Boston Celtics reporter: Victor Wembanyama ‘malnourished’ version of Bulls center

Boston Celtics beat reporter Jay King of The Athletic continues to have the spiciest Victor Wembanyama takes on the internet — following up both his claim that LeBron James knew the 2023 NBA draft’s No. 1 overall pick would be a bust and chose to miss his debut to watch Cooper Flagg play instead and the other, that the 19-year-old Frenchman was merely the offensive version of one of his countryman (Rudy Gobert) that actually had a greenlight on offense, with a comparison to current Chicago Bulls center Andre Drummond.

To King, Wembanyama is just a “malnourished” version of Drummond. Ouch.

“Yes, Victor Wembanyama had a much better game today,” King prefaced before saying, “He still missed five free throws in a game his team lost by, you guessed it, five points. He’s been advertised as the best prospect of a generation but all I see is malnourished Andre Drummond.”

Boston Celtics reporter unfair to Victor Wembanyama after monster performance

Somehow, despite Wembanyama vastly improving upon his debut performance with a monster 27-point, 12-rebound, three-block performance, King’s insults have gotten worse. If anything, Wembanyama’s dynamic outing, one where he spread the floor and hit 3-pointers and essentially back-to-papa’d a miss to himself for a one-man alley-oop, should quiet the haters.

The Houdini was guilty of thinking Wembanyama wasn’t able to match the bright lights of the NBA after his lackluster Las Vegas debut, but if anything, the big man proved he can silence the critics by responding to them in such a big way. King’s critique doesn’t match the eye test of what fans just witnessed, and to be fair, being compared to an above-the-rim presence like Drummond or a defensive ace like Gobert is hardly the worst thing a basketball player could be called.

But much respect was most certainly earned by Wembanyama at the Thomas & Mack Center on July 9.