Victor Wembanyama continues to climb the all-time grading list with extreme velocity.
According to third-party grading tracker GemRate, Wembanyama passed NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal this week to move into the top 15 most graded athletes of all time, with more than 430,000 graded cards across the major services.
At Wembanyama’s current pace, the 2023-24 NBA Rookie of the Year is poised to reach 500,000 graded cards and move into the all-time top 10 by the end of 2024.
Michael Jordan remains by far the most graded athlete of all time with more than 2.1 million cards, and Ken Griffey Jr. is in a distant second with a little more than 1 million.
Among players to debut during the ultra-modern era, Shohei Ohtani (2018) ranks fifth all-time with more than 700,000 graded cards, and Zion Williamson (2019) ranks ninth with nearly 513,000. Ja Morant (2019) and Luka Doncic (2018) currently rank No. 12 and No. 13 all-time, with roughly 476,000 and 473,000 cards each, respectively.
Of Wembanyama’s graded cards, his 2023 Panini Prizm No. 136 has been by far the most submitted card, with more than 39,000 graded copies. Wembanyama’s 2023 Panini Prizm Monopoly No. 81 is a distant second with more than 18,200 graded examples.
Along the path to reaching the top 15, Wembanyama passed legends such as Hank Aaron (359k), Willie Mays (343k), Wayne Gretzky (256k) and Peyton Manning (254k).
As expected, Wembamyama has also been a popular seller on the secondary market, with data tool Market Movers tracking more than 300,000 sales for the Spurs superstar over the last year. Wembanyama’s total easily eclipses Michael Jordan’s roughly 192,000 sales in second place over that same period.
Already a highly coveted rookie, interest in Wembanyama has surged in recent months as a key chase in products such as 2023-24 Topps Chrome Basketball — a beloved product that made its return to basketball for the first time in 15 years.
Wembanyama was also the focus for the debut of Topps’ ultra high-end Mercury set. Featuring just eight cards per box, Topps Mercury originally retailed for $8,000 but has reached $10,000 or more on the secondary market.
To date, the highest sale for a Wembanyama card at public auction is the $516,000 paid for his 2023 Panini Prizm Black Shimmer FOTL 1/1 PSA 9 at PWCC in April.
Ben Burrows is a reporter and editor for cllct.