Inside the basketball journey for 7-foot-5 Canadian teen who wants to be much more than just the Wemby stopper
Move over Knicks, there is a new “Wemby Stopper.”Already standing at 7-foot-5 as a 15-years-old, Jeremy Gohier is one of the most intriguing long-term NBA prospects in the world.His size and crazy haircut, inspired by Ronaldo Nazário’s infamous 2002 hairstyle, blew up on social media in a video with over 3.5 million views.Now, fans are claiming Gohier’s the next Victor Wembanyama or the future Wembanyama stopper.While Gohier admires the reigning NBA Defensive Player of the Year, Gohier’s youth coach at Nobel Elite, Daniel Mulumba, said he doesn’t like the comparison.“He wants to be his own person and be the next Jeremy Gohier,” Mulumba told The Post.“He wants to create his own path like Wemby did.”Gohier and those around him don’t lack for confidence in his future prospects, with the teen saying at the FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup he wants to be better than Wembanyama one day and thinks he has a physicality advantage.“I’m not going to lie, Wemby, bro.
He looks like me … same mobility just stronger,” Gohier told Taking the Charge recently.“So it’s more difficult for me, but I want to play like him, I want to shoot like him, I want to be better than him … I know him since he played the FIBA U19 World Cup, but I started like to create a competition me versus him.
A competition of me versus him in my head last year.”It’s a strong stance given Wembanyama’s ascendency in the league, leading the Spurs this past season to the NBA Finals, where they fell to the Knicks in five games.The 22-year-old Frenchman, who averaged 25 points and 11 rebounds per game last season, is already one of the premier players in the league.Gohier gained “40 pounds of muscle” this year and weighs almost 85 pounds more than Wembanyama did at 15, according to Jérémy Medjana, who is the agent for both players.The Quebec native worked primarily on agility, footwork and becoming comfortable with his body from the ages 9 to 12, only starting to work m...