The year was 1891 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Dr. James Naismith had to think of a new game his students could play indoors during New England’s cold winter months.
And just like that, the game of basketball was born.
Two years later, a fellow named Melvin Rideout, who learned the game from Naismith, travelled to Paris to set up the first basketball court outside America and on December 27, 1893, the first basketball game played in Europe took place.
Fast forward 130 years and the nation of France would play a major part in another monumental moment in basketball history as the San Antonio Spurs selected Victor Wembanyama, from Le Chesnay – near Versailles, with the first pick of the 2023 NBA Draft.
His friend and Metropolitans 92 teammate, Bilal Coulibaly from Saint-Cloud in the west of Paris, was then taken seventh by Indiana before being traded to Washington.
In the most recent NBA draft this past June, the first two players selected, Zaccharie Risacher by the Atlanta Hawks and Alexandre Sarr by the Wizards, were also French.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Charlotte Hornets then chose Tidjane Salaun with the sixth selection and with pick number 25, the New York Knicks drafted Pacome Dadiet. Four of the top 25 picks in 2024’s draft were therefore from France.
Paris will soon host the NBA once again, and for the third consecutive year, with Wembanyama’s Spurs facing the Pacers on January 23 and 25 in what is perhaps a full circle moment from that game in 1893.
However, it wasn’t always like this for French basketball.
An Impossible Dream No More
In August last year, days before becoming the first French player inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Tony Parker was asked if he thought he’d end up a hall of famer during his early years at France’s National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (INSEP), or when he first started playing professional basketball with Paris Basket Racing.
“Honestly, even in my wildest dreams, I never imagined myself entering the Hall of Fame,” he said in a Zoom call with reporters a few days before the 2023 Hall of Fame ceremony.
“When I started my career, basketball was different. It was an impossible dream. No European point guard had ever played in the NBA.”
“There were just no Europeans. Today, getting drafted has almost become normal, but at the time it was quite an event.”
While it seemed like an impossible dream at the beginning of Parker’s NBA career, today getting drafted and playing in the world’s best basketball league has indeed become more normal for Europeans and even more so for French hoopers. According to the league, no other country outside of North America has had more players in the NBA than France.
Parker and Co. and INSEP
Embed from Getty ImagesJean-Claude Lefèbvre became the first French and European player drafted in the NBA when the then Minneapolis Lakers selected him in the ninth round in 1960. Tariq Abdul-Wahad was the first Frenchman to actually play in the league after being drafted 11th overall in 1997 by Sacramento.
But it was Parker’s arrival in San Antonio, as the 28th pick of the 2001 draft, that was arguably the pivotal turning point in the rise of modern French influence in the NBA.
In his time with the Spurs, Parker won four NBA championships alongside Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and legendary coach Gregg Popovich and he was even named Finals MVP in 2007.
Soon after, fellow countrymen such as Boris Diaw, Ronny Turiaf, Mikael Pietrus, Joakim Noah and Nicolas Batum followed in his footsteps and made an impact in the league with Diaw winning a title with Parker and the Spurs in 2014.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe influence of Parker, who is also President of French team ASVEL, and his compatriots transcended the NBA hardwood and reached the basketball courts of France.
Throughout the country, the number of people registered with basketball clubs this year has reached around 750,000 according to the Associated Press. There are now 70,000 more people playing basketball in France compared to two years ago and 170,000 more since 2014.
Amongst all these players, the premier rising talent in French basketball refine and hone their skills at INSEP, just like Parker did before them, giving them the best chance possible of fulfilling their potential.
INSEP has been developing elite French athletes in multiple sports since 1975 and in basketball, training camps are held for the top 36 boys and 36 girls with around 20 teenagers being selected.
These young French players learn to become professional athletes from an early age as they can train and graduate from INSEP and start playing professionally in France even when they are only teenagers.
The Present and the Future
Embed from Getty ImagesThis has all led to today. More and more French players are having a greater impact in the NBA and the number of young prospects from France continue to rise.
Minnesota’s Rudy Gobert is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, having already won the award on three previous occasions, while recent draftees such as Coulibaly, Risacher and Sarr have all made solid starts to their careers.
It is Wembanyama though who is widely expected to be the jewel in the crown of France’s NBA talent and Parker, who has also opened a basketball academy in France which Wembanyama attended, believes ‘Wemby’ is ready for that challenge.
Embed from Getty Images“The only one I can compare with so much expectation before he arrived is Lebron James,” said Parker earlier this year.
“The talent is unbelievable…he’s ready, and he has a chance to be one of the best players in the history of our game.”
The question is, is everyone else ready for Wembanyama and his French teammates as they continue their conquest throughout the basketball world?
“I’m worried for the opponents in a couple of years,” Wembanyama said after losing to Team USA in the Paris Olympics final.
When asked if he was referring to opponents in international basketball or the NBA, his response was clear.
“Everywhere.”
