Bilal Coulibaly, teammate of Victor Wembanyama at the Mets 92 and expected around 12th or 13th place, was drafted in 7th position by the Indiana Pacers on the night of Thursday to Friday. He was immediately traded to the Washington Wizards.
In a normal world, without the extraterrestrial Victor Wembanyama, he would have equaled the best performance of a Frenchman in the NBA draft. On the night of Thursday to Friday, Bilal Coulibaly was selected in 7th position for the 2023 draft by the Indiana Pacers. In the process, he was immediately transferred to the Washington Wizards, a team in reconstruction where he will have the opportunity to have playing time.
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Expected at the end of the top 15, around 12th or 13th place, the tricolor winger has exploded all predictions. Wembanyama’s teammate at Boulogne-Levallois during the season which has just ended, Coulibaly is doing as well as Killian Hayes, selected 7th in 2020 and Frenchman drafted the highest in history … until the draft of ” Wemby” in No. 1.
“I saw the cameras coming and I was like ‘what’s going on?’
“It’s nice, it’s a dream since we were little for all French basketball players! It was a surprise, reacted Coulibaly on Bein Sports. I saw the cameras arrive and I said to myself ‘but what ‘is it happening?’ I’m very happy and very proud. It’s a crazy thing.”
Coulibaly and Wembanyama thus become the first Habs playing in the same club to be selected in the first round of the same draft since Mickaël Piétrus and Boris Diaw (11th and 21st) in 2003.
At only 18 years old (he will be 19 at the end of July), Coulibaly has experienced a meteoric rise. Member of the Mets 92 hopeful team at the start of the season, he became, in the space of a few months, one of the major elements of a formation which climbed to the final of the French championship (defeat against at Monaco).
A 2m winger with an above average wingspan (2.19m) for a player of this size, he stands out thanks to his athletic qualities which have earned him the nickname “Baby Giannis Antetokounmpo” on the other side of Atlantic. “A unique cocktail of size, length, scope and explosiveness,” summarizes Jonathan Givony, NBA draft specialist for ESPN. The NBA has been warned.
Felix Gabory Journalist RMC Sport
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2023-06-23 01:29:37
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