Nikola Jokic And Victor Wembanyama Going Back And Forth Exchanging Haymakers Is What The NBA Is All About

Bart Young. Getty Images.

There are a lot of early signs that Victor Wembanyama is very much for real. Whether you prefer to point to his mind bending highlights or his historic on court production, there are a lot of ways you could go. One thing I love about him and something that I feel like really confirms to us that he's for real is how he came into the NBA and immediately was going toe to toe with the best players on the planet. Awesome battles with KD and Giannis, both sides putting up monster numbers and delivering incredible moments and dramatic games. The way he was showing out against these MVP caliber players right away was hard to ignore, and that was only Year 1. That was the baseline, not the ceiling. 

Enter Year 2 and it's been more of the same, only better. Wemby just played his 100th game, and I think it's fair to say he's not only the overwhelming favorite for DPOY, but he's playing his way onto All NBA 1st Team/Top 5 MVP consideration. It took 100 games for that to happen. Not only that, the Spurs are starting to win. 

As you can imagine, this new and improved Wemby also rises to the occasion when he's staring across the court at another best player in the world. This time it was Nikola Jokic, maybe you've heard of him. Only one of the greatest players to ever exist. So what happens? They deliver an incredible back and forth performance with each guy throwing haymaker after haymaker

Neither team was able to really generate any sort of separation outside of 5 points, and you have to give a shit ton of credit to the Spurs. It's not easy to hang with the Nuggets in that building on a night when Jokic is unstoppable and MPJ is hitting his 3s, but they found a way. They never got down after any sort of Nuggets mini-run and instead responded with late-game execution. That's what it's all about when you're on the road looking for the upset.

And for our viewing pleasure, with the game on the line it was Wemby vs Jokic. Future MVP vs the reigning MVP for all the marbles. You would think in this spot Jokic would simply use his size to overpower Wemby and yet….

What an absolutely incredible defensive possession from Wemby. He was going to block the Sombor Shuffle! Nobody ever blocks the Sombor Shuffle!

Devin Vassell with quite the decision to finish that dunk which very nearly came back to bite the Spurs in the ass but whatever. It made for a cool highlight and the Spurs got the win so no harm no foul. Instead, let's get back to focusing on what Wemby pulled off

Look at that reaction! That's what I mean when I say there are moments where Wemby shows us he's for real. This is one of them.

What other 21 year old big do you see going toe to toe with Jokic like this while playing in Denver? Going blow for blow with Jokic is about as rare as it gets, and to be doing that at age 21 makes no goddamn sense. This is only Year 2!! And not to get too ahead of myself, but the Spurs are 18-16 and just 1.5 games back of a top 4 seed in the West. All of a sudden, Wemby seems ready for the moment. A monster Christmas performance with the world watching, backing that up with more ridiculous performances and then capping those off with winning a battle against Nikola Jokic. It's maybe time to take the Spurs a little more seriously than you anticipated, Wemby is that good.

If we're already speeding up the timeline with Wemby and the Spurs, that means if you're a fan of a team that has title aspirations, you better hurry up and get to the top of the mountain, because this dude is coming and with him will come wins and title contention. That's how the NBA works for generational talents, and by all accounts that's exactly what we're dealing with here.