San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama is introducing himself to a broader audience in this playoff run.
While most NBA fans — even casual ones — knew he was a special type of player, he’s finally getting the type of exposure superstars get, for better or worse.
That has raised questions about his game, given that he’s already been assessed three flagrant foul points in the NBA Finals and has been caught shoving, pushing, and elbowing opponents.
However, for Draymond Green, that’s not surprising. If anything, that’s just how European players play.
Draymond Green says European players are dirty
“Victor Wembanyama is a European player. They are a bit dirty. It’s why beating France … was such a big deal. Europeans want to own our game and they are a bit dirty,” Green said in his podcast. “And so I’ve said this before and everybody’s like, ‘Daymond shouldn’t say that. He can’t say that. He’s dirty.’ No, I’m not. I will mess you up for sure because you deserve to get jacked up. Completely different thing than doing sneaky dirty stuff.”
That’s definitely not the type of message you want to be sending or how you’d want to address players from an entire continent.
Xenophobia aside, Green is probably saying that as a compliment. He’s also got a bit of a reputation for roughing players up, and he’s always had nothing but praise for Wembanyama.
Wembanyama clearly sees and feels the game differently from most stars. He’s passionate and truly seems obsessed with winning more than anything else, more than endorsements or fame.
Of course, that doesn’t justify his dangerously tiptoeing between playing hard and trying to hurt other people.
That said, it must be almost impossible not to hit everybody in the head with your elbow for a player who’s nearly 7-foot-5.