Present in Vincent Collet’s expanded list for the 2024 Olympic Games, Bilal Coulibaly will take his first steps with the Blues. The logical continuation of a meteoric rise on the part of the young winger.
That’s what you call climbing the ladder at breakneck speed. Two years ago, Bilal Coulibaly was still just a little-known prospect for the Mets 92. One brilliant season alongside Victor Wembanyama later, the native of Saint-Cloud was heading to the NBA. And one more year later, here he is who will put on the French team jersey for the first time in his career.
What could be more logical for this young talent who has been impressing everyone for months now. Chosen as the 7th choice of the 2023 Draft, Bilal Coulibaly was quick to put all of Washington in his pocket, at the same time as the observers. Injured at the end of the season, Coulibaly had explained several times that he hoped to be on the trip to the Olympics.
The first step has been reached since he is already assured of preparing with the France group, where he will meet his great friend Victor Wembanyama. If Bilal is far from having his ticket for the Olympics in his pocket, he has several assets to get there.
First of all, Vincent Collet knows him very well, having coached him at the Mets 92 a year ago. His profile as a solid defender on the wings will not be too much either, an external sector where the French team suffered last summer. If the enlarged group has been concreted in leaders and in the racket, the winger position is less provided and Coulibaly clearly has a card to play in relay from Nico Batum.
A first international competition, the experience of the veterans around him to increasingly erase the flaws in his game, Bilal Coulibaly has everything to gain this summer and a successful tournament with the Blues could well help him take a step forward from the start of the school year next in the NBA with the Washington Wizards.
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