Victor Wembanyama gave the NBA another jolt on Monday night, scoring 40 points and pulling down 20 rebounds in Game 1 of the West finals while burying a Steph Curry-style, logo-adjacent three-point shot in crunch time. At 22 years old and already the league’s most unusual force, the seven-foot-four center kept turning a game into a showcase.
The numbers off the floor are starting to look just as loud. Wembanyama ranked fourth among all NBA players in jersey sales this season, trailing Stephen Curry, Luka Dončić and Jalen Brunson but finishing ahead of LeBron James, Anthony Edwards and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. That puts him in rare company for a player this young, and it helps explain why his reach now cuts across ticketing, merchandise and collectibles as much as it does the box score.
The Spurs are leaning into that momentum. Last week, they announced nine developers selected to oversee a new $1.3 billion stadium and sports district project, and this week the team said it will play regular-season NBA games in Paris in January. That follows a successful Week Paris tour last February, part of a broader push to turn Wembanyama into a global draw well beyond San Antonio.
Brands and trading-card companies have already moved. LVMH signed Wembanyama to its Louis Vuitton brand in 2024, and Fanatics has an exclusive memorabilia deal with him. Ben Burrows said he is already the athlete with the sixth-most graded cards ever, a reminder that the market around him is expanding almost as fast as the highlights.
There is a reason the NBA is treating this stretch like a window, not just a playoff run. The league is finishing the first year of its eight-year, $70-some billion TV rights deals, and stars who can move viewers, sell jerseys and push international interest matter in a way that goes beyond one series. Wembanyama is doing all of it at once.
Game 2 between the Spurs and Thunder is scheduled for NBC at 8:30 p.m. ET tonight, giving him another stage and the league another chance to see how far one player can carry a season’s worth of business, attention and anticipation.
