Victor Wembanyama is one of basketball’s most prominent young players, but one of the most revealing parts of his sporting identity comes from football.
The San Antonio Spurs centre has never hidden his affection for Paris Saint-Germain, and Steve Nash believes that football background helps explain some of the movement that makes him so unusual.
Victor Wembanyama has never hidden his love for PSG
Wembanyama’s connection to football is not just a celebrity crossover. The Frenchman grew up close to Paris, developed as a basketball player in the Paris region and has spoken clearly about his football loyalty.
When asked about his club allegiance in 2023, Wembanyama said: “My team is PSG.”
That line matters because it places PSG at the centre of his sporting identity. He is not simply an overseas NBA star who follows football from a distance.
He is a French athlete from the Paris area whose support for PSG has travelled with him into life in the United States.
That has remained visible as Wembanyama has become one of the biggest names in American sport. His football interest has followed him into interviews, fan culture and now into the way other athletes describe his game.
Steve Nash believes football helped shape Wembanyama’s movement
Nash has now placed Wembanyama’s football background directly into the conversation around what makes him different.
Speaking in an exclusive conversation with The S Word on talkSPORT, the former NBA MVP said Wembanyama “loves his football” and “plays football”, before connecting that background to the agility he shows at 7-foot-4.
That is the central detail in Nash’s assessment.
Wembanyama’s height is obvious. His wingspan is obvious. His shot-blocking is obvious. What is less normal is how naturally he moves for a player of that size.
Nash believes football is part of that picture.
He spoke about the crossover between the two sports, from stamina and agility to movement, angles, timing and spatial awareness.
That view carries weight because Nash has his own football background. He has said there was “no way” he would have reached the NBA without the advantages he took from football.
For Wembanyama, the point is not that football alone explains his rise. That would be too simple.
The point is that football gives a clearer way to understand one of his rarest qualities. He is a huge basketball player who does not always move like one.
Wembanyama’s football influence goes beyond watching PSG
Wembanyama’s football link is also visible away from the court.
An NBA.com report detailed how Wembanyama helped introduce an ultras-style fan section with the Spurs, influenced by the PSG supporters he watched growing up in France.
That is a football idea being carried into basketball. It shows that Wembanyama’s relationship with the sport is not limited to wearing a PSG shirt or making the occasional comment about European football. It reaches into how he sees atmosphere, identity and support.
That is why Nash’s comments land so strongly. He is not just saying that Wembanyama enjoys football. He is saying that football may help explain how Wembanyama moves, how he reads space and why his athletic profile feels so different.
Wembanyama is a PSG supporter, a Paris-area athlete and a player whose movement has now been publicly connected to football by one of basketball’s best-known football minds.
That does not make football the secret behind everything he has become. It does make it a genuine part of his story.
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