Monday nights tend to center around feats of the mundane, whether they be sorting that discombobulated sock drawer or settling into the week by watching The Office for the 45th time.

Those mundanities were thrown into the nearest trash compactor this week, however, thanks to the larger-than-life exploits of a man who has singlehandedly shattered the glass ceiling of what it takes to play the center position in today’s NBA landscape.

That 7-foot-4-inch unicorn is 2023 No. 1 pick Victor Wembanyama, who shattered one ceiling by becoming the first NBA player to unanimously win the league’s Defensive Player of the Year award this season.

While Wembanyama, who hails from Le Chesnay, France, has absolutely zero connection to any of the lodge poles that this newsletter touches on, he does enough cool shit on the floor that I’m willing to make an exception here, merely to discuss his batshit insane Game 1 against the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder.

The 22-year-old who amassed an eye-popping 10.0 win shares this season (per Basketball-Reference.com), overcame the slight of seeing a player on the opposing side (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) win the NBA’s MVP award (again), choosing to smash OKC into the ground like a slab of steak tartare instead.

Victor Wembanyama’s Tour De Force

My Monday night originally did not involve watching any of Game 1 between Wembanyama’s Spurs and Gilgeous-Alexander’s Thunder, though that shifted when I heard what the second-year Frenchman was doing.

When I tuned in, the two teams were tangled in a 101-101 tie with just over a second left in regulation, which ended on a feeble shot attempt, setting the stage for Victor’s OT rampage.

Let’s start with the first dagger that Wembanyama, who once again is all of 7-feet-4-inches tall, thrust upon the defending champs from the Land of 10,000 Truck Stops, that being the 27-foot three that he drilled to tie the game at 108 with 27 seconds to play in the first of two overtimes.

That shot, which eerily mirrored the dagger that Steph Curry dropped against Kevin Durant and the Thunder in 2016, only Wembanyama’s a foot taller than the future Hall of Fame guard.

As if that wasn’t enough, “Wemby” proceeded to outscore the entire Thunder roster (9-7) in the game’s second overtime period, hitting all three of his shots while pulling down four boards and dishing out an unholy block of Jalen Williams (seen below).

At the end of Monday’s 122-115 San Antonio victory, Wembanyama amassed a game-high 41 points, along with 24 rebounds, becoming the youngest player in league history to finish with such a game in the postseason, per ESPN.

So What Makes Victor Wembanyama’s Game 1 Interesting?

While the stats tell one side of the story, there’s an inherit “holy shit” factor at play anytime you watch Victor Wembanyama play basketball.

While the short end of it stems from the fact that he’s doing things that nobody his size has ever done on a basketball court (such as pulling out a Steph Curry impersonation in the game’s denouement), there’s more at play here that inspired today’s newsletter.

Maybe it’s that time spent in Asia over the summer learning to find inner peace. Maybe it’s the way the man’s teammates lose their minds watching him do what he does, even though they see him perform on a nightly basis.

Whatever the crux of Victor Wembanyama’s allure is, there’s no denying that the man is redefining what a 7-footer looks like in modern professional basketball (just ask Chet Holmgren).