'Yeah, he’s different:' Former teammate Bilal Coulibaly has some interesting insight on Victor Wembanyama
Roughly 30 hours before the San Antonio Spurs selected Victor Wembanyama with the No. 1 pick in June’s NBA Draft, the 7-foot-4 Frenchman bound his long frame through a midtown Manhattan ballroom and settled behind a podium before scores of assembled media. He was asked about the importance of being selected first overall. He was asked when he first realized he had NBA potential.
Yahoo Sports asked Wembanyama about the other player invited to the green room from his Metropolitans 92 club, which had just reached the LNB Pro A finals. There was increasing word among NBA personnel that multiple teams, perhaps even the Spurs, were considering trading into the top 10 to choose Bilal Coulibaly, the bouncy forward with whom Wembanyama once claimed a French national championship — back when the two prospects were just 13 years old. And the generational giant delivered quite a scouting report on his fellow phenom.
“I’ll tell you something, the NBA, he’ll fit very good because he’s actually 6-8 with a 7-3 wingspan. And, you know, often players, they cheat on their measurements. But we don’t do that in France,” Wembanyama said. He grinned as a chuckle trickled through the crowd. “He probably looks small compared to me, but he’s not. And let me tell you something, people were shocked when they came to my team to get the medicals. He can be just so valuable to an NBA team. I’m sure of it. His mix of agility, athleticism, skills, speed, shooting, defense. He can guard four positions out of five, and he can play multiple positions on offense. He’s just so complete as a player. And he plays at a level, he performs against competition which is light-years away from many prospects in our draft class. So, yeah, I believe he’s top five.”
Coulibaly wasn’t even considered a first-round pick when Metros 92 flocked to Las Vegas last October, so scouts could watch Wembanyama’s team battle G League Ignite and Scoot Henderson — the eventual No. 3 pick in the 2023 NBA Draft. Coulibaly ultimately landed as the seventh selection, two spots below Wembanyama’s assessment yet nothing short of a dramatic rise. The hype surrounding Coulibaly following his strong postseason play in France reached the point where Indiana was able to persuade the Wizards to move up one slot and secure Coulibaly for Washington’s rebuild. The Pacers had long eyed Jarace Walker out of Houston, league sources told Yahoo Sports, but there was plenty of belief among NBA front offices that the Jazz, picking ninth, were another team interested in Coulibaly.
That Metros 92 title chase — eventually falling 3-0 to Monaco in the finals — remains a fond memory for Coulibaly and Wembanyama, a pair of teenagers well aware their NBA dreams were about to come true, but not without a chance at claiming another national crown.
“That was the thing that we really wanted,” Coulibaly told Yahoo Sports. “Playing in Roland-Garros. That big gym. Being on that stage. I was 18, he was 19. We were so young. We just loved the moment.”
Wembanyama has already produced his share of moments through only three NBA preseason games. His second preseason game was highlighted by him stretching his left arm over Miami Heat center Thomas Bryant and reaching for a powerful one-handed jam eerily similar to Michael Jordan’s elastic finish over the Monstars in “Space Jam.”
Wembanyama is running pick-and-rolls as a ball-handler, taking screens from 6-1 point guard Tre Jones when the conventional confines of basketball insist that action should be run the other way around. Wembanyama has slung gorgeous backdoor bounce passes to cutting teammates. He doesn’t even hesitate at opponent closeouts, because how could you disrupt his sightline, let alone contest his release point?
“Yeah, he’s different,” Coulibaly smiled.
The Wizards and Spurs competed in respective games Wednesday evening, so Coulibaly was unable to watch Wembanyama’s latest outing live. But Coulibaly has followed his former teammate from afar. The Wizards’ youngster was quick to declare Wembanyama had rested for San Antonio’s game against the Rockets on Monday.
“He’s a great guy, for real. Humble,” Coulibaly said. “I think everybody knows it. But he’s really smart. Like, really, really smart. Sometimes I feel like he’s older than a lot of us. I feel like, how he speaks, his approach to everything. Whatever he’s doing, he’s really thinking about it.”
His best glimpse of Wembanyama’s intentionality came last season in the weight room with strength and conditioning coach Guillaume Alquier, whom the Spurs have since hired to continue overseeing Wembanyama’s physical development. It was Alquier’s idea to have the two prospects learn to juggle tennis balls in an effort to bolster hand-eye coordination and quickness in their wrists and fingers. Sometimes it was two balls, sometimes they would work combinations bouncing the yellow orbs off the wall. They would juggle throwing everything down against the ground and work in basketball dribbling drills in between.
Wembanyama’s hands were just so strikingly big. He would flaunt his fingers in Coulibaly’s direction, swallowing the whole tennis ball in his hand to make its fluorescent color disappear from view like a magic trick. “That was crazy,” Coulibaly said. “The first time he did that, I was like, ‘No way, bruh.’”
Washington’s rookie has continued practicing for fun. “Now that I’m getting better, I’m trying to add some more tricks whenever I’ve got time,” Coulibaly said.
He will have plenty of opportunity to grow in the Wizards’ youth movement behind Jordan Poole, far away from the league’s brightest spotlight. Wembanyama, meanwhile, will be tasked with juggling the traditional first-year bumps and bruises, while withstanding all of the NBA’s marquee marketing. So far, Wembanyama looks capable of handling anything you toss his direction.
