One bad bounce cost Spurs Nation the one Victor Wembanyama highlight we're still waiting for

We've traveled these NBA streets with Victor Wembanyama for three years now, and he's shown Spurs fans just about every tool in his kit. If he did it in France, for the most part, he's done it in the league. The one thing we're still waiting on is that putback dunk off his own missed three-pointer, and we came damn close.

Wemby went for 36 points on 14-of-25 shooting with 14 boards, five assists, three steals, and two blocks in Wednesday's 117-11 win in Utah. I didn't rewind very much of it. Vic is otherworldly, but he didn't do anything we haven't seen from him before.

The man is singular in his abilities.

But I did go back to see what could have been for this one. It was the closest we've come to the highlight that set basketball Twitter ablaze when he pulled it off in France months before he was drafted. Who knows how long it will be before the stars align again.

Wemby already dunked his own missed three but not in the NBA

On April 2, 2023, playing for the Metropolitans 92 against AS Monaco, Wembanyama crossed his defender up at the top of the key, rose into a stepback three, and missed it off the iron. Four steps later, he caught his own miss in midair and slammed it home in one motion. It looked alarmingly easy for the 7'4" phenom, and I've been waiting for a replica ever since he donned the silver and black.

Nearly three months later, the Spurs made him the first overall pick. That clip is a real chunk of why the hype arrived the way it did. We drafted the guy who dunked his own stepback miss in France, and never once have we seen him do it here. I don't believe it's because he's never tried either. It's just hard to get the timing down, and opponents are quick to box the Alien out.

They saw that damn clip, too, and nobody wants it to happen to them.

Wembanyama already brought the one-legged three to San Antonio

The rest of the France package cleared customs a long time ago. The one-legged three was a shot that looked like a video game glitch when he was launching it over Pro A defenders. It looked the same way when he did it in his rookie and sophomore seasons. We've seen Wemby make at least three of those stateside.

The raw material for the putback is there. He took 10 threes against the Jazz, and he's averaging six a night. He's making less than 30% of them, and we know he'll attack the glass. The attempts and misses open the door for the next part.

It's going to happen. The Alien has 77 more games to get it done this year, and that doesn't count the playoffs. Knowing him, he's already thought about it more than I have. I wouldn't even care if he pulled it off in a (regular season) loss, as long as he pulled it off, so we can all say we saw it live. That's my biggest Wemby wish, and it would make a hell of a highlight on his MVP tape.

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