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.
