Victor Wembanyama's rapid growth leaves LeBron James as reporter's only comp

The Athletic's Jared Weiss has been tasked with following the Silver and Black closely this season, so he's been following the team since training camp. Before the first game of the season, Jared went on Nate Duncan's podcast to talk about Victor Wembanyama, among Spurs-related topics. He had this to say about The Alien.

"He is such a different player already... You can't put labels or expectations on Victor. He's one of a kind." "He's on a similar track to LeBron when LeBron got to the league. And I can see him getting to a similar place." - Jared Weiss

It's hard to argue with him after what everyone just witnessed at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas. It was a real "where were you when" kind of moment. In LeBron's first game in his third season, he dropped 31 points, three rebounds, four assists, and two steals. He was a +22 in a win over the New Orleans Hornets. Not even The King had a night like Vic just had, but close enough, right?

The Wembanyama prophecy is coming true before our eyes

Vic is amazing so often that everyone is running out of superlatives to describe him, and he's only in his third season. I spent a lot of time watching the major sports talk shows on ESPN and Fox Sports today. Many of the analysts are already on the brink of calling the San Antonio star the best player in the league right now.

He's turned skeptics into believers after one game. This should have been somewhat predictable, though. I'll maintain that he's been living up to the hype from day one. The scouts told us that he had the potential to be the greatest player of all time. In his rookie season, he averaged 21 points, 11 rebounds, four assists, a steal, and nearly four blocks a game. That's not normal.

His offense was ahead of schedule from the beginning. The criticisms of his game were about his shot selection, but it should have always been obvious what was taking place. He was too skinny to fight his way into the lane with consistency, and he knew it. Wemby tried to drive into the lane often at the beginning of his rookie year, and most of the time, he ended up being pushed around, leading to a turnover.

It also wasn't as easy as just going and posting up because he ran into the same problem. Stronger guys would push him around. So, he shot more threes, trying to find a way to be effective and soften the defenses he was seeing. Now he has the strength to do the bullying, and we're seeing the result.

Now, the only thing standing between Victor Wembanyama and a Hall of Fame career is time. He's already one of the best players we've ever seen. He just needs time to rack up the accomplishments that come with that.