Basketball sensation Victor Wembanyama is looking forward to a magical return to Paris as his amazing first year goes on.
The San Antonio Spurs, with Wembanyama, are set to play in the 2025 NBA Paris Game Coach Gregg Popovich confirmed they will be going to France next season. Wembanyama, 20, was born near Paris and played for a team there before joining the NBA.
He attended to the NBA Paris Game in 2023 and could be the main star in a year's time. The Spurs have played in Paris before, as they had a match against the Memphis Grizzlies in 2003. Tony Parker was great in that game, scoring 19 points. It was their first match after winning the NBA championship that year.
Popovich has been coaching the Spurs for a long time. By the time they go to Paris again, it will be his 29th season. He mentioned the trip to Paris when he was talking about a game in Austin, Texas. When asked if the Spurs would play in Paris next year, Popovich simply said: "Well, we're going there."
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Wembanyama was naturally asked about what would be a homecoming for him. "I'm looking forward to it very much," he told reporters.
"Obviously, it's going to be probably the game or the games that are going to be very important for me because, of course, it's me coming back from where I come from, especially might be in my city or around the city. So it's going to be very special.
"Also, it is going to allow me to see maybe my family in the middle of the season, which doesn't happen often. So it's great."
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Wembanyama considering the possibility of playing more than once in France comes months after Parker shared at this year's game that he expects two fixtures to be held in his country next season. If so, they would be the eighth and ninth games played there.
Nine years before the Spurs played the Grizzlies, the Golden State Warriors met the Charlotte Hornets in 1994. Preseason games also happened in 2008, when the New Jersey Nets beat the Miami Heat in overtime, and 2010, as the Minnesota Timberwolves topped the New York Knicks.
A decade later, the league had its first regular season game on French soil as the Hornets, who had French national team player Nicolas Batum on its roster, lost to the Milwaukee Bucks. The COVID-19 pandemic then shelved plans for the NBA Global Games until 2022.
The league returned to Paris in 2023, as Wembanyama watched the Chicago Bulls beat the Detroit Pistons. This year saw the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Nets.
All three regular-season games have happened during January, which seems like the window for Wembanyama's return next year. The expectation is that the Frenchman will also play in Paris this offseason for his national team at the Olympics.
* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story.