Victor Wembanyama dressed as No-Face for his Halloween-night entry to the Delta Center. Credit: Left: Kiko Martinez; Right: Twitter / @NBA

Victor Wembanyama’s stellar bounceback during the Spurs’ Thursday night takedown of the Jazz drew plenty of attention. But so did the 7-foot-4 center’s Halloween costume choice for the evening.

The NBA tweeted out video of the French phenom lurking into Salt Lake City’s Delta Center dressed as No-Face, a character from the 2001 animated fantasy Spirited Away, written and directed by Japanese filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki.

Certainly not the choice of someone just dipping their toe into fantasy and sci-fi fandom. Miyazaki is regarded as one of history’s most accomplished animated filmmakers, but in his stuff doesn’t exactly do Star Wars-style box office in the U.S.

It’s tempting to chalk up Wemby’s strong performance in the Halloween game to his ability to get his geek on, but who knows?

Even so, it’s a solid bet the costume will bolster the 20-year-old’s already strong geek cred. After all, he grew up on the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, is a voracious reader of fantasy fiction, including the books of Brandon Sanderson, and he accepted his NBA 2023-24 Rookie of the Year trophy at SA’s Scobee Planetarium.

Fantasy and sci-fi fans may want to start a betting pool for what character Wemby chooses to portray next year.

Fitting his towering height, strong contenders night be Karsa Orlong from Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series, Duncan the Tall from George R.R. Martin’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms or even Fritz Leiber’s barbarian rogue Fahfrd.

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This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 5, 2024.

Sanford Nowlin is editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Current. He holds degrees from Trinity University and the University of Texas at San Antonio, and his work has been featured in Salon, Alternet, Creative...