For Victor Wembanyama, Spurs' lottery win satisfying end to wild day - ESPN

PARIS — A clutch performance to clinch a playoff seed, hanging at a party with Kylian Mbappe and then getting emotional with his mother after learning he was heading to the San Antonio Spurs.

Victor Wembanyama had quite a Tuesday night.

First, he scored 14 of his team-high 22 points in a 92-85 victory for his Boulogne-Levallois Metropolitans over cross-town rival Paris Basketball. After being in foul trouble for much of the middle of the game, Wembanyama made a series of jumpers in traffic to help his team take a fourth-quarter lead. He then iced it with a thunderous dunk with six seconds left.

He celebrated at center court after the win, which put the Mets into the second seed for the upcoming French Pro A League playoffs, by screaming and pumping his fists. Then he made a lap around his home arena signing autographs and posing for photos with celebrities, including French movie star Omar Sy and French soccer icon Mbappe.

Wembanyama finished off a regular season in which he averaged 22 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks per game, all of which led the league. Before the game he received a trophy for being the league's top shot blocker and is expected to claim its MVP honor this week.

A short time later, he was in a car on the way to Nike's Paris headquarters on the Champs Elysees, dressed for a draft lottery party that started at nearly midnight. Family, teammates, coaches, friends and the celebs joined him for a spirited event that had to last into the middle of the night because the lottery didn't begin until 2 a.m. local time.

Wembanyama, 19, smiled and shook his head in disbelief as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski opened the lottery broadcast by saying NBA teams viewed him as maybe the most highly anticipated player to