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We Have Found One Thing Victor Wembanyama Can’t Do Well

Also in Traina Thoughts: Kendrick Perkins gets duped; watch a 514-foot home run; NFL’s gambling rules for players and more.

Jimmy Traina

1. Victor Wembanyama will get drafted by the San Antonio Spurs on Thursday night with the first pick.

With the draft in New York City, the 7'3" phenom took in Tuesday’s Yankees game and threw out the first pitch. 

You may have seen Wembanyama get a lot of play on social media after he posted this photo on Instagram showing what a baseball looked like in his ridiculously large hands.

Victor Wembanyama/Instagram
Victor Wembanyama/Instagram

Wembanyama, however, did not post any video of his first pitch. Now, we’re not here to pick on a 19-year-old, but we do have an obligation to point out any and all first-pitch disasters. While “disaster” may be strong to describe Wembanyama’s effort, it wasn’t good. At all.

Here's how you know it was bad. The Yankees never posted the video. Instead they opted for just a still photo.

While Wembanyama's first pitch was a fail, we have to give him credit for a solid quote. When asked by Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts during an interview on Wednesday’s show about bulking up, Wembanyama said others should “skinny up.”

2. The best part about Kendrick Perkins falling for this tweet ...

... isn’t that Kendrick Perkins fell for that tweet ...

... it’s that Perkins then blamed “the app” for his just taking a random tweet from a non-NBA account as fact.

3. Can I interest you in watching a 514-foot home run? Los Angeles Triple A outfielder Jo Adell hit this three-run homer for the Salt Lake Bees on Tuesday, and to say it was a majestic blast would be an understatement.

4. “Don’t bet teasers and parlays” should be added to this list.

5. In this week’s SI Media Mailbag, I answered your questions about Joe Buck and baseball; which network has the better NFL booths, CBS or Fox; which sports hosts could take over for Pat Sajak as Wheel of Fortune host; and much more. Check it out.

6. This week's SI Media With Jimmy Traina features a conversation with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt.

The popular SportsCenter anchor, who is also ESPN’s main golf host, shared his thoughts on the PGA-LIV merger and tried to give us as much insight as possible on what it all means, despite the lack of information out there.

Van Pelt also revealed that he doesn’t plan to host SportsCenter for too much longer. When asked whether he’d be host in three years, he said, “Nah.”

• Other topics covered with SVP include:

• Pat McAfee’s joining ESPN

• The night he lost his voice on live TV

• The beauty of his “Bad Beats” segment

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Google.

You can also watch SI Media With Jimmy Traina on YouTube.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Happy 44th birthday to Chris Pratt, who once gave us one of the great bloopers in TV history.

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out SI Media With Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Google. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter, Instagram and TikTok.

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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.

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