Victor Wembanyama's quick rise to the top has been nothing short of legendary. Even the best players of all-time had to go through some growing pains to get to the top, but not for Wemby. At least, not until last night.
The San Antonio Spurs lost Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals to the New York Knicks, and Wembanyama didn't do much to help. He finished with 26 points, but most of those came at the free throw line, nailing 12 of 13 attempts.
Outside of that, he shot six-for-21 from the field, which included shooting two-for-nine from three. That includes six turnovers in a home loss. His performance should remind Boston Celtics fans of Jayson Tatum's first NBA Finals game, where he did not fare much better.
In his first finals game against Golden State, he put up 12 points on three-for-17 shooting, including shooting one-for-five from the field. To be fair, he also had 13 assists as well, but Tatum looked pretty bad.
Making it worse is that Tatum didn't get much better from there. He finished that series averaging 21.5 points, seven assists, 6.8 rebounds to go with 3.8 turnovers. He shot 36.7% from the field and 45.5% from three. When the damage was done, many pointed to Tatum for why the Celtics came up short.
If Wembanyama can't rise to the challenge like Tatum couldn't, that will definitely loom large in this NBA Finals matchup.
Note: the Celtics still won Tatum's first NBA Finals Game
Despite Tatum's struggles, Boston still won Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Finals thanks primarily to their shutdown defense and their hot shooting from distance. It was actually quite impressive since they were on the road going up against a team who had been there plenty of times before.
In fact, it was pretty impressive that Boston came away with the victory despite Tatum's struggles, but it was clear afterward that they couldn't survive without him. It was impressive on the Spurs' part that they gave the Knicks a pretty good fight until Game 1's closing minutes, but the loss similarly demonstrates that they won't be able to withstand another no-show.
It sounds ridiculous to put this kind of pressure on Wemby because it is still insane the steps he's already taking to get himself to this level. Beating the reigning champions is already insane enough. For what it's worth, Tatum did the same thing before making his first finals trip.
It's only one game, and the Knicks have been on a tear in these playoffs. Wembanyama's got time to figure this out, but like Tatum did four years ago, he has to adapt fast.
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