New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani wants Victor Wembanyama’s thoughts on how the nation’s largest city government can run more efficiently. Or so he says.
Mamdani, the first-term mayor whose meteoric rise from little-known state lawmaker to the Big Apple’s chief executive has made him a national figure, jokingly invited the San Antonio Spurs superstar to a government meeting Wednesday night. Wembanyama and the Spurs will be in New York looking to claw back from a 2-0 deficit against the New York Knicks in the NBA Finals.
The catch? The Commission on Government Efficiency hearing Mamdani wants Wemby to attend is on Wednesday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Spurs and Knicks tip off Game 4 of the Finals at 8:30 p.m. EST.
The meeting takes place at Fordham University in the Bronx, a roughly hourlong subway ride from Madison Square Garden.
“Would love to have you there for the whole time!” Mamdani joked on X, seemingly hoping his Knicks could get a Wemby-less first quarter.
The 16-member commission will focus on “removing outdated bureaucratic barriers that slow infrastructure projects and delay services; equipping City agencies the authority, enforcement tools, and flexibility they need to deliver programs effectively; and modernizing government to improve efficiency and saving, reserve and budget practices.”
While Mamdani’s invitation is clearly a joke, if any NBA superstar were to chime in on the innerworkings of city government, it might just be Wembanyama. The 7-foot-4 Frenchman has many interests beyond the basketball court. For one, he’s often seen walking through the arena tunnel when he arrives at games with a book in hand, and he has a bit of an obsession with outer space.
Who knows, maybe Wembanyama has thoughts on how the city can fix potholes faster or how Mamdani can make good on his campaign promise to make public buses fast and free. Or maybe after riding New York’s public transit, he’ll have opinions on whether its subway cars and turnstiles were built with the full range of human height in mind.
“I learned a long time ago you can’t teach courage, you can’t teach class, and Mr. Barkley reminds us of that,” Jones said before gifting Barkley a bag of churros.
Jones also attended Game 6 of the Western Conference finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder after being gifted tickets from Tullos Wells, the co-chair of the Tobin Endowment and former outside legal counsel for Spurs Sports & Entertainment.