Inseparable.
Already partners in the Hauts-de-Seine under-13 selection, then at the Metropolitans 92 last season, Victor Wembanyama and Bilal Coulibaly will once again find themselves in the same team for the Rising Stars Challenge.
Both selected for this first All-Star Weekend event, which will bring together the best first and second year players, as well as some G-League players, the two Frenchmen were chosen by the Spaniard Pau Gasol, captain of one of the four teams.
During the “draft” organized by the broadcaster TNT, during which the four coaches were able to choose their players for this four-team tournament, the Spanish legend immediately set his sights on Victor Wembanyama.
The first in the draft, still impressive in recent weeks, must have appreciated this mark of confidence and should, without a doubt, learn new things alongside the former Los Angeles Lakers interior.
Bilal Coulibaly was the last choice of the double NBA champion.
It is therefore a four-team tournament which awaits the two French rookies.
Two semi-finals will first be played, the first team to reach 40 points will be declared the winner.
You will then have to score 25 points before the opposing team to win the final.
This is the first time in the history of French basketball that two Tricolores compete in the Rising Stars Challenge in the same year.
However, others had participated.
This was particularly the case for Théo Maledon, selected in 2021, Frank Ntilikina (2018) and Rudy Gobert (2015).
The match then pitted a “Team USA” against a “Team World”, made up of players from the rest of the world.