Published on December 29, 2025 at 4:00 p.m. – updated on December 29, 2025 at 4:01 p.m.
Fourteen French people have set foot on the NBA floors during the 2024-2025 season. This year, there are nineteen, the largest French contingent ever observed in the United States. Obviously with Victor Wembanyama in the lead.
The NBA will have to know the Marseillaise! During the 1997-1998 season, there was only one Frenchman in the American major orange ball league: Tariq Abdul-Wahad, playing for the Sacramento Kings. More than twenty-five years later, there were fourteen of them to walk the floor during the 2024-2025 financial year. This season, there are nineteen lucky players playing in the best championship in the world, making France the third most represented country in the NBA behind the United States obviously and Canada (23). Data which testifies to the progression of French basketball and the influence of its players across the Atlantic.
Obviously, of the nineteen players divided into fifteen franchises, not all are at the same point in their careers. We must distinguish the established ones (Batum, Gobert or even Yabusele who recently returned to the NBA), from the “nuggets” who arrived one, two or three years ago and the others whose future in the United States is fragile.
Most anticipated Wembanyama
Without a shadow of a doubt, the leader of the French delegation is Victor Wembanyama. The No. 1 of the 2023 Draft has (already) started his third season with the San Antonio Spurs where he is the figurehead of the Texan project. During his first two seasons, the pivot averaged 21 then 24 points, knowing that he missed a good part of the 2024-2025 financial year due to a venous thrombosis in his right shoulder. The native of Chesnay is determined to assert his domination, especially since his strain has been treated. He is set to be the best player in the NBA in the years to come.
Like him, Zaccharie Risacher was drafted in first position in 2024. The 20-year-old winger is starting his second season with the Atlanta Hawks with the aim of asserting himself a little more in the major five. Alexandre Sarr and Bilal Coulibaly (Washington Wizards) must also follow this direction.
There are obviously the rookies drafted last summer: Noah Penda (Orlando Magic), Mohamed Diawara (New York Knicks), Nolan Traoré (Brooklyn Nets), Noa Essengue (Chicago Bulls), Maxime Raynaud (Sacramento Kings) and Joan Beringer (Minnesota Timberwolves). It won’t be an easy season but we will have to hang on, show up and take advantage of the playing time given. And finally, there are the others who have a little more difficulty shining and who suffer from competition: Pacôme Dadiet (New York Knicks), Tidjane Salaün (Charlotte Hornets), Moussa Diabaté (Charlotte Hornets), Rayan Rupert and Sidy Cissoko (Portland Trail Blazers) and Ousmane Dieng (Oklahoma City Thunder). For them, they need a departure, a new coach or better performances in the future to hope to stay in the United States.
