Who is Guerschon Yabusele?
A promising development path put Guerschon Yabusele on NBA radars a decade ago, and he was drafted 16th overall by the Boston Celtics in the 2016 NBA Draft. He bounced around between the G League and the NBA, becoming a fan favorite because of his gracefulness and footwork despite his thick frame, earning the nickname "The Dancing Bear."
In two seasons with the Celtics he played in 74 games and averaged just 6.6 minutes per game and 2.3 points. His 3-point shot never came around, and he wasn't big enough to play center; that "non-shooting power forward" role was being phased out of the NBA, and it left Yabusele without a role. In 2019 the team waived him, and he returned overseas to continue his career.
After playing briefly in the Chinese Basketball Association and in France, Yabusele signed with European powerhouse Real Madrid in July of 2021 and has been there ever since. He helped lead Real Madrid to two league titles and a EuroLeague championship over the past three seasons. In the process he has become a significantly better player than the one who couldn't catch on in the NBA.
Last season, Yabusele shot 44.5 percent from 3-point range on 2.7 attempts per game, which not only keeps him on the court but opens up opportunities to charge into the paint and destroy opponents too light or small to stop him from scoring in the post. That combination of skill and power is difficult to stop, as a number of Olympic opponents discovered in Paris.
Yabusele averaged 14 points per game in the Olympics across six games, shooting 51.9 percent from the field and giving France the offensive oomph it needed to propel it forward. He turned it on specifically in the knockout stage, averaging 19.7 points per game in those three games and drawing a total of 22 free throw attempts. Teams struggled to find an answer for his unorthodox game, and he captured the attention of the world as he very nearly led France to a gold medal.