Wemby’s Dunk and the Question We Need to Ask
Mar 15, 2022
The other day, I watched a clip of Victor Wembanyama — “Wemby” — pulling off a jaw-dropping dunk in an NBA game. It was surreal. Graceful, towering, and completely unique. The kind of moment you have to watch twice just to believe it actually happened. And clearly, I wasn’t alone. It quickly became the most-viewed dunk in NBA history — millions of views within hours, endless reposts, fans across the world reacting in real time. You could feel the global buzz around it, and it was brilliant to see. But it also left me with a question I can’t shake. Why don’t we see this same level of reaction when it comes to athletics?
We have incredible moments of human achievement every single week. A 22-metre shot put. A sub-48 400m hurdles. A 4-minute mile in the rain. Performances that push the absolute limits of what the human body can do — and yet they often come and go without the same digital roar.
It’s not about comparing sports. I love seeing Wemby light up a court. But I do wonder why so many people, especially younger fans who clearly crave the extraordinary, don’t connect with athletics on the same emotional scale.
Is it that we haven’t packaged the moments well enough? Is it access, or storytelling, or habit? I don’t know the full answer.
What I do know is this: the magic is here.
The performances are happening. The athletes are showing us what’s possible, and they deserve to be seen. Because the sense of awe — that shared feeling when we witness something truly special — doesn’t belong to one sport alone.
Maybe it’s time we asked ourselves how we’re presenting that magic to the world. Because if people really saw what was happening in our sport, I truly believe they’d feel that same spark.
They just need to see it.
