I Saw A Real Live Unicorn On Monday Night

On Monday night I jumped in my car and headed toward he city of Chicago. Rumor had it a unicorn would be on the loose at the corner of Damen and Madison.

As I approached a building known as "The United Center", I saw a sea of people who had heard the same thing I had. We all jumped into line to get into the building where the unicorn had been spotted. After passing through a security checkpoint, I headed to my assigned viewing station perched above the unicorn's habitat. This is what I saw...

To give you some perspective of how large this unicorn is, the guy in the picture with him is not a child. He is a 6'8" NBA star.

Well I didn't see the World Champions playing against this unicorn, I saw the perennial play in bound Chicago Bulls play against him. But there sure as shit was a unicorn there.

Several years ago, I tried on three different occasions to see Yao Ming play against the Bulls. He was hurt every time so I never got to see him. So when I had a chance to see Wemby in person, I had to take it. I was not disappointed (well at least not fully disappointed).

In my dream scenario, the Wemby would do some freakish things that I had never seen before and the Bulls would eek out a win. Well I got half of my dream. And it wasn't a Bulls win. Although up until the fourth quarter I was going to get both.

Lucky for me, I got my favorite seats in the house. I sat at mid-court in the first row of the upper deck. For there, there it is like watching a video game. You can see everything going on on the court perfectly. As a result, I was able to study this unicorn and see everything he did on and off the ball. It was incredible.

Even his warmups were amazing. As soon as I got in my seat, I immediately tried to find him in the sea of bodies on the court... spoiler alert... it was not difficult.

#9 Vucevic is 6'11"

Instead of shooting or doing layups, he had a ball and was doing soccer tricks with it. Holy shit! He was so nimble, agile and coordinated. If no one else were on the court I might of been tricked into thinking this were a skinny 5'10" soccer player. But he wasn't alone... so it just looked insane!

Then he started to take shots. His shooting stroke was so smooth that it was freaky. It was like watching Ray Allen... if Ray Allen were 7'4"!

He then got in the layup line and proceeded to dunk after jumping about two inches off the floor. He was so tall and long that it boggled the mind.

And then the game started. The warmups did not properly prepare me for what I would see. Wemby basically ran the point and brought the ball up on many trips. He dribbled, passed and shot like a point guard. But he's not a point guard... he's 7 freaking 4!!!! he ended up dropping 36 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists on the Bulls. Oh and he did that damage on only 19 shots. He went 6 for 9 from 3 and hit 10 of 10 free throws. He showed me that perfect stroke again and again.

And then there was his defense. Although he "only" had 5 blocks. He easily could have had 20 more. One of the advantages of where I was seated is that I could see what the Bulls were not doing. On countless occasions, the Bulls drove to the rim, smelled Wemby in the area, and dribbled right out. And they were right to do it. I saw him block a shot when he was just inside the three point line. He covered that space in one step, jumped and swatted a would-be layup. It was nuts!

So obviously, I got to see Wemby do some freakish things. I was half way to my dream. The Bulls started the fourth quarter up by 8 points... and then Wemby took over. He scored 18 of his 36 points in the fourth quarter and scared teh shit out of every would-be Bulls driver. Did I mention he was a unicorn?

If I were going to watch the Bulls lose, this is the only way I would want to see it. I saw something truly amazing on Monday. If you have a chance to see Victor Wembanyama live, you simply must do it. It's not every day you get to see a real live unicorn.