It's been a ride since San Antonio rolled out the welcome mat for French basketball phenom Victor Wembanyama, whom the Spurs claimed last week with the No. 1 pick in the NBA Draft.
City Hall unfurled a "Bonjour Wemby" banner, and thousands of fans stood outside the airport in triple-digit heat, waiting to greet the 7-foot-4 athlete.
"It's like he's bringing hope to San Antonio, and we haven't had that in a long, long time," fan Diego Santana said as he sweated under the Texas sun waiting for a glimpse of Wembanyama's plane.
To be sure, hope has evaded the Spurs for a while. Once on top of the basketball world, the team had nearly become irrelevant, missing the playoffs for four consecutive years before Wembanyama's arrival.
But that's all about to change, according to University of Texas at San Antonio Sports Marketing Professor Ricard Jensen. Not only will Wembanyama return to the Spurs to championship contention, but he will give San Antonio a much-needed economic boost.
"You're going to find people from all over the world that are now going to say that the Spurs are their favorite team, people all over the world buying Victor Wembanyama jerseys and merchandise, people from around the world tuning in to watch the Spurs play, and even people coming to San Antonio," Jensen said.
The tricky part? Convincing Wembanyama to stay in the Alamo City.
The franchise
ESPN sports analyst Adrian Wojnarowski speculated in May that the NBA franchise that landed 2023's No. 1 pick could add $500 million to their value by drafting Wembanyama.
Jensen thinks Wojnarowski was lowballing.
"The revenue for the Spurs and their market valuation is going to increase over and over for them," Jensen said. "The whole reason is, if you're an NBA team that has this one-of-a-kind, totally unique international talent, they'll be an asset to your brand that will help the Spurs brand take-off exponentially."
Indeed, the day after the Silver and Black landed the top pick, the team received around 2,500 deposits for season tickets by the end of the workday. And the day after San Antonio officially drafted Wembanyama, interest in Spurs tickets spiked 297%, according to Vivid Seats.
All that, and Wembanyama has never even played in an NBA game, except for a G League exhibition game in Las Vegas last year. The difference between Wembanyama and other top draft picks of the past, including Tim Duncan, is that the Frenchman is already an international superstar with a brand worth millions. That's thanks to his three-year pro career in France and unique style of play — he possesses the finesse of an athletic point guard while also being among the tallest players in basketball.
"Victor is this perfect storm of great personality, totally unique ball player — and compared to Tim Duncan, he's more energetic, he's better trained on how to deal with media," Jensen said. "I think Timmy is a more reserved person — certainly a superstar and a great player — but Victor seems so well-packaged and poised to be a media darling."
The city
The most immediate impact of Wembanyama being a Spur is that the Alamo City gain further name recognition in Europe, where the Spurs already had the edge over other NBA teams thanks to past players including Tony Parker and Boris Diaw.
"There's going to be a great European media frenzy where basically all of Europe is going to be focused on San Antonio and the Spurs," Jensen said. "There's going to be a lot of French media going to every game and spending time in the city."
Due to heightened international interest in Wembanyama, it might not be a rare occurrence to bump into French media crews eating at local restaurants and asking for directions along the River Walk. A similar phenomenon has been happening in Anaheim, California, where Japanese media follow Angels star pitcher Shohei Ohtani's every move, Jensen said.
Those French media crews will fill up downtown hotel rooms still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, eat at locally owned restaurants and boost the local economy. However, Jensen was unable to put a dollar figure on that impact, which clearly pales to the thousands of people who flock to the city for conventions.
A new arena
However, the most lasting impact Wembanyama could have on the city is the construction of a new arena, according to Jensen. The AT&T Center is older than nearly half of those in the league, and it's located far away from downtown and other entertainment venues.
With the Spurs' lease on the arena ending in 2026, the team will not only want a new stadium but will also be working to convince Wembanyama to stay in San Antonio. His rookie contract is set to expire that same year.
Jensen says there is no chance the Spurs will relocate to Austin in a bid to keep the star. Instead, the team is likely to push for a new facility, either downtown or on the Northwest side by La Cantera, where construction on the team's state-of-the-art training facility is underway.
It remains to be seen whether local voters have the appetite to approve funding for yet another sports facility, and much depends on what kind of package local officials and the Spurs can spool together.
However, a stadium is just one of many things the franchise will need to get right if it's to keep Wembanyama in satisfied in San Antonio.
"My blueprint for the Spurs is do what you can to build a superteam around him, keep him happy and win a championship; that might be your best bet for keeping him around," Jensen said.
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