Our colleague Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff is a historian, speaker, and consultant whose book Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA comes out September 7. Given her deep ties to French culture, sport and basketball, she offers up a unique POV around what’s coming for Victor Wembanyama…Readers can use code BASKET23US for 20% off the book as well!
The May 16 NBA Draft Lottery focused the sports world’s attention on the San Antonio Spurs, the franchise who now have the right to select first at the June 22nd Draft. Much was made about how the team would be a good fit for this draft class’s likely number one prospect, 19-year-old Frenchman Victor Wembanyama, given their history incubating young international talent. Given the Spurs’ track record with another player from France, Tony Parker, the media raised the issue of role models and how Wembanyama might follow in their footsteps. It’s an important consideration for sports communicators and storytellers, especially for international players entering foreign markets.
Role models can be important in showing others how something can be done. The first Frenchman to play a regular season NBA match was Tariq Abdul-Wahad in October 1997 with the Sacramento Kings. But being a trailblazer wasn’t the easiest of tasks, more akin to fighting an uphill battle. “The first guy’s going to catch the bullets,” he said years later of the experience. While Abdul-Wahad and Jérome Moïso provided blueprints for how French players could springboard from NCAA Division One programs into an NBA career, it was Parker who demonstrated how to be drafted directly from the country’s top professional division, ProA.
The future Hall of Famer, a graduate of France’s prestigious INSEP sports school, played two seasons with Paris Basket Racing* before catching the eye of the Spurs. Selected 28th in the first round, he quickly fought his way into Coach Gregg Popovich’s starting five. Parker went on to craft a Hall of Fame worthy career that included four NBA Championship rings and countless individual accolades, a role model in numerous ways.
Parker’s close friend and fellow 2014 NBA Champion Boris Diaw also played several seasons in San Antonio. Drafted in 2003 by Atlanta, Diaw’s first big NBA break came with the fast-breaking Phoenix Suns where in 2006 he earned the league’s Most Improved Player award. Eight years later, as his time in Charlotte drew to a close, Diaw was signed by the Spurs to play with Parker—something they did with the national team but had not yet done so professionally. Two seasons later, they were part of a magical run to the title and showed to kids back home the mettle it takes to be NBA champions, as well as the resilience required for long careers in the world’s top league.
Overlooked by much of the U.S. media is another Frenchman who played alongside Parker and Diaw during this era: Nando de Colo. Drafted in the second round by the Spurs in 2009, de Colo learned his craft in Europe before a 2012 State-side arrival. After nearly two years with the Spurs organization, then a stint in Toronto, de Colo returned to Europe where he modeled to kids that one can shine after the NBA by accumulating multiple EuroLeague titles, awards, and accolades as the championship’s second greatest modern scorer.
These snapshots tell us nothing about Wembanyama’s future, or about the art of storycraft. But they prove that there is more than one way to role model what “successful” careers can look like. That’s why it’s important for sports communicators and storytellers to tell a diverse set of stories. Parker is one of the most significant athletes to mark modern France, let alone its basketball scene. It’s an exemplary blueprint for how to craft a champion’s career over the long durée. But inclusion of Diaw’s and de Colo’s stories, or those of countless others, provides other paths and different sets of motivation to inspire the NextGen.
That’s why we should focus on multiple examples of role models who embody a variety of ways to successfully notch careers, particularly when it pertains to international players. This is true for other disciplines, not just basketball, as well as for other stakeholders within the industry. As sports communicators and storytellers, it’s up to us to help shed light on these examples so that kids around the world can be inspired by one of a diverse set of stories.
The mood here in Paris ahead of the NBA Draft is celebratory and wistful as the public turns out to bid “Wemby” farewell. Even people who do not follow basketball have by now heard of him. This week, a 15,000+ crowd filled AccorArena for what may be the teenaged prodigy’s last professional game in the city before his likely departure for the United States. The arena sold out in hours for the semi-final matchup of Levallois-Boulogne Metropolitans 92 vs ASVEL, pitting Wembanyama’s team against that of Parker, respectively. It was a hometown win for the Mets, as they sealed an 86-83 victory with an improbable 3-pointer made with 3.7 seconds left.
The 2022-23 season has shattered attendance records for the domestic league with stadia at 87% capacity and an average 3,910 attendees. Those numbers may seem small to U.S. audiences, but for France they’re significant.
And it hasn’t all been for Wembanyama, either, although that’s been a key driver. Throughout the season several matches were played in large-scale venues at La Defense (Paris), AccorArena, and hallowed tennis grounds Roland Garros (Paris Basketball vs Monaco, October 2022), in which more than 10,000 fans turned out. Somewhere in the stands, or watching on television at home, are kids who are inspired to their own set of hoops dreams, waiting to write their own adventures just as Wembanyama prepares to create his next chapter.
*Paris Basket Racing evolved over the years into what is today Levallois-Boulogne Metropolitans 92, commonly known as Mets 92 or Mets.
