Olympics 2024 - France, Wembanyama, and the gold medal quest - ESPN

VICTOR WEMBANYAMA'S OLYMPIC dream started years ago. But as a youngster in France, he wasn't thinking about the 2024 games in Paris. Or even the Tokyo games. He wanted to play right away.

«When I was a kid, when I just started basketball, I always told my parents, I wanted to be in Rio in 2016 with the basketball team,» Wembanyama said at the end of the San Antonio Spurs regular season. «So I'm a little bit late, but it's all good.»

Wembanyama was just 12 years old during the Rio Games and wasn't even born when the French team won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics. But his dreams were just as big as his 7-foot-4 frame.

Coming off a rookie season in which the 2023 No. 1 pick was the unanimous Rookie of the Year and became the first rookie in NBA history to make the league's All-Defensive first team, Wembanyama has carried the momentum into the lead-up to the Olympics for France in hopes of achieving success on his home soil.

In the five tuneup games he played, Wembanyama averaged 18.0 points, 8.0 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.2 blocks while shooting 56.9% overall, 40.0% from 3 and 90% from the line.

As much as there has been pressure on Wembanyama on the court to lead his team, he's also one of the faces of the Olympics in his home country. His image has been plastered all over the city. He has done a constant series of interviews in both French and English. He's a large part of Nike's Olympic campaign, which includes a massive banner of Wembanyama that adorns the entire side of the Centre Pompidou, a library and modern art museum in Paris. And as one of the tallest Olympians in history, he certainly will stand out.

Now Wembanyama and the French national team will tip off their Olympic campaign against Brazil on