Victor Wembanyama enters rare territory even Jordan and LeBron never reached

At just 22 years old, Victor Wembanyama has set a bar for himself that you'd usually see for a well-established veteran star. After a loss in the 2026 NBA Finals, the pressure is on him to lead the Spurs to that stage again in 2027.

It's such a rare situation for someone heading into their fourth season; even Michael Jordan and LeBron James didn't have these sorts of expectations this early.

Think about it: the season before Jordan's fourth, the Bulls were just a 40-win team in the Eastern Conference. At that same point in his career, LeBron's Cavaliers were better, posting 50 wins.

Both squads made the playoffs, but obviously, they had very different results compared to Wemby's Spurs, who were close to winning a championship.

Now, of course, there are some downsides to being in this rare air. Critics will have less grace for Wemby moving forward. No longer is he a promising young, under-25 star trying to work his way into a winning situation.

Instead, he's someone who has officially arrived, and anything short of a championship will be seen as underwhelming.

Wemby has a chance to do something we haven't seen in a while

The post-LeBron James era is officially here. Of course, he's still active and playing, but gone are the days when his teams were automatic write-ins to make the NBA Finals.

The league is in the hands of the youngsters now, and we're just waiting to see which one of them sparks the next dynasty. Wemby is in a perfect position to do so.

At such an early stage of his career, he helped establish the Spurs as a Western Conference powerhouse. Since James, no other 22-year-old has done anything of that nature for their team. San Antonio's window for long-term success is wide open, and that won't change anytime soon.

The front office has already done an amazing job at surrounding Victor with young, talented players like Stephon Castle and Dylan Harper. Now, the job is to keep this core intact, but I don't believe that'll be an issue.

It's hard to imagine another team that's more likely to stamp itself as the NBA's next dynasty than the Spurs, given their astronomical success at the beginning of the Wemby era.

Victor must avoid the Luka Doncic problem

There was another player who looked somewhat similar to Wemby early in his career. In the early 2020s, the stars seemed to be aligned for Luka Doncic and the Mavericks to run the West. By the time he was 23, he led them to three playoff appearances and a trip to the Conference Finals.

Then he hit a bit of a wall. While his individual numbers were great, his conditioning and defensive issues became too noticeable, and his path towards leading the NBA's next dynasty got longer.

This isn't to say that he can't still make it happen—the man is only 27 and is still a top-five player—but he faced some serious stagnation in team success.

That should send a chilling message to Wemby. It's possible to lead a team to a red-hot start and look like the next big thing, but that momentum can be lost at the drop of a dime. For him, this means committing to getting better every chance he gets by filling out any remaining holes in his game.

Luckily, we shouldn't worry about complacency with Victor. He has the right mindset at such a young age, and that's been evident since the day he was drafted. His future is as bright as any other star in NBA history; now it's time for him to take the right steps to live up to the expectations.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow