Philadelphia 76ers forward Guerschon Yabusele recaptures NBA dream

CAMDEN, N.J. – French forward Guerschon Yabusele’s dunk over NBA legend LeBron James in the 2024 Paris Olympics gold medal game is immortalized in a picture that hangs in his new Philadelphia-area home. While the dunk wasn’t a part of a victory for the host France against the USA, which won the game, it is a reminder of how Yabusele’s stellar play landed him back in the NBA with the Philadelphia 76ers.

“My advice is just work hard, never give up and make your dream come true. If you want it, you’re going to have to go get it,” Yabusele told Andscape after practice Oct. 9 at the Sixers’ practice facility.

The 76ers announced the signing of Yabusele to a one-year, $2.1 million contract on Aug. 29, five years after he played in the NBA for the Boston Celtics. That signing was also 19 days after the sharpshooting big man played in the gold medal game in the 2024 Paris Olympics. He averaged 14 points in 23.3 minutes in six Olympic games.

Yabusele entered the Olympics with a dream of using it to earn an NBA contract. And now that he is back in the NBA with the Sixers, he has “been pinching myself a bunch of times” in appreciation.

“We were driving through the city at night and then I looked at my wife and I said, ‘We are going to be here for the whole season,’ ” Yabusele said. “ ‘We’re not going to be here just for the summer [for vacation]. We going to be there the whole season. I’m playing here.’ She was there when I was in Boston. We can’t believe it, but we feel good about it.

“I’ve had just a bunch of [appreciative] moments. I remember getting that feeling when I got off the plane, just traveling to training camp, the first time going to the arena and the whole vibes in general at the games. It is just amazing to me.”

The Celtics drafted Yabusele with the 16th pick in the 2016 NBA draft. The Dreux, France, native played during the 2016-17 season in China for the Shanghai Sharks before joining the Celtics in 2017. He played sparingly for the Celtics from 2017-19, averaging 2.3 points in 74 games. Yabusele was best known at that time for making a bow-and-arrow dab gesture after making 3-pointers for Boston.

After failing to contribute a significant role on the rising Celtics, Yabusele didn’t have an offer to return to the Celtics or any other NBA team.

“I was able to take something from all the experiences. The body of work. Understanding that you got to be ready,” Yabusele said. “The work ethic that I took from over here helped me a lot in my career until this year.”

Yabusele next played for the Nanjing Monkey Kings in China before going back home to France to play for NBA Hall of Famer Tony Parker’s ASVEL Basket in Lyon. The 6-foot-8, 265-pounder signed with Spanish powerhouse Real Madrid on July 21, 2021. He helped lead Real Madrid to two Liga ACB championships and a 2023 EuroLeague title.

Yabusele averaged 9.7 points and 4.0 rebounds while shooting 44.5% from 3-point range in 64 games for Real Madrid last season. While he was under contract with Real Madrid this upcoming season, he did have an NBA-out clause if offered a deal. While no NBA calls came before the Olympics, Yabusele somehow kept the faith.

“It was always something that I had in my mind, too,” Yabusele said of returning to the NBA. “I didn’t want to give up. Of course, after five years I was like, ‘Damn, I feel like some of the years I was doing good.’ I thought maybe I will have a shot and then I didn’t. But I always had that hope and that’s what gets me going, too. That give me a purpose to do all of that [work]. I was always pushing myself to try to come back.”

Through preliminary Olympic action in Lille, France, the French men’s basketball team wasn’t helping Yabusele’s hopes of impressing NBA teams.

France needed a desperation late four-point play to force overtime before defeating winless Japan on July 30. Germany also routed France 85-71 on Aug. 2 to complete the prelims. Despite a 2-1 record, the French were playing lackluster basketball with an elimination quarterfinals game Aug. 8 in Paris against a Canadian team with NBA stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, R.J. Barrett and Jamal Murray, among others.

After France played so poorly in Lille, Yabusele said there was little faith in the team. But he still believed in his team and said so during a team meeting at their hotel.

“I want to say so many things and at the same time nothing,” Yabusele said of how France played in Lille. “It was just us still finding our way. The coaches, too, were trying to understand what to do. And I don’t want to say that in a bad way, but we were not together the way we wanted to be after losing to Germany. We still won two out of three games. All the media, fans, people in our federation, everybody was felt like we were going to play in our final game against Canada. It hit us personally. I took it personally …

“You can’t be scared and be like, ‘Dang, it’s going to be a tough game. Oh my God.’ You read the comments. You read the media. ‘Oh, they play Canada. They got so many NBA players. It’s over. We got beat by them last year so we’re not expecting nothing.’ So, I remember me talking to the guys, sorry for my language, like, ‘F— that. We are going over there to Paris, and we’re going to win it. It’s no other way around it. Let’s go. We at home. We got our family over there. We in Paris. Now that Lille s— is over. Let’s get over there and do what we got to.’ ”

Behind a game-high 22 points from Yabusele, France upset Canada 82-73 on Aug. 6 in the quarterfinals in Paris. In the semifinals against Germany, Les Bleus got revenge and advanced to the gold medal game with a 73-69 victory on Aug. 8, including a game-high 17 points and seven rebounds from Yabusele. Yabusele and France instantly went from laughable to lovable by the natives for advancing to the gold medal game to face the heavily favored Team USA with its NBA superstars.

It was Yabusele, not NBA stars Victor Wembanyama or Rudy Gobert, who led France to the gold-medal game. But at that point, Yabusele said, he still didn’t have any offers from NBA teams although interest appeared to be rising.

“We had heart. We found what was missing. We figured out a way. We fought,” Yabusele said.

Yabusele and France’s hopes to win a gold medal in men’s basketball ended with USA’s 98-87 win on Aug. 10. Wembanyama scored a game-high 26 points for France and Yabusele added 20 points. If it weren’t for Stephen Curry’s stunning barrage of 3-pointers to seal the gold for Team USA, Yabusele’s stunning baseline dunk over James would have been the highlight of the game. Yabusele also believed the crowd was pro-Team USA in Paris with Curry and all its other NBA stars.

“They are from France, but they rooted for Curry in the end,” Yabusele, 28, said.

The day after the gold-medal game, Yabusele’s dunk was pictured in the French sports newspaper L’Equipe. It will be remembered as one of the iconic moments of the 2024 Olympics. Yabusele added that it was “payback” for Team USA forward Vince Carter’s famous dunk over the head of France’s 7-2 center Frederic Weis in the 2000 Sydney Games.

“I’m not going to lie. It was good at that moment,” Yabusele said of the dunk on James. “I wasn’t realizing that it was going to be that big. I’ve been telling guys that I have done a couple of poster [dunks] in my life and some good ones, too. But to dunk on LeBron with all the people there, especially in the final Olympic, the whole world watching me, I didn’t realize how big it was at the time …

“He blocked me a couple plays before. He was talking s— before, of course. But it was LeBron. Either you dunk it or he blocks it.”

Yabusele’s dreams of returning to the NBA came true, as he was able to exercise his clause in his Real Madrid contract to sign with Philadelphia. Yabusele left his belongings in storage in Madrid and says Real Madrid is interested in him rejoining the club in the future.

Gobert, star center for the Minnesota Timberwolves, isn’t surprised Yabusele is back in the NBA.

“He has been ready to get back into the league a few years now,” Gobert told Andscape via text. “The Olympics gave him the opportunity to really show it to the world. I think he is more mature now.”

Yabusele hopes that his return to the NBA with the Sixers will lead to something long-term. He said his role in Philadelphia is to “crash the boards, get rebounds and, of course, hit the 3.” He also hopes his return to the NBA will motivate those who are trying to defeat the odds to realize their dream.

“Just never give up. If you couldn’t make your dream come true on the first try, that doesn’t mean that it’s over,” Yabusele said. “You can’t give up. You got to work harder. Me, I never give up even though it was hard to leave Boston.”