The Gentle Giant's Beginnings

Seventeen kilometres west of Paris rests a suburb, or town, or village – it feels like all of the above and none of the above – named Le Chesnay. Bordered by an oak and chestnut forest, and the ostentatious Chateau de Versailles – but also the brutish A13 freeway and a Westfield mall – the tiny banlieue seems sleepy in its isolation. It’s a weird mix of historic bourgeois structures and modern blockish pragmatism, and, like much of Paris, its sloping streets are shaded with rows of plane trees – planted by order of Napoleon, as shade for his marching troops.

It’s also where the great sporting hope of this French republic – notwithstanding “Magique” Leon Marchand – was born and raised. I’m referring to The Unicorn. The French Rejection. Big Vic. Or the nickname Nike gave him: The Extraterrestrial.

I’m talking about Victor Wembanyama, the 224-centimetre “alien” (basketball great LeBron James’ nomenclature, not mine) who was last year’s No.1 NBA draft pick for the San Antonio Spurs, and who is currently preparing to lift the French national basketball team into medal contention at his home Olympics, starting with a quarter-final in Paris on Tuesday.

Finding His Feet on the Court

They say Wemby is the future of hoops, so it’s prudent to examine his past. First stop is the first local basketball court identified by Google Maps – Gymnase Remilly – where Hugo Zeitter, 29, Victor Lentz, 29 and Julien Plouvier, 30, are playing under the midday sun. These incredibly sweaty lads play for Jeunesse Arcisienne in nearby Bois d’Arcy, and are in training for next season.

“Le Chesnay is like Paris, but chill,” says Zeitter. “More chill. Beautiful. Bigger avenues. More place. More sky.”

Zeitter wears pink, orange and “sparkle blue” nail polish and admits he isn’t the strongest player. Lentz, meanwhile, is dropping three-pointers – nothing but net – while Plouvier does the same – all nylon, baby. I’m curious to know whether they ever came across Wembanyama here – maybe even played a sneaky game of pick-up?

“Victor never played here,” says Zeitter, flatly.

But it’s so lovely. Why not?

“It was built six months ago!” he says, laughing.

“But it’s so cool to have a French player, so strong, in the NBA,” adds Lentz, “and to see him now in the Olympics is amazing.”

“I don’t think his appeal is local any more,” Plouvier reflects. “It’s to the national, global level now.”

A Calm Presence

Let’s stick to local though, by stopping in next at Gymnase Pellouard, not far away. Jeremy Beauvillain is there directing an after-school program for kids, complete with climbing wall and ping pong table. It’s school holidays, meaning cooking classes (burritos on the menu today) or excursions to play laser tag, or the analogue version: kids running in and outside with water guns. Wembanyama and his little brother Oscar, and older sister Eve, were once among them.

“Victor was very calm, and nice, and very respectful. His whole family was like that,” Beauvillain says through a translator. They were all sporty, too, which he says is a very Le Chesnay trait, trying out handball or soccer on the field outside the window. “Their parents let them choose what sports really interested them – they didn’t force them into basketball.”

But there is a basketball court here and that’s where Wemby started playing, when he was just six. He suited up for the excellently and thoroughly named junior basketball club l’Entente Le Chesnay Versailles 78 Basket – or ELCVB for short.

A Place of Memories

By the time Victor Wembanyama was 12, and playing junior basketball in the Parisian suburb of Le Chesnay, he was already six feet (183 centimetres) tall. The Scorpions’ indoor court is open and empty right now, with a smooth concrete floor, covered in fading green paint. The scoreboard reads “Locaux 0 – Visiteurs 0”. Wembanyama mentioned this place only a week ago, when interviewed by Toutes Les Nouvelles: “I have a lot of memories from this time,” he said. “It’s in Le Chesnay that basketball really started for me.”

The Mayor's Testimony

The best person to confirm that, of course, is the mayor. We seek an audience without notice and are informed that he is very busy but has 10 minutes to spare before an important appointment, which turns out to be a haircut. Richard Delepierre, maire du Chesnay-Rocquencourt, is charming in a swarthy garrulous way, holding court in the top-floor corner office of the Hotel de Ville (town hall). Has he met the phenom we’re here to discuss?

“I have,” he says through a translator, “and I’m going to prove it to you, in case you doubt me.”

He rifles through photos on his phone for more than a minute, while explaining that his daughter went to school with Victor. He met him briefly when Victor was very small, too, yet not exactly that small, because Victor was always quite big – six feet (183 centimetres) tall by the time he was 12.

Delepierre also met Wembanyama in April and he’s found the photo evidence. It’s the two of them, on that soccer field near the petanque players, holding a San Antonio Spurs jersey. “Yes,” he says, somewhat sheepishly, “I know I look very small.”

Wembanyama was back for a visit and wanted to play a soccer match with his friends, so the commune let him borrow the field for the day. They came in a minibus with a security detail and scores of children lined up to watch.

“I told his mother that even with a blonde wig, we’re not going to be able to hide him,” Delepierre says. “It’s easy in retrospect to tell the story, but he was a very kind boy. A nice boy, who stands up under pressure, and who knows who he is.”

A Town That Shaped a Superstar

Delepierre points out that Wembanyama frequently says in interviews that he is from Le Chesnay – rather than Versailles, or Paris. “And this is not just for show.”

His parents still live here. His mother, Elodie, has taught basketball to hundreds of local children. People see her 191-centimetre frame out at the mall, where she likes eating Japanese. His father is a presence, too. Felix was a Congolese jumper (long, triple and high), and can’t help but stand out at 198 centimetres. “If Victor owes the beginning of his career to anyone,” says the mayor, “it’s to his parents.”

He was said to be old beyond his years, reading at three. At school he was a gifted, inquisitive and calming presence. In a 2022 interview with The New York Times, Wembanyama explained how he always felt like he was on a different level, and living a different life, even then.

“I was just thinking differently than everyone. I’ve always tried to be original in everything I do, and it’s really something that stays in my soul: be original, be one of a kind. It’s like, I can’t explain it. I think I was born with it.”

Looking Forward

What does he mean to this place?

“There’s a lot of pride, especially for the young people. His notoriety is international, so it’s inspiring,” Delepierre says. “And people really appreciate that he hasn’t gotten full of himself. There’s a lot of maturity in Victor. You hear it when he speaks.”

I’m curious to know if Le Chesnay had a favourite son before Victor? Delepierre points to himself, then quickly laughs and waves “No” and says (in English) “Joke! Joke!”

But is Wemby the most famous Chesnaysien? The French electronic music group Air hail from here, along with a star aviator from the Second World War, a rugby champion and a few soccer players, political figures and painters. “But one day Victor will have a statue,” Delepierre says. “In a little bit of time.”

This is an unrushed town, he says, filled with many prominent figures who are appreciative of peace and discretion. He includes Wembanyama’s parents in that group. Delepierre could show me their modest home, or point out the old Renault they still drive, but he won’t.

“We don’t want them to be forced to leave because of the attention, so we haven’t created any Olympic fan zone for Victor,” he says. “But maybe if he goes to the finals, this will change.”

The young superstar centre didn’t really leave here that long ago, after all. Victor Wembanyama is only 20 years old and left Le Chesnay shortly after turning 10, joining the feeder stream of Nanterre 92, an elite basketball academy 20 minutes away. He was here, then there, then elsewhere, and now everywhere – all in a blinding flash.

The president of the ELCVB – Philippe Pham, who was regrettably uncontactable on summer holiday (along with half of Paris) – remarked only recently on what the club saw in him back then, and what we’re all watching now.

“It’s like seeing a comet,” he said. “We won’t see another one like him for a long time.”