Marie Mahé, Media365, published on Thursday October 31, 2024 at 12:40 p.m.
In Washington, the young Frenchman Bilal Coulibaly, aged only 20, has already become one of the captains of his Wizards franchise, for his second season in the NBA.
Washington is banking on youth. This Wednesday evening, as part of the NBA regular season, the Wizards beat the Atlanta Hawks (133-120). In this meeting, this franchise had fielded the youngest major five in its history, at less than 21 years old on average. This youth is symbolized by a man in particular, namely Bilal Coulibaly. Now only 20 years old, the Frenchman achieved his career points record in this match with 27 points. This same record, which dated from last year (21 points) had already been broken at the start of the season (23 points), during the second match against Cleveland on Saturday. The reigning Olympic vice-champion landed in the prestigious Basketball League last year, after being chosen in the draft in 7th position.. At the end of this meeting on Wednesday, Bilal Coulibaly analyzed his performance, at a press conference and in comments reported by theAFP : “I had a lot of open shots, my teammates found me well in transition. Compared to last season, my ball control has become much better, so it's easier to play, I played well worked on it. Even during the Olympics, I worked a lot, because I didn't play that much, I had time. I worked on my dribbling, my 'catch and shoot' (quick shot after receiving the ball. ). I learned a lot this summer, surrounded by players like Nicolas Batum, who still writes to me, or Rudy Gobert.
Coulibaly's contract extended
A performance also deciphered by his coach Brian Keefe: “We want to give him the ball more often. He's a 'playmaker', he can attack the circle, he puts a lot of pressure, he's good. Last year, he (Coulibaly) could already go into the racket, he didn't always finish his actions, but now he provides better answershe is more powerful, he knows how to finish his actions up to the circle, he makes others play, that's what we saw in him when we brought him in.” Washington is counting so much on its Frenchman, that, this Tuesday, his contract was extended until 2026.
