The Wemby Show is underway, and opening night was a circus

LAS VEGAS — The final numbers for Victor Wembanyama in his Summer League debut: nine points on 2-for-13 shooting, eight rebounds, five blocked shots, three assists.

Not on the stat sheet: countless pictures and videos captured on phones, the couple dozen times he applauded teammates, and all the autographs that a very friendly San Antonio Spurs coach named Gregg Popovich signed at halftime for kids and other fans.

The Wemby Show is underway. The outcome on Friday night doesn’t matter much and will be forgotten in the next couple days — for the record, the Spurs beat the Charlotte Hornets 76-68. But for the 17,500 people who bought tickets, most of them just to say they saw Wembanyama’s first time sweating in a Spurs game uniform, it was a night to remember.

A night to remember for the No. 1 pick, too.

“Special moment,” Wembanyama said. “Really special to wear that jersey for a first time. It’s really an honor.”

Wembanyama did a lot of things well, which can’t be a surprise. He screened well. Passed well; he even had a left-handed shovel pass for an assist. Defended well at times; Charlotte’s Brandon Miller, the No. 2 pick in the draft, tried a 3-pointer from about five or six feet beyond the arc in the first half, and Wembanyama threw his left arm skyward and blocked it with ease. And his four-point play with 2:50 left put the Spurs up by 14, just about sealing the win.

“He’s a legit 7-6,” Miller said afterward, only slightly exaggerating Wembanyama’s official height of 7 feet, 3-½ inches. “Victor is a great guy, great off the court. He’s going to have a great career, and just to see him step up to the challenge, I think that shows a lot of heart.”

Wembanyama struggled shooting and airballed a pair of 3-point tries in the fourth quarter, got moved out of the way on a few rebound opportunities, was sort of dunked on when he was trying to defend a lob to Charlotte’s Kai Jones — Wembanyama couldn’t reach it, and fouled Jones as he threw the ball down — and had tons of moments that he’ll learn from on film.

“All in all, I think he did a good job. … You can see his basketball IQ is elite,” Spurs summer coach Matt Nielsen said.

Again, none of it mattered much, good or bad. Wembanyama’s body of work in France over the last three years more than proved his enormous potential. A 30-point game or an 0-for-30 game on Friday night wouldn’t have changed anything.

There were hundreds of phones pointed at the tunnel where he emerged for a six-minute warmup before the game. Some tickets went for more than $200 on the resale market; that’s pretty much unheard of for Summer League.