All hail the Dancing Bear.
Despite being the host nation for the 2024 Summer Olympics, the French men's basketball team was not expected to medal. While they had two of the greatest defenders in the NBA on the roster in Rudy Gobert and Victor Wembanyama, the rest of the roster was made up of aging veterans or non-NBA players, and the guard play in particular wasn't seen as up-to-snuff when compared to other teams in the competition.
France looked shaky in group play, with a miracle needed to beat Japan and a blowout loss to Germany. Then, after squeaking through to the quarterfinals, they suddenly turned on the afterburners, knocking off Canada and Germany and pushing Team USA to the brink in the gold medal match before Stephen Curry went supernova to hold them off.
France had a breakout star
It was certainly a team effort for France, but their best offensive player for the tournament was not Evan Fournier, as has been normal for the country over the last decade, nor rising star Victor Wembanyama. Instead, it was a power forward named Guerschon Yabusele, a name the Toronto Raptors may want to get to know.
Yabusele worked his way into the starting lineup for France and had a number of highlight plays during the run to the gold medal game, culminating in a highlight dunk over the King himself, LeBron James.
GUERSCHON YABUSELE ON LEBRON JAMES. š³
ā NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 10, 2024
šŗ NBC and Peacock | #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/cjrH6Q9Epd
Who is Guerschon Yabusele? And why might the Raptors want to look into him more? Let's take a closer look at this unique basketball player.