Try asking what Victor Vembanyama needs to do to reach his full potential and the first thing most people will say is build muscle. When you look at all these giants of athletics playing in the North American league, it seems like there is simply no other way to compete on equal terms with them. However, the young French player, who arrived in the NBA last year at the age of 19, has shown that he can get by without a ton of muscle. But what will happen if Victor keeps gaining muscle mass?
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Vembyyama’s anthropometric data is the first thing that catches your eye when you look at him. Even without doing anything, the center attracts attention. The nickname Alien, which was given to Vemby at the instigation of LeBron James, seems to personify him perfectly. Victor’s profile on the official NBA website indicates that he is 224 cm tall and weighs 95 kg. These two indicators in the case of the Frenchman are a completely different matter. And if it seems that we have already more or less decided on the height, then the weight, which is now of primary interest to us, is still not entirely clear. Information about it varies and different sources present their data. But one way or another, how many kilograms the young Frenchman weighs has long been a concern for basketball fans.
It is true that Vemby himself is particularly careful not to comment on this topic. His agent Bouna Ndiaye shares the same position and last summer declared the Frenchman’s reluctance to focus on the issue of mass: “People make mistakes. We don’t focus on weight at all. I don’t want to put any pressure on his body. We will continue to maintain the same position. Putting too much stress on the body is a big mistake. We focus on strength, on the core muscles. We were very happy that he connected with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who played until he was 41. This is the path we want to take. They have a similar body type. Karim didn’t weigh much.”
Victor, at about the same time, also rejected the idea of the expediency of gaining muscle mass: “Why? It would be better to advise others to lose weight.” In fact, for Vembyama this approach is quite justified. Unlike classic centre-backs, who usually play in the final phase of the attack, where you have to push, push and then score or pass the ball to a free man, the Frenchman acts in a much more varied way. The player can boast of dribbling, the ability to speed up attacks and complete them himself. However, judging by the young basketball player’s social networks, he still took his physical condition seriously. Vemby showed how he works with Jamal Crawford in the off-season, which caused genuine interest in his possible (or perhaps already started) transformation among fans.
Victor Vembanayama
Photo: Getty Images/from Victor Vembanyama’s personal archive
“Do you remember what it looked like at the beginning of last season?”
“Did Victor gain weight?”
“Wemby seems to be turning into Giannis Antetokounmpo.”
It would seem that there is not much in common between Antetokounmpo and Vembanyama. Yiannis lived in the most difficult conditions, until he was 18 he was actually an illegal immigrant in Greece, he was often malnourished and even occasionally borrowed his brother’s sneakers for training. But, like Victor, he was thin. Over the 11 years of playing in the NBA, the heavyweight forward’s height and weight have changed dramatically. In the ninth year, more and more attention began to be paid to the difference.
Photo: screenshot x.com/BleacherReport
Thus, from the official data it was clear that his height increased by 5 cm, and the increase in muscle mass was 14.5 kg. Yannis himself, by the way, once gave Victor advice on how to gain weight properly. Someone, he is definitely a master at this: “Little by little, you don’t need to force weight gain, as I didn’t either. Every year, about five to seven pounds.” Many compare Vemby to Kevin Durant, who is tall (211 cm), especially for a player of his position, but also incredibly built and well-coordinated. It is not surprising that when Vemby was once asked who his role models were, the Frenchman named Durant and Antetokounmpo.
At the same time, Yannis admitted that it took him years to become what he is now: “Yes, I really wanted to speed up this process. The first year I gained five to seven pounds. In the second year, five more. In the third year, also five. In the fourth year, from five to seven. In the fifth year, I started paying more attention to what I ate: I avoided sugar, I didn’t drink soda, only water and healthy food.” We all know what Antetokounmpo has become. There is also no need to explain who Durant is. There is no need to explain who Vembanyama is. But who he will become is a question that remains open. This boy seems to have no limits!
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