The almost seven-footer – nearly 2 meters and 10 centimeters – from North Dakota State University has become one of the players NBA fans have most discussed in the last few hours on social media: 100 seconds of video were enough, a summary of his mix technique, athleticism and size, hinting at some “Victor Wembanyama” tendencies to start the tam tam: but where does Grant Nelson come from? Let’s find out together
The video, if you’re here, I guess you’ve already seen it on social – otherwise you wouldn’t have had a single reason, like the rest of the world until 24 hours ago by the way, to interest you in Grant Nelson; Placid big boy growing up in Devils Lake, North Dakota—literally soaring between freshman and high school sophomore years, adding eight inches to his height in a season and big prospects for his game. The rest, complete with a call to college, came as a direct consequence. Not last fall though, but in 2020 as Nelson made it to junior year (the third in college, ed) of his basketball career, before the social world knocked on his door. In short, he has arrived at the third season of collegiate basketball, but no one had noticed it until a few hours ago, when a video of just over 100 seconds that showcases his skills it has not exceeded one million views – ending up on the major US sports homepages that follow basketball and becoming a talent to point the spotlight and, according to pundits from Twitter, not only those.
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Because? The answer is simple: his explosiveness, athleticism and dunks are the perfect mix to go viral on TikTok. Nelson is the ideal prototype of the 2023 player (we say this having only and exclusively watched the images of the well-known video, nothing more): he demonstrates that he knows how to start dribbling from the perimeter arriving to dunk without problems, to be able to shoot from three points away even putting the ball on the ground (a triple from the dribble by a 210cm player, a play that 10 years ago would have been unthinkable and 20 would have led to the immediate removal from the court of the guilty) and we could go on listing the technical and athletic marvels of a player we didn’t know before and who convinced us in a matter of seconds. He made us say: “Well, you know that the style is also a bit like Wembanyama…”, without taking everything else into account. In the world of “TikTok reviews” it works like this: bite and understand.
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Nelson was one for months unknown talented, steadily growing in college and gone from 6.3 points in the first season to 16 collected in the 14 games played in the last few months, after showing that he has progressed in stages even with the 11.6 points recorded in 2021-22. All seasoned with 8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks on average, even if the yield in archery is not as the baskets seen on TikTok suggested (the mechanics actually appeared already revisable): 21.4% from three-point range on 3.5 average attempts – there’s a lot to work on – in addition to the fact that physical fitness doesn’t always allow him to be constant during the match (at least that’s what those who trained him tell the online newspaper “Grand Forks Herald”, and who are we not to keep in mind consider those words?). It turns on, dunks it in favor of smartphone and then goes back into the shell and even in this it almost seems to see a parabola involuntarily linked to the social needs of those who want to watch a few seconds a few highlights and then move on. For that suggestively one wonders: What if Grant Nelson was actually the first player of the future? After all, why care about the percentages of realization and the result, if what matters is the play: the important thing is to score a good triple, that’s the only yardstick. It’s the only play people see, increasingly without taking everything else into account. For this reason it can happen that even a good player can go viral and appear as a phenomenon. All you need is 100 seconds of good dunks recorded by your friends with your smartphone And that’s it. Maybe thanks to those convince someone to choose you in the NBA Draft.
