Just 100 Games! Wen Ban Brushed Off NBA Historical Records, Is the Awkwardness of Min Lulei Going to Reappear?
Wen Ban Yama, leading the San Antonio Spurs, faced off against the Denver Nuggets in a focal match, which was also a direct confrontation between the superstar rookie and the current NBA's top player, Jokic. Due to the absence of Gordon and Sohan, the two directly engaged from the first round of the game, making it a true face-to-face battle. In the NBA, it's rare for both teams' star players to be matched up throughout the game, especially for superstars. Both Wen Ban Yama and Jokic are centers and top stars in the league, so they should be directly matched up according to normal positioning. However, previous games had Gordon and Sohan defending Wen Ban Yama and Jokic, preventing them from directly facing each other. This is an unwritten rule among NBA head coaches, avoiding having their star players defend the opponent's strongest point.
In this game, Wen Ban Yama played 33 minutes, shooting 14 out of 22, including 4 out of 6 three-pointers, scoring 35 points, 18 rebounds, 4 assists, 1 steal, and 2 blocks, leading the Spurs to defeat the Nuggets by a 3-point advantage. Although Jokic also scored 41 points, 18 rebounds, 9 assists, and 2 steals, he played 37 minutes, shooting 15 out of 36, with a three-pointer of 3 out of 10, far below his average efficiency. Wen Ban Yama achieved similar stats with less playing time, fewer shots, higher shooting and three-point percentages, and most importantly, the team won!
After the game, Jokic praised Wen Ban Yama in an interview, saying, "Wen Ban Yama is a very special player, unique and will always be remembered!"
This season, Wen Ban Yama has played 29 games for the Spurs, averaging 25.9 points, 10.3 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1 steal, and 4 blocks, with shooting percentages of 48%, 36%, and 87%. He is a player with both quantity and quality. On December 5, 2024, in the game where the Spurs defeated the Kings 127-125, Wen Ban Yama shot 11 out of 17, including 5 out of 9 three-pointers, scoring 34 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, 1 steal, and 3 blocks. This was his 88th regular-season game, during which he had already scored at least 5 three-pointers and made at least 3 blocks in a single game 7 times, a record unmatched in NBA history. To date, he has increased this record to 10 times!
In December, Wen Ban Yama averaged 28.6 points, 10.1 rebounds, 4.8 assists, and 4.5 blocks per game, with a shooting percentage of 48.2%, a three-point percentage of 38.9%, and a free-throw percentage of 80%. He totaled 315 points, 111 rebounds, 53 assists, and 50 blocks, hitting 42 three-pointers. Wen Ban Yama is the first player in NBA history to score at least 300 points, 100 rebounds, 50 assists, and 50 blocks in a month while also hitting 40 three-pointers. From December 20th to December 26th, Wen Ban Yama hit at least 4 three-pointers and made 4 blocks in four consecutive games, another first in NBA history! His excellent performance earned him the title of Western Conference Defensive Player of the Month for December. After defeating the Nuggets, he set another NBA record, having hit at least one three-pointer and made one block in 25 consecutive games since November 1st, a feat achieved only by him in NBA history.
It's worth noting that he has set so many NBA records in just 100 career games. Wen Ban Yama is truly exceptional!
As a unicorn-level player in NBA history, Wen Ban Yama has shown us what it means to have top-tier historical talent. Honestly, relying on his 2.24-meter height and 2.44-meter wingspan, coupled with a 1.1-meter running jump, he could easily dominate the paint with pure physical talent alone. However, Wen Ban Yama doesn't follow the usual path, averaging 19.2 shots per game this season, with 9.2 being three-point attempts. In NBA history, no center has ever played like him. If a center's three-point attempts accounted for nearly 50%, Wen Ban would likely have been benched in the past. Comparing him to two current centers who love to shoot threes, Towns and Porzingis, the former averages 16.2 shots per game with 4.8 being three-pointers, while the latter averages 13 shots with 5.8 being three-pointers, both significantly lower than Wen Ban's three-point attempt ratio!
Not only does Wen Ban Yama shoot many three-pointers in the game, but he also shoots from long range and enjoys using the step-back three-pointer typically used by smaller players. Surprisingly, last season, Wen Ban Yama's step-back three-point shooting percentage ranked first in the league! When a center doesn't play under the basket but instead runs outside to shoot crazy three-pointers, many people say that Wen Ban's style is soft, and it's inappropriate for a big man to float outside and shoot threes all day. This indeed breaks our understanding of the No. 5 position in basketball! However, pioneering players start with pioneering styles, and perhaps Wen Ban Yama is doing just that! The doubts Wen Ban faces now are similar to those Curry faced in 2015. Back in 2015, Min Lulei, then head coach of the Beijing Ducks in the CBA, talked about Curry during a visit to Beijing Sports University, saying, "Curry's shooting is very accurate, but our team doesn't allow such shooting. Even if a player is individually strong, we don't want it because what we need to do is control the rhythm of the game and shoot at the most reasonable moment!" As a professional in basketball, he held such views about Curry back then, let alone ordinary fans! Because Curry was changing the traditional style of play in the league at that time. This season, the team with the fewest three-point attempts in the league is the Nuggets, averaging 31 attempts per game, while in the 13-14 season, the team with the most three-point attempts was the Rockets, with 26.6 attempts per game! Who deserves the credit for all this? It's undoubtedly Stephen Curry, who pioneered the small-ball era centered around three-point shooting. At that time, how many people looked down on three-point shooting and thought Curry's style would not lead to success, but Curry proved everyone wrong with 4 championships, 2 FMVPs, and the widespread use of three-point shooting in the league today! He showed everyone how awkward Min Lulei's words were back then! And now, perhaps Wen Ban Yama is doing what Curry did back then. How many people currently don't favor what Wen Ban is doing, and maybe in the future, the awkwardness of Min Lulei's comments on Curry will reappear!