The NBA's French Revolution

For decades, the NBA was ruled purely by the Americans, but now as the league continues to grow, and extend its reach to all corners of the globe, more overseas talent than ever has come to the league.

The last two drafts have seen Frenchmen go No. 1 overall, with this year's draft seeing three out of the top six picks coming from France.

How did we get here? To answer that, we first must see where it all began.

THE PAST:

The year is 2001 and the San Antonio Spurs are a powerhouse in the league, receiving the 28th pick in the draft. With it they selected guard Tony Parker to pair with young star Tim Duncan and the aging David Robinson, hoping to chase one more ring in the twilight of his career.

After a quiet rookie season, he would slowly become a critical piece to the Spurs’ early 2000s dynasty due to his flexibility as a playmaker, scorer, and defender.

We move on forward to 2007 when the Chicago Bulls are still in the midst of rebuilding from the Michael Jordan era and are in search of a center when they select Joakim Noah from the University of Florida.

While scoring was never his strong suit, Noah excelled on the defensive end (something that we would soon figure out is a staple of the country’s players) and cleaned the glass with ease, becoming a double-double machine.

Other honorable mentions from this era go to: Nicolas Batum, Evan Fournier

THE PRESENT:

In 2013, The Denver Nuggets selected Rudy Gobert 27th overall and immediately traded him to Utah on draft night.

While they did eventually get a star big of their own in Nikola Jokic, trading away Gobert would be a poor decision as now the all-time great rim protector has received his fourth DPOY award and continues to grab boards, block shots, and drive players away from the paint on a nightly basis.

After Gobert, the country of France would remain quiet for a while in the basketball scene, but someone would eventually come to change all of that.

THE FUTURE:

The 2023 NBA Draft gave us Victor Wembanyama, a 7-foot-5 monster with an 8-foot wingspan, a handle like a guard, and can shoot threes like one too.

Coming into the league, Wemby had a lot of doubters saying he was too thin, injury prone, and that his game just wouldn’t translate well to the NBA…

He then backed that up with a rookie season consisting of 21.4 points, 10.7 rebounds, 3.9 blocks and 1.2 steals, winning unanimous ROTY and coming second behind Gobert in DPOY voting.

Wemby currently has TWO 5x5 games (the only of their kind since 2019), a triple-double with blocks, a 40/20 game, and as of LAST NIGHT, now holds the record for the fastest 50-point game in just 28 minutes.

This year’s round of rookies has shown some potential as well, with No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher having solid 20 and 30+ point games to start the season. No. 2 pick Alex Sarr has yet to take off offensively, but his shot-blocking is impeccable.

Chris Vadnais is a second-year majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, please email cmv5562@psu.edu.