The NBA's French Revolution
America's oldest ally is pumping out top-flight basketball talent
FRANCOPHONE BIAS DISCLAIMER: My grandmother, née Colette Sicard, grew up outside Marseille and was said to be a baller point guard in her day. The Becky Hammon of Marignane, some (me) would say. She died a few years ago, but I know she would’ve loved seeing all this Tricolour take over the league. Here’s to Coco. 🥂
How high was France on your list of countries that would one day become the second-biggest producer of top NBA talent? Check your notes. I’ll wait.
It wasn’t obvious, looking back. Tony Parker tops the all-time list of French players today. I’d say Rudy Gobert is probably your silver medalist there. Then I’d have Joakim Noah, followed by the peerlessly French Boris Diaw and, I don’t know, Nicolas Batum? The list is fine. It’s good. It’s not remarkable.
Canada’s given us more so far, between Steve Nash, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Jamal Murray. So has Nigeria, c/o Hakeem Olajuwon, and if you pull the infamous Malcolm Gladwell maneuver and open it up to first-generation Nigerian descent, that list gets considerably longer.
Spain’s a good one, between the Gasol brothers, Ricky Rubio, and Serge Ibaka. So is Germany, what with Dirk Nowitzki, Detlef Schrempf, and even Dennis Schroder (the star of our very first All Fields post — never forget).
Slovenia gave us Luka Doncic, Serbia gave us Nikola Jokic, Greece gave us Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Canada gave us the aforementioned SGA, all of whom finished in the top 5 of MVP voting this year. Joel Embiid, hailing from Cameroon — who, I should note, could’ve played for the French team at this year’s Olympics had he so chosen — would be on that list too had he played more of the season.
That’s a striking list, and it speaks to how basketball has become an emphatically global sport, drawing top-level talent from all over the world.
Next Wednesday is the NBA Draft, and these big boards don’t look like they used to. Gone are the days when a foreign player going in the top 10 was considered a rarity, a curiosity. That’s every year these days, and France is staking out a remarkable share of those high-end picks.
I’m not in the mock draft business, and this year’s class is not thought to be a very good one, but it’s entirely plausible that a French player will go first overall for the second year in a row. Both Alex Sarr and Zaccharie Risacher will get a look there, and a third Frenchman, Tidjane Salaun, looks like a good bet to land lower in the top 10.
And again, this isn’t even the good class! Last year, a guy you might have heard of, Victor Wembanyama, went first overall and immediately delivered on lofty expectations of generational talent. It’s not an exaggeration to say that he is already on track for all-time greatness. Meanwhile, while admittedly a much more raw player, Wemby’s fellow Parisian teammate, Bilal Coulibaly, went 7th overall.
Getting ahead of ourselves, Nolan Traoré is thought to be the second-best prospect in 2025 after the mondo-hyped Cooper Flagg. Another Frenchman, Noa Essengue, could very well make the lottery as well.
And it’s worth pointing out that, with the lone exception of Sarr, all of these guys are playing in France up to the moment they come to the NBA. Players like Traoré are turning down all kinds of offers to play a year in college, which used to be the surest route for a foreign player to boost their draft slot.
What this is, then, is a success story of French basketball development. Though it’s accelerated in all these notable ways in the last few years, it’s been a long time coming, per Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, who wrote a book on the subject last year:
“The focus on youth development goes back more than a century, Krasnoff adds, and is a typical French-American story. In 1893, Melvin Rideout, a disciple of the basketball’s founding father James Naismith, was sent to Paris to inaugurate the first basketball court outside of the U.S. in an effort to internationalize the incipient sport. Located at a YMCA center at 14 Rue de Trévise, in the 9th arrondissement, the herringbone-patterned court is now being refurbished in preparation for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.”
You get that sense walking around Paris, too. Nothing’s going to top football (soccer), but I saw more basketball courts, NBA jerseys, and stores selling them than I would’ve necessarily expected the last time I was there. Anecdata to the max, yes, but I’m just saying. When closer watchers of French basketball culture attest to growing enthusiasm around the game, I’m inclined to believe them. The results speak for themselves.
I expect France to be pretty competitive in these Olympics, even without the addition of Embiid. After all, they have two pretty good bigs already. They don’t need to win there to prove what’s already true, though.
France has made it. Seaux.1
Also, This
☘️ Congrats to the Celtics, who turned out to be pretty damn good after all. That Mavericks team, who emerged victorious from a considerably stronger field in the West, were thoroughly outclassed throughout. I was especially glad to see a strong closeout game from Jayson Tatum, first because he’s an STL guy, which makes him my guy, and second because I’ve grown weary of the Whither The Js? discourse. Can we stop with the over-analysis of this team now? Let’s give it a rest. Another couple notes on the Celtics’ win:
Really happy for Al Horford. 17 years is a long time to go. I was living in Atlanta when those Hawks teams were running into the Cavs buzzsaw year after year. This guy has been such a good pro for such a long time. Tatum called him “his favorite teammate of all time” in the post-game, and I believe it. He deserved one, and he got it.
Derrick White hasn’t waited as long, but man, that guy bailed them out on so many dead-end possessions and gave them genuine rim protection as a 6’4” guard. Dude’s a winner, and he won.
I happen to think Luka’s a winner too. He did not win this time, but I have every confidence that he can and will win it all one of these days. This is just the kind of near-miss that’ll bring the best out of him.
Anyone else see Michael Rubin sitting courtside? He of the highly questionable sports apparel company, and more relevant in this instance, the Philadelphia 76ers…? Guess when you sell your shares you can show up for your rivals’ coronation. Curious.
⛳ Congrats also to Bryson DeChambeau, who slayed some demons in narrowly winning the U.S. Open. It’s been quite a ride for the ol’ Beefster, climbing all the way from his loathsome days of being harangued by fans as Brooks Koepka’s foil — imagine being that guy’s foil — to beloved cheers all throughout this past weekend. He’s a LIV guy, which makes everything he does a little more spicy in all the ways you’d expect. He didn’t qualify for the Olympics, for one. So there’s a controversy. But then he said he’d made peace with the choices he’s made, so, I don’t know… so have I?
💐 Willie Mays now? Hard to process all the loss these last few weeks. It does at least feel extremely fitting that MLB played its first-ever game at Rickwood Field on Thursday, the ballpark where Mays started his professional career for the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons. He was a giant of the game, and he — like Jerry West, like Bill Walton — will be dearly missed.
🏀 After all that, it seems like it was always JJ Redick to the Lakers. I’m a teensy bit skeptical that that works out, but you have to figure this is keeping at least one guy on the roster happy. Wonder who!
Direct translation: Buckets.