How will Victor Wembanyama handle the transition to the NBA?

Yahoo Sports NBA draft analyst Krysten Peek is joined by Tim Martin – the personal trainer of the presumptive No. 1 pick in June’s NBA draft – to discuss how the French power forward will transition to the world’s top league and if his slim frame is reason for fans to be concerned. Hear the full conversation on the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast – and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.

Video Transcript

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KYRSTEN PEEK: He’s going from playing one game a week, to what is that like, 37 games in a season. To now he’s going to be playing 82 games. And a lot could be said about the wear and tear on a player’s body with that many games.

And then, and then just the transition from coming from France to America, how do you think he’s going to transition to being an NBA player and an NBA player that’s going to have all– everyone is going to be watching him.

TIM MARTIN: Yeah Yeah. I think– me personally, I think he’ll be fine because you have to take everything with a grain of salt. You can’t just expect to win a championship from day one, or to be in the Hall of Fame. You got to just control what you can control.

And I think because he’s already, I think, since Las Vegas, already starts to prepare that mindset, and that approach, and then along with his the team around him, not just the actual with Metro 92 and the staff up there, but I think his circle from his family and his support system with his agency.

They do a phenomenal job of making sure that he’s focused, and to not worry about everything else because it’s always coming down to keeping the main thing, the main thing.

KYRSTEN PEEK: I’m going to ask you a question that, I know a lot of casual NBA fans that don’t know anything about Victor Wanyama. They just see his size. They see him at 7 foot 4.

They see what happened to chat room last summer at getting that foot injury in that pro-am game up in Seattle. And there’s concerns. Why should NBA fans, especially Spurs fans believe that Victor is different, and just his the way he takes care of his body and approaches the game at 7 foot 4 and 8 foot wingspan?

TIM MARTIN: Well, whatever you give attention, it grows. So I mean, there’s a lot of what if scenarios. But the reality is that right now, especially this season, he hasn’t been hurt.

And he’s done a great job of taking care of himself, and really understanding what it takes day-to-day that there’s really no such things as the day off. Even if you’re not on the court taking better care of your body, or maybe it’s the nutritional intake. And I think that’s only going to continue to get better.

And with the resources that he’ll have with the Spurs, will be top notch. So I think it’s just you’ve got to gradually focus on this and steps, and not allow the outside noise, or that worry of what I want to get hurt. Because usually, that’s when you get hurt when you give that too much attention.