During his press conference to receive his Rookie Of The Year trophy, which took place in a planetarium, Victor Wembanyama didn't just talk about basketball and his goals for this summer and next season. A journalist asked him about his knowledge of astronomy shared with the children that day, and more specifically about dark matter. In English, the Spurs pivot gave his definition of dark matter, and the greatest specialists were amazed by his knowledge but also and above all by his ability to popularize such an abstract and complicated concept.
“Dark matter is like a mass that we can't see, but we know it's there because it influences the gravitational forces, the speed of the gravitational forces and the orbits in each galaxy”, answers Victor Wembanyama. “Its presence inside galaxies is five times greater than that of ordinary, visible matter. So it's a huge mystery. We cannot see it, we cannot observe it, but we can observe its influence. So it’s dark matter, science fiction. »
A definition that has won over popular science specialists like Etienne Klein Or Eric Lagadec. Like Boris Diaw, Victor Wembanyama is passionate about astronomy, and even astrophysics. But he's also just curious, and the more he reads, the better he gets.
Always a book in hand
“On the plane, before matches, he always has a book in his hand,” explains his teammate Julian Champagnie. “You can see him with a book in his hand when he gets on the bus. » For the Frenchman, reading has always been a passion, and it has been like that since he learned to read. “It was before elementary school that I started reading books, then I read a lot throughout elementary school… Then, I read less and less in middle school, then I started again in high school. It's just something I love doing. »
It remains to be seen whether “Wemby” wants to go further than simple knowledge, and justify his nickname of alien. A few years ago, Boris Diaw warned that he was ready to go into space as soon as the cost was affordable.
“It’s part of the idea of getting everywhere,” explained the manager of the French team, who spends a lot of time at sea since his retirement from sports. “I want to discover everything, and I don’t want to stop at planet Earth. A civilian paid $20 million to go into space. If it's $20 million today, in 20 years it might be two. They already have SpaceX, they have Richard Branson. Why not ? I would sign up.”
With Victor Wembanyama and his friend Thomas Pesquet as co-passengers?
