What if the great story of this Betclic Elite season was that of Bilal Coulibaly (18 years old, 1.99m)? Behind Victor Wembanyama, under the spotlight since his signing at the Metropolitans of Boulogne-Levallois, the native of Saint-Cloud has experienced an exponential rise this season. “Since he was little, he has always been able to seize opportunities,” says Léandry, who played with Coulibaly from the regional U15 championship to the U17 France with Boulogne-Levallois.

For Coulibaly, it all started in Courbevoie, in 2014 at the age of 10. After a year in leisure, he began competition with his Hauts-de-Seine club and became a seasoned player for 3 full seasons. With the selection of Hauts-de-Seine, he is champion of France. Within this team made up of the best players of 92, a certain Victor Wembanyama is already making noise…

By joining the Boulogne-Levallois club, Bilal Coulibaly will truly begin his journey towards the professional world, in U15. “It was the same as today!” says Léandry, then his teammate in the regional championship. “He made the right decisions on the field, he made the right passes at the right time, it was really easy to play with him, he seems to see everything but faster than the others” he adds. However, Coulibaly almost quit basketball during his early years at Boulogne-Levallois. His former coach Manu de Carvalho told BeBasket that he “had had a very bad time in the region where he was only made to pass. He hung on but in U17, he again asked himself questions about his desire to continue because he was not exploited enough.

But here it is: Coulibaly will experience a growth spurt of 16 centimeters at the end of his U17 year, in 2019. From 1.83m he goes to almost two meters, taking him into another dimension. “At first, when we started playing together, he wasn’t very tall for a basketball player,” confirms Léandry. “But suddenly he got bigger. He started doing playmaker stuff when he was playing winger!” he continued.

The first time the French public could hear the name of Bilal Coulibaly was almost a year ago. In Nanterre, a team of young Americans came to challenge a French selection made up of young French players. Game Features: LeBron James’ son Bronny leads Team USA and ESPN broadcasts the game. The MVP of the game? Bilal Coulibaly, author of 26 points, makes everyone agree on this day in August 2022. Because in club, the winger had concluded his first season in the Espoirs championship (U21) at 11.4 points and 4, 7 rebounds for 12.7 rating. The exercise is very interesting for a 16-year-old player.

Back with the Boulogne-Levallois Espoirs, Bilal Coulibaly is not in the lace, for his 2nd season: 21.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 2.5 steals and 1.2 against for 23.4 average rating per game, the tone is set. “It’s easy to play with him,” said Eric Koumba, Coulibaly’s teammate with the Mets Prospects. And to continue: “It’s a safe bet: when you pass the ball to him, he knows what to do with it and he sees the game well.”

“Since he was little, he has always known how to seize opportunities. As soon as there was a match at stake, he always made great performances” support Léandry. Hard to contradict that: against Paris, on December 17, 2022, Vincent Collet threw Coulibaly into the deep end with 19 minutes of playing time, his biggest professional total at the time.

It was enough for the latter to burst the screen: he managed a complete game with 4 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals, 1 against and 11 evaluation. A successful first that will encourage Collet to repeat the experience. In early January, the young winger bid farewell to the Espoirs championship by planting 37 points and capturing 11 rebounds in… 32 minutes against Fos-sur-Mer. In three weeks, the U21 championship has become too small for him. “He progressed in all aspects of the game,” judge Eric Koumba before explaining that Coulibaly “has always been good, but he learned a few simple details with Vincent Collet.” he.

“Bilal, he can do a lot more than people see. Everyone knows he’s athletic, he has long arms and he can shoot. Me what I liked with him is that he has a big basketball IQ. He’s just a good basketball player,” summarizes Eric. But when we ask if he was expecting such a “like a brother” season, the answer is blunt: “Honestly? No !” His teammate details that he knew Coulibaly would be a very good player: “I thought that at the end of the year he would have a small role with the pros and that he would explode the following year.” Same story for Léandry: “I didn’t think he would be there so soon, but I knew that one day he would go to the NBA.” Announced around 10th place in the forecasts of specialists before the Draft, his former teammates are sure: Bilal Coulibaly is one of the 10 best players in this vintage. For “Wemby”, Bilal is in his top 5!

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It remains to be seen: how to explain the secret of this exponential rise which brought him from the Espoirs de Boulogne-Levallois team to 7th place in the NBA draft? For a young player as young as 18, the NBA spotlight may be too big. “He’s in a hurry to see what’s next,” assures Eric Koumba before putting it into perspective: “Bilal is a guy who doesn’t worry, he never puts pressure on himself. He helped me a lot when I took my first steps as a professional (6 appearances in Betclic Elite, editor’s note). He is so calm that it was enough just to talk about the pro matches for the pressure I had to go away. We told ourselves to play for fun, ”he says. Léandry describes his friend Bilal Coulibaly as a humble person: “He never took the big head. I have known a lot of players who, when they started to make themselves known, took the melon.

The only flaw Coulibaly has: being bad at NBA 2K, the famous basketball video game. “Now it’s a little better, but on NBA 2K20 he never beat me!” Leandry swears. Chosen in 7th position by the Indiana Pacers but traded to Washington in stride, Bilal Coulibaly will officially be on the next installment of NBA 2K. A great progression for the one whose name has still not been entered in the professional team file, on the LNB website…