Basketball

Wembanyama vs. Scoot, Game 1 Film Study: Why it was the best NBA Draft prospect game of the century



It’s rare that anything lives up to its billing if it’s been hyped beyond belief. The standard is even more questionable when the game is ostensibly a manufactured exhibition for NBA scouts that neither team needs to actually win in order to achieve its goals for the season.

But the game between Metropolitans 92 and the G League Ignite on Tuesday night — the first of two games in three days between the two sides — wasn’t just any exhibition. It was pitched as a battle for the No. 1 overall pick, with the clear top two prospects entering the 2023 NBA Draft evaluation season getting a chance to perform in front of over 200 NBA scouts and evaluators in Las Vegas.

And boy, did Victor Wembanyama and Scoot Henderson exceed an almost impossible-to-top level of hype. Seen as two potential franchise changers that will inspire tanking across the bottom of the league, Wembanyama and Henderson showed out and proved exactly why there is such a level of enthusiasm and excitement regarding their future. The actual outcome of the game (the Ignite won) was almost superfluous to the spectacle itself, a spectacular showcase for two hyper-elite talents to confirm for everyone in attendance and watching around the globe that the future of the league is in good hands. Wembanyama dropped 37 points, hitting seven 3s and blocking five shots — a ridiculous achievement that has only been done once previously in NBA history. And Henderson dropped 29 points, grabbed five rebounds, and dished out nine assists versus only two turnovers.

In the process, the duo set the standard for all prospect matchups to be judged by for a long time. It is rare to get two players in the same class that could realistically be called two of the 10 best prospects of the last decade. It’s even rarer for them to face off, and even more extraordinary for them to dominate in the way these two did.





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