Some years, the NBA Draft Lottery can be skipped or dismissed by casual fans. This year is not one of those. The team that won the lottery would get the right to draft Victor Wembanyama, a highly coveted big man from France. San Antonio eventually heard its name called for the top pick, but ESPN didn’t come off great in the lead up to that moment according to Shan Shariff.
The Dallas morning man said Wednesday on 105.3 The Fan that the network came off looking desperate in the way it hyped up what Wembenyama is expected to be in the NBA. He pointed out that NBA Insider Adrian Wojnarowski said that Wembanyama “could be the greatest prospect in the history of team sports” multiple times on the broadcast.
“We’re watching the draft on y’all’s network,” he said after playing a clip of Woj. “Mike Greenberg kind of did the same stuff. Like, is ESPN that desperate to make up the money they’re throwing at McAfee to hype this to this degree?”
Shariff asked if Wembanyama was as great of a prospect as LeBron James. His partner RJ Choppy said no and then pointed out that the hype was even more absurd given that James and the Los Angeles Lakers were playing on the network just ten minutes later.
He added that ESPN is a network built on sports and should know its history. There are plenty of other people in the category they were putting Victor Wembenyama on Tuesday night.
“Shaq would like a word too. Magic and Larry have something to say on this. Bryce Harper wants your input. John Elway and Peyton Manning also would like to say, ‘Hey! Hello! Over here.’ You can make a play without sounding like an idiot.”
Shan Shariff tried to put the hype in some context. It could be a necessity. Wembanyama is very good, but a lot of American NBA fans may not know it.
“I don’t think that you can be the most hyped here if you are playing in France. You know what I mean? Like, if you were playing high school All-American games or college here, then the hype be even louder because we’re all watching your games nonstop.”
For the Spurs and Wembanyama, all they can do now is wait. Sure, teams may reach out and see what the team would want to trade the pick, but it seems unlikely a deal will be made. That means we could be in for radio silence until draft day, which is June 22.
