If you have to ask a big man to leave the gym, that’s unheard of," said Elliott. "I think he's got a little bit of that Kobe mentality. Not even a little bit, but a lot. He really wants to be the best in the game. He has the hunger and the desire." We have already seen several strong signs from how Victor approaches his career that indicates this being the case, but hearing these words from a man who competed against Kobe Bryant is even more telling.

We have to be abundantly clear here when discussing the fabled "Kobe mentality:" that is a mindset that is not normal. Period. Even professional athletes, and even the highest-level, best professional athletes there are, do not have the drive and desire to succeed that Bryant did. The work ethic he came prepared with is absolutely the exception rather than the rule among competitors.

Things like showing up to the gym to work out at four o'clock in the morning and proceeding to do four training sessions in a day is something that even the 1% of pro athletes would scoff at as ridiculous. But that is the kind of mentality Kobe had that Elliott is speaking of.

Being able to truly match that intensity that Bryant had during his career is a tall task, and no one should knock Victor if he does not work every bit as hard as Kobe did. But if Wembanyama approaches his career with even 50% of the reckless abandon that number 24 on the Lakers did, Spurs fans may want to prepare for the Frost Bank Center to expand their trophy cases.