Victor Wembanyama issued massive praise to Jalen Brunson for his historic 61-point performance in the San Antonio Spurs’ 130-126 win over the New York Knicks on Friday night.
Wembanyama reached another rookie milestone, scoring a career-high 40 points against the Knicks. San Antonio led by as many as 21 points in the second quarter before Brunson scored 16 points to tie the game at 83 with 5:07 remaining in the third.
The game went down to the wire. The French phenom outscored Brunson 18-14 in the fourth quarter and overtime to give the Spurs the win.
However, Wembanyama tipped his cap to the Villanova product in his post game press conference and raved about how talented he is. He also lauded the wealth of supremely gifted NBA players that challenge him on a nightly basis.
“I’ve never seen so much greatness before. Our season has been going on for just some months, and I’ve just witnessed so much greatness [in the NBA], and I want to be a part of it,” Wembanyama said.
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Brunson is just one of several All-NBA-caliber players that the Rookie of the Year frontrunner has faced this season.
The Defensive Player of the Year hopeful has gotten the chance to face-off against MVP candidates in Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic as well as NBA 75th anniversary team honorees in LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry.
In the case of the Knicks All-Star, his 61 points were just one point shy of breaking Carmelo Anthony’s 62-point Knicks franchise record set against the Charlotte Hornets on January 24, 2014.
The 2023-24 campaign has seen several incredible individual outings, only magnifying the amount og talent in the league. Wembanyama has set many records this season, but doesn’t view himself in the same echelon as the game’s best, just yet. No matter, he is confident that he’ll get there soon.