Four French players were selected on Wednesday June 26, in the first round of the NBA draft, the most important basketball league in the world. Drafted as number 2, Alexandre Sarr signed his first license at US Bouscataise basketball, near Bordeaux, in 2009.
Tremolos of emotion in the voice, Alexandre Sarr thanks his big brother Olivier, too in the NBA in Oklahoma City, for being his inspiration. Under the spotlight of the Barclays Center de New York, the young 19-year-old Frenchman has just learned that he will join the Washington Wizards from next season, during a historic evening for French basketball at the ANDUnited States.
Drafted in second position, just behind another Frenchman Zaccharie Risacher, its potential is no longer a secret. And this has been happening for many years now. Having passed through Toulouse and Australia, it was in Gironde that Alexandre made his first dribbles.
“We took him before his age to put him with the U7s”
Born in 2005, Alexandre spent the first years of his life in the town of Bouscat, in the Bordeaux suburbs. A child always stuck to the coattails of his brother Olivier, six years older, who also plays in the NBA. The toddler was already running along the grounds of the Union Sportive Bouscataise Basket-ball, having barely learned to walk. The president of the club, Gilles Gombeau, still remembers the first steps of the one he affectionately calls Alexou :
“He was immersed in it when he was little. I myself played with his father, his brother also had a great career from the chick to the benjamin level. They were fanatics. Olivier and Alexandre were always hanging around the gym.”
Alexandre Sarr’s first baskets and dribbles at Bouscat:
It was therefore quite natural that his parents enrolled him in 2009, when the child was barely 4 years old.
He was very young but already big. We took him before his age to put him with the U7s (under 7 years old).
Gilles GombeauPresident of US Bouscataise Basket-Ball
Alexandre Sarr only stayed two years in Bouscat, before moving to Toulouse with his brother and his parents. But the family kept close contact with the Girondin club, visiting them from time to time. The club, for its part, continued to follow Olivier and Alexandre’s careers from a distance, towards professional basketball.
Alexandre Sarr, 19, has just learned that he will join the Washington Wizards next season
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© COLIN MURTY / AFP
“For us, this draft was not really a surprise. We were lucky at Bouscat to have seen great players evolve like the Ayayi brothers for example, who also became professionals. Given their size and their passion, we had a little idea, from the start, that the two Sarr brothers could break through.”
It was nevertheless with great emotion that Alexandre’s first coach, Fabien Casseron, learned the news of the draft yesterday:
When I think of their success, tears come to my eyes. I can still see Alexandre when he was little, wearing the red Bouscat jersey to support his big brother.
Fabien CasseronCoach at US Bouscataise Basketball
Last year, Olivier created the event by visiting his former club. Everyone hopes that Alexander will do the same as soon as he comes around:
“The little ones at the club have stars in their eyes as soon as we talk about them. They are only waiting for one thing: for Alexandre to come and sign their jerseys!”
One year after the selection of Victor Wembanyama as number 1 in the 2023 draft, the first round of this 2024 edition was also historic: four French people selected, including first two positions, never seen before. Zaccharie Risacher with the Atlanta Hawks, Alexandre Sarr with the Washington Wizards, Tidjane Salaün selected in 6 by Hornets de Charlotte and finally Pacôme Dadiet in 25th position with the New York Knicks.
