Victor Wembanyama Perfectly Plays Along With NBA Draft April Fools Prank

His social savvy is league-ready.

On the court, French center Victor Wembanyama is being billed as one of the best NBA draft prospects of his generation, renowned for his unprecedented versatility at the height of 7’5”.

As it turns out, that versatility extends to social media, too.

Wembanyama delivered a perfectly deadpan April Fools' Day joke on Twitter Saturday morning, doubtlessly horrifying fans of the many teams gunning for his draft rights in the process.

On Thursday, parody account Buttcrack Sports tweeted that Wembanyama would not declare for the 2023 NBA draft, and instead would keep playing for Metropolitans 92 in Levallois-Perret, France.

Two days later, Wembanyama appeared to jokingly confirm the speculation.

"Yes indeed," he tweeted, tagging Metropolitans 92 and adding a prayer emoji for good measure.

European players taking time to hone their skills before coming to America is a well-established practice, which at least made the joke plausible.

Wembanyama, however, is viewed as a unicorn, and is expected to hear his name called first in Brooklyn on June 22.


Published
Patrick Andres
PATRICK ANDRES

Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .