France will play for a gold medal in men’s basketball in front of their home crowd at the Paris Olympics. Here’s what to know about the French national team and likely Team USA opponent.
Welcome to the Summer of the Dancing Bear.
Guerschon Yabusele has been a surprise star for Team France in the men's basketball tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics, ranking second on the squad in scoring (12.8 points per game) behind 7-foot-4 phenom Victor Wembanyama.
Yabusele delivered a team-high 22 points Tuesday in France's upset win over Canada in the quarterfinals and was on his A-game again in Thursday's semifinal, racking up a team-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting to go along with seven rebounds as France knocked off Germany to advance to the gold medal game.
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Yabusele hasn't played in the NBA since 2019, when the Boston Celtics -- the team that selected him 16th overall in the 2016 NBA Draft -- waived him after two seasons. But after another strong Olympic showing Thursday, the 28-year-old apparently has designs on an NBA comeback.
"You gotta tell (the Celtics) to bring me back," Yabusele said with a smile to The Boston Globe's Gary Washburn.
Yabusele in Celtics green is probably a long shot -- the defending champions have a loaded roster, and Yabusele is five years removed from his last NBA game -- but C's fans are probably enjoying seeing the 6-foot-8, 270-pound big man make his mark for his home country.
Yabusele appears to be thriving overseas, as well; he's spent the last three seasons with Real Madrid and helped the club win two Liga ACB titles (2022 and 2024) and a EuroLeague championship (2023). He averaged 10.5 points and 4.9 rebounds per game this past season with Real Madrid.
After spending the 2016-17 season with the Shanghai Sharks in China, Yabusele played two seasons at the NBA level with Boston, averaging 2.4 points over 7.1 minutes per game in 2017-18 and 2.3 points over 6.1 minutes per game in 2018-19.
Watch the video below for an, ahem, colorful tribute NBC Sports Boston made for Yabusele after his release in 2019.
