Wemby Versus Those Slow Thighs?

Unicorns of the Court

            The world can't govern itself. Or themselves. If you could ask the world to declare its pronouns, would it say it and its? Sounds dead, or at any rate neuter. If the Earth answered to them, though, it would be identifying with its despoilers.

            We know the Greeks personified Earth as the goddess Gaia, a word of unknown origin (the Romans came up, for some reason, with the much clunkier Tellus). If Earth is a she, our abuse of her is even more of a shame. But what does she want? Can’t she just tell us? Can we call her us? Are we ready to commit?

            Me, I'm basking in basketball right now. Gaia has produced yet another fantastical sports phenom, a new chimera: Victor Wembanyama, born nineteen years ago in of all places, France. And not just France, but Le Chesney, Le Chesnay-Rocquencourt, France.

            Wemby (thank Heaven his name is reducible to something catchy) stands seven feet four inches tall. His wingspan, fingertip-to-fingertip, extends to eight feet.

            Yet he moves as smoothly and shoots with as soft a touch as little guy, a butterfly. He's a student of the game -- taught by his French mother, 6'3", who played professionally in France, as did both of her parents. His Congolese father, 6'6", was an all-around jumper: high, long, and triple. Wemby played professionally in France after graduating from his lycee, with honors, a year early. Now he is a San Antonio Spur, breaking in under (so to speak) an esteemed coach, Gregg Popovich, who stresses fundamentals and team play and speaks out against, for instance, the guns involved in school shootings. Ted Cruz has branded Popovich "a liberal Democrat," which makes Pop a phenom himself in the context of big-time Texas sports.