Victor Wembanyama educated with Corridor of Famer Hakeem Olajuwon in September after spending his offseason recovering from a deep vein thrombosis analysis in his proper shoulder that was each career- and life-threatening. The 21-year-old Spurs star attended Olajuwon’s massive man camp in Katy, Texas, finishing 4 2½-hour exercises.
One supply near Wembanyama says the ordeal deeply affected the 2023-24 Rookie of the 12 months. The analysis impressed “a journey to push himself to be nice bodily and mentally with issues that had been exterior the field,” in keeping with the supply.
Wembanyama spent 10 days at a Shaolin temple in Zhenzhou, China, the place he studied Chan meditation and Shaolin Kung Fu. He woke at 4:30 a.m. every day and ate vegetarian meals whereas coaching with monks.
“The traumatic expertise … may be very a lot linked to all of the stuff I’ve accomplished in the summertime,” Wembanyama instructed ESPN. “Spending a lot time in hospitals, round docs and listening to extra unhealthy information that I want I hadn’t heard, after all, it’s traumatic.”
The Spurs phenom additionally performed soccer in Costa Rica and Tokyo, visited NASA’s Johnson Area Heart, and hung out with Kevin Garnett. One crew supply instructed ESPN that Spurs brass supported Wembanyama’s unconventional coaching plans.
Olajuwon, whose resume consists of two championships and 12 All-Star appearances, labored with Wembanyama on leverage and effectivity. The Corridor of Famer emphasised a “massive guards” idea somewhat than conventional massive man methods.
“Our idea was not for ‘massive males.’ Our idea was ‘massive guards,'” Olajuwon instructed ESPN. “You do not need to dribble like a giant man.”
Wembanyama developed his personal variation of Olajuwon’s “Dream Shake” and added tightly-wound spin strikes. Teammate Jeremy Sochan mentioned the evolution is already seen.
“I can guarantee you no one has educated like I did this summer season,” Wembanyama mentioned. “I feel I’ve maxed out what I may do in a single summer season.”
