San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama wanted Star Wars toy to be first big purchase with NBA paycheck

The more San Antonio learns about NBA Rookie of the Year Victor Wembanyama, the more there is to like about him.

Case in point: when asked the night before the last NBA Draft about what he planned to spend his first league paycheck on, the then 19-year-old Frenchman didn’t mention a flashy sports car or a diamond-encrusted piece of jewelry, according to a new Sports Illustrated report.

Nope. When the question came up from a fan attending a pre-draft dinner, Wemby said his first big purchase would be a LEGO set of the Star Wars franchise’s Millennium Falcon. (That’s LEGO Item No. 75192 for all you geeks keeping score at home.)

To be fair, the Millennium Falcon set retails for around $850 and may well qualify as one of the most elaborate kits in LEGO’s collection. But, still, for someone pulling in an annual salary north of $12 million, a box full of snap-together plastic bricks is a pretty modest desire.

Vice President of NBA Experiences Evan Bruno, who relayed the story to SI’s Inside the Spurs blog, said he was initially surprised by the answer. Until he realized it fit with the rookie’s wide-eyed personality.

“I thought to myself, ‘Wow. The Millennium?'” Bruno told the publication. “I mean … then you realize, he’s just a kid. You realize that at the end of the day, he’s a kid at heart.”

That’s one way of looking at it. The other is that it’s more proof the space-loving Wemby is an extraterrestrial.

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This article appears in May 1-14, 2024.