Skip to main content

Success Quote by Victor Wembanyama

"My goal is not to be a unicorn; it’s to be a great basketball player and help my team win"

About this Quote

Wembanyama is trying to pull the emergency brake on the hype machine that made him famous before he played a single NBA minute. “Unicorn” is the internet’s favorite compliment for a seven-foot anomaly who moves like a guard, a label that flatters while quietly turning a teenager into a product category. By rejecting it, he’s not denying his weirdness; he’s refusing the job description that comes with it: be endlessly novel, generate clips, carry a franchise alone, justify every broadcast superlative. The line is a boundary disguised as modesty.

The phrasing matters. “My goal is not to be” frames “unicorn” as an identity trap, something other people want to pin on him. “It’s to be” shifts the target back to craft: repetition, adjustment, boring excellence. Then he adds the real tell: “help my team win”. That’s the old-school basketball virtue that resists modern celebrity logic, where the star is the story and winning is optional if the brand is thriving. He’s signaling to veterans, coaches, and skeptical fans that he’s not auditioning for myth; he’s buying into the grind.

Context sharpens the intent. Wembanyama arrived as a global spectacle: viral highlights, scouting pilgrimage, franchise-saving expectations. The “unicorn” discourse is a form of preemptive coronation, and coronations create backlash the first time the king looks human. This quote is damage control and self-preservation, but it’s also savvy leadership: redefine success early, publicly, on terms that teammates can share. It’s harder to resent a phenomenon who insists he’s just doing the work.

Quote Details

TopicSports
SourcePre-draft media availability / interviews during 2023 NBA Draft week (June 2023)
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Wembanyama, Victor. (2026, February 15). My goal is not to be a unicorn; it’s to be a great basketball player and help my team win. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-goal-is-not-to-be-a-unicorn-its-to-be-a-great-185340/

Chicago Style
Wembanyama, Victor. "My goal is not to be a unicorn; it’s to be a great basketball player and help my team win." FixQuotes. February 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-goal-is-not-to-be-a-unicorn-its-to-be-a-great-185340/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My goal is not to be a unicorn; it’s to be a great basketball player and help my team win." FixQuotes, 15 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-goal-is-not-to-be-a-unicorn-its-to-be-a-great-185340/. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Victor Add to List
Victor Wembanyama Rejects Unicorn Label to Prioritize Winning
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Victor Wembanyama

Victor Wembanyama (born January 4, 2004) is a Athlete from France.

6 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Ronnie James Dio, Musician
Ronnie James Dio