Nine days before the start of the EuroBasket, a mandatory squad review to introduce you to each of the twelve Blues who will try to climb to the roof of Europe on September 18, nine years following Ljubljana. At the time of these lines we are also more on thirteen players, but not a second to lose so we get wet talking regarding those who should without too much concern see their place for Berlin validated in the coming days. Come on, we’re looking at the file today… Guerschon Yabusele, a file as substantial as the player’s chest is wide.
- Nom: Yabusele
- First name: Guerschon
- Age : 26 ans
- Size: 2m03
- Weight: 115 kg
- Position: Power Winger, much stronger than a winger
- Nickname: The Dancing Bear, Yabu, Yab, Guerche, the zealous Yabu (no)
- On the CV: Roanne, Rouen, Shanghai, G League, Celtics, ASVEL, Real Madrid since 2021
- Achievements in EDF: a silver medal at the 2021 Olympic Games
Whatever happens and whatever people say, the story of Guerschon Yabusele is different from any other. We’re talking regarding a kid who hadn’t specifically planned to get into basketball, cradled on his father’s side by the love of boxing and rather attracted to football before the traditional “ah but you’re big, you wouldn’t try basketball ? », we speak of a basketball hope because the talent is there, then very quickly of a talent… wasted because the progression is slow and the career choices a little strange, then a few years later and at the bend of original cross roads, here is our good Guerschon implanted among the best players of EuroLeague and counting among the executives of Vincent Collet in the French team. What happened ? Oh, so many things.
To make it short? In 2016 the block is drafted with the sixteenth pick by the Celtics following having proven itself on the side of Rouen. Full of dreams in the head for an atypical profile which can clearly make its mark in the NBA. 13 points and 8 rebounds for his first game in the Summer League, the bug is comfortable, but his first NBA season will finally take place… in China, following having noticed with losses and noise that the C’s staff did not really count on him, or at least not right away. At the time the choice was decried by some, but how might you blame a guy who just wanted to play basketball and if possible scratch a few tunasses along the way. Life what. The NBA, Guerschon will finally attend it for 74 ends of matches between the 2017 and 2019 season, via a few trips back and forth in the G League, in short not enough to make a real place for yourself despite an imposing body and sometimes the target of jealous mockery. We are in 2019, Guerschon has a wide buttocks and likes to dye his hair, he goes to China with his helmet on his ears. Seen like that some fears emerge, but the crack of Dreux has not yet cracked its egg.
Because ultimately, and this is the general assumption on August 23, it is in Europe that the one who dreamed of the NBA is having fun. ASVEL to rebuild a small reputation then Real Madrid with a hell of a battalion of Frenchies (Heurtel, Poirier, Causeur), but at Real Guersch does not make us a Faubert and imposes himself among the best wingers in the competition by even becoming – in particular – MVP of the month of January. A distinction that echoes the brand new status of the player, that of an accomplished international, we come to it, since Vincent Collet now instinctively calls on him since a first selection during the qualifications for the Euro which is getting closer and, above all , since the Tokyo Olympics last summer, where the soldier was a big part of the collective medal effort, and it’s not Kevin Durant himself who will say the opposite.
“They are very good guys (EDF players, editor’s note) and if I see them off the pitch, I hug them. But it’s one of those teams and those players that I simply don’t like. It’s like Guerschon Yabusele, he was playing in the NBA, I don’t know where he is today, I don’t like him. I just want to beat him and do it the right way, every time. »
6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds in 16.8 minutes, constant energy from night to morning, a courageous defense in the final and a clutch save in the semi once morest Slovenia, among others, and five years following his Draft the Yab had therefore dropped his masterclass, far from the NBA floors, with the Blues jersey. An Olympic career which today gives him a place of choice in Coach Vince’s rotation, as a potential holder, on a position 4 where he can display all his power and versatility, he who has become a very solid weapon on shooting in addition to always having this ability to demolish anything that moves on the drive.
The journey was therefore not necessarily the one that Guerschon Yabusele had planned, but let’s say that today fullness is near, at 26 years old and following having already lived at least six lives. The Dancing Bear has started to make its opponents dance, and it intends to impress the jury in September.
