Spurs take phenom Victor Wembanyama with No. 1 overall pick in NBA draft - ESPN

The Victor Wembanyama era has officially begun in San Antonio, as the Spurs made him the No. 1 overall pick in Thursday's NBA draft.

Wembanyama, a 7-foot-5 French phenom with an 8-foot wingspan, walked across the stage at the Barclays Center in New York to shake NBA commissioner Adam Silver's hand and formally mark the start of his new career.

An emotional Wembanyama was in tears when talking with ESPN's Monica McNutt shortly after being selected.

«It's accomplishing something that I've been dreaming of my whole life,» he said. «Hearing that sentence from Adam Silver, I've dreamed of it so much, I gotta cry.»

At 7-foot-5, the second-tallest player to be selected No. 1 overall in the NBA draft (Yao Ming, 7-6, in 2002).

First player drafted No. 1 overall without a college background since Andrea Bargnani in 2006.

Second top-10 draft pick from France, joining Frank Ntilikina (8th in 2017).

Averaged 20.7 points, 10.2 rebounds and 3.0 blocks this season with the Metropolitans 92 of the LNB Pro A (top-tier French league).

In two exhibition games last October against the G League Ignite, finished with 73 points, 15 rebounds and nine blocks.

— ESPN Stats and Information

Wembanyama, 19, is considered by many to be a generational talent — a player who can defend and play above the rim but also move with such fluidity that he can also hit step-back 3-pointers off one leg.

When the Spurs won the right to draft Wembanyama by winning the lottery on May 16, Spurs managing partner Peter J. Holt leaped with joy from his seat on stage inside Chicago's McCormick Place Convention Center.

«It's going to be unbelievable,» Holt said that night. «Our future was already bright. Now it's going to be through the moon.»

In October, Wembanyama