The future of the NBA drib­bles between his legs, shoots 3s, speaks with a French accent and has the wingspan of a pterodactyl.

San Anto­nio Spurs rook­ie Vic­tor Wem­banya­ma is the most fas­ci­nat­ing ath­lete I have ever seen in per­son, which includes Dave Win­field, Bo Jack­son and Andre the Giant. He has reflex­es of a cat, feet of a bal­le­ri­na and the hand-eye coor­di­na­tion of a .300 major league hitter.

Niko­la Jokic was the best play­er on the floor on Tues­day night. He doesn’t play games, he paints a can­vas with his bril­liance. But his reac­tion to Wem­banya­ma in the Nuggets’ 110–105 vic­to­ry spoke to how much the young big man is impact­ing the league.

Even with­out shoot­ing well, the 7‑foot‑4 Spurs star messed around and almost notched a quadru­ple dou­ble. You read that cor­rect­ly: 23 points, 15 points, nine blocks and eight assists.

“It’s going to hap­pen,” Wem­banya­ma said after­ward. “But I have oth­er priorities.”

Jokic seemed to make up his mind before the game that he was going to live above the rim, firm­ly in dunk mode when Wem­banya­ma was on the court. And even when he wasn’t. He had three slams in the first quarter.

It was unusu­al. And a com­pli­ment to Wem­banya­ma. Jokic was doing the type of stuff that will win him his third MVP award. At one point that includ­ed a bumper pool pass to Chris­t­ian Braun – it was straight out of The Matrix as he redi­rect­ed the ball with sleight of hand – for a wide open 3‑pointer.

“It’s not one thing I respect about his game,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said of Jokic. “It’s his over­all savant-type play. He is a bas­ket­ball savant.”

Even­tu­al­ly, ulti­mate­ly, inevitably, the Nuggets won. It’s what they do at home – they are 31–8 – even though Jamal Murray’s absence remains glar­ing. Get­ting him ready for the play­offs has super­seded claim­ing the top seed in the West­ern Con­fer­ence, though the lat­ter remains avail­able. The Nuggets can­not har­bor dreams of going back-to-back with­out Mur­ray back and healthy.

As for Wem­banya­ma, he is so long, it makes him eas­i­er to appre­ci­ate than explain. He reminds me of for­mer Hous­ton Rock­ets and Vir­ginia star Ralph Samp­son with bet­ter knees and a point guard’s ath­leti­cism. In the first quar­ter, Wem­banya­ma chal­lenged real­i­ty. He wasn’t hoop­ing, he was teach­ing a class in physics.

He drained a 3, blocked two shots and scored 12 points, includ­ing a fin­ger roll from eight feet away that would make George Gervin blush. It left Jokic with his arms in the air exasperated.

Wem­banya­ma came across the lane and feath­ered the ball into the hoop, which does not sound par­tic­u­lar­ly note­wor­thy. Except he did it with his left hand. He’s not a south­paw. See­ing it live, it was like watch­ing some­one skim­ming a pool or releas­ing a Go-Go Gad­get arm into space.

The sport seems ready for him. His num­bers demand atten­tion: 21.2 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists. He also leads the league in blocks with 3.4 per game. There were times the Nuggets would dri­ve into the lane, then jump onto the off-ramp and cir­cle until Wembanyama’s one-car I‑25 traf­fic jam cleared. He is a deter­rent, a play­er already boast­ing obvi­ous shades of excellence.

“Get out of the way,” said Nuggets coach Michael Mal­one on his pregame advice to guards fac­ing Wem­banya­ma on the wing. “We all under­stand that he’s going to be the Rook­ie of the Year. But it’s real­ly impres­sive how much bet­ter he’s got­ten this sea­son. It’s notice­able. It jumps off the screen when you watch him. You can tell he has flair and looks to make team­mates better.”

What played out in the fourth quar­ter wasn’t just hoops. It was the­ater. With 1:27 remain­ing in the fourth, Jokic backed Wem­banya­ma into the lane and drained a 6‑foot hook. The rook­ie answered moments lat­er with a block and a dri­ving layup that knot­ted the score at 105 with 1:02 left.

A Braun pass, after he cir­cled around Wem­banya­ma on the base­line, end­ed the sus­pense as Michael Porter Jr. buried a 25-footer.

“It’s fun (fac­ing Jokic). It’s real­ly demand­ing. We have to react quick­ly. There’s no room for a mis­take at any posi­tion,” said Wem­banya­ma. “It was a good fight. We showed great effort on both sides of the court. I am not going to lie, I am tired. It’s hard to think right now.”

Wem­banya­ma could not out­last Jokic, but he made a Tues­day night in April wild­ly enter­tain­ing. San Anto­nio played hun­gry, cre­at­ing anx­ious moments for a Nuggets team slight­ly out of sync. He missed some bun­nies and, because of injuries, he was sur­round­ed by bench players. 

It’s a bit chill­ing to con­tem­plate Wembanyama’s evo­lu­tion over the next three years, when he adds weight, and the Spurs bring in legit­i­mate tal­ent around him. He is 20 years old, a full nine years younger than Jokic.

Jokic remains every­thing that is right with the Nuggets, if not the NBA. He fin­ished with 42 points, 16 rebounds and six dimes. But Wem­banya­ma pro­vid­ed a reminder that the league will even­tu­al­ly be in good hands — mitts that can palm a bas­ket­ball with two fingers.

Through­out my life­time, I have seen tall play­ers who widened eyes, like Manute Bol, Ghe­o­rghe Mure­san and Shawn Bradley. They were more light poles. Wem­banya­ma is a light­house, his wave­lengths only matched by his wingspan.

Tues­day end­ed with “MVP” chants for Jokic. It won’t be long before the same roars accom­pa­ny Wem­banya­ma in San Antonio.

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