Dwight Howard dares Victor Wembanyama to face $220 million boxer in epic chess battle

Victor Wembanyama is a man of many talents. The San Antonio Spurs hoped he'd become the new defensive anchor and face of the franchise, and the early returns have been even better than expected.

The former No. 1 pick lived up to the hype in his first season. He proved the doubters wrong by staying healthy for most of the year and ran away with a unanimous Rookie of the Year selection.

Now, he's more than just a basketball player. On Saturday, he encouraged fans to meet up with him in New York City to play some chess, and he also shared some photos on his X account.

Former NBA champion Dwight Howard, who is playing overseas, saw this as an opportunity to get Wembanyama to join him there. In his latest post on Instagram, he challenged him to play against boxing legend Manny Pacquiao, who is another chess enthusiast.

“We got to get Wemby to come to the Philippines & play @mannypacquiao to see if he’s a real Chess player," Howard wrote on the post. "Comment a (Philippines flag) if you want to see Wemby face off with Pacquiao," Howard captioned on Monday.

Wembanyama previously pitched the idea of organizing a chess tournament featuring NBA players, with all proceeds going to charity, so he might like Howard's idea.

Victor Wembanyama is optimistic about the Spurs

This has been a challenging year for the Spurs. Gregg Popovich suffered a stroke and has been away from the team for weeks. He also has no timetable for when he'll return to the bench. The team also missed the playoffs last season for the fifth consecutive year.

However, the Spurs are slowly getting better, and while they're still not a playoff team, Wembanyama likes the direction they're heading into.

“We’re not ready yet. We’re right there," Wembanyama said on Friday, via The Washington Post. "For me, I think it’s just a switch we’ve got to flip because I’m sure we’re going to see that it works. We’re close, but we lack some attributes at times.”

The Spurs are 16-16 and holding onto the final spot in the Play-In Tournament.

With the Golden State Warriors and Denver Nuggets both struggling with consistency, it wouldn't be shocking to see them climb the ladder further as the season progresses, especially if they land another star by the trade deadline as rumored.