There were people on Basketball Twitter who were actually serious, typing with a straight face, ten toes down, saying that there was no discernible difference between the skill sets of Bol Bol and Victor Wembanyama before the San Antonio Spurs picked the latter No. 1 overall in last year’s draft.
Maybe the fact that those reality-challenged trolls have been proven so wrong is why Bol was pissed off by Wemby getting a generous whistle on Saturday night.
Yours truly has been a fan of Bol Bol for as long as he’s been in the NBA. I’ve wondered aloud on public record why he doesn’t get more minutes. On such a loaded Phoenix Suns squad, it makes sense that he struggles to see the court when the likes of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal are on the roster. Nevertheless, he does have an enviable combination of length, athleticism, playmaking and two-way upside that I’m convinced has yet to be fully explored.
One could argue I’m d*ck riding Bol Bol right now, but I’ve set all that up to say that Victor Wembanyama is in a different galaxy as a basketball player than Bol Bol. They’re not remotely comparable. Never were. This is how things go in the NBA.
Wemby probably deserves more whistles than he gets. If the Spurs had the wherewithal or ambition to sign even one decent free agent this past summer, they’d likely be in the playoff hunt and that would be happening. Instead, Wemby continues to ball out, San Antonio keeps managing his minutes, the losses keep piling up, and Bol can talk sh*t while Phoenix rolls to a 131-106 victory.
Wembanyama is the most exciting player to enter the NBA in quite some time. In fact, over the past two decades or so, I’d argue only LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Zion Williamson came close to rivaling the sort of hype Wemby generated. He’s exceeded all reasonable expectations. What has Bol Bol done? Good for him for putting up a similar stat line to Wemby in a regular-season game that would be lost to the grand history of basketball if not for his hot mic d*ck riding remark.
Yo Bol, maybe worry about trying to get on the court more, stop bouncing around to so many teams, and actually realize your seemingly immense potential as a player before you go after officials for calls on an opposing superstar that literally three players on your own team would get 24/7/365.
