Guerschon Yabusele, the importance of timing and the beauty of the Olympics

Humor me for a second on this one…

Let’s create the ideal basketball player. Height? Let’s go 6 feet, 8 inches. He’s strong and sturdy, but can also glide around the court. He’s a dependable rebounder, finishes effectively at the rim and can also step out and hit some 3’s as needed. He plays extremely hard, loves representing his country and doesn’t care who gets the glory.

Sounds like LeBron James, right? It could be, but it’s actually Guerschon Yabusele. Read that paragraph back. No hyperbole. No embellishing. No flat-out lies. Perhaps there’s a bit of framing, yes, but I stand by my claims.

Yabusele has come a long way since his days with the Celtics. He’s lost some weight, improved his consistency and rounded out his game. Yabusele has gone from the punchline to the puncher, and he’s helped plucky underdog France advance to the Olympic semifinals.

He’s averaging 10.3 points, 2.8 rebounds and shooting 51.7 percent from the floor over four games. In an upset win over Canada on Tuesday, he dropped a cool 22 points on 6-of-9 shooting and wreaked havoc alongside fellow former Celtic Evan Fournier.

Few things are better in sports than when an athlete plays his or her best in the Olympics in their home country. It’s different when it’s in front of your home fans, and Yabusele has saved some of the best ball of his career for the grandest stage.

At the same time, this isn’t an outlier. Yabusele, who averaged just 2.3 points and 1.4 rebounds over 74 games with the Celtics from 2017-2019, put up 10 points and 5 rebounds a night for Real Madrid this past season.

He shot 56.3 percent from the floor, 48.1 percent from 3-point range and 85.7 percent from the line. It’s not the NBA, but the EuroLeague is no joke. The eye test in the Olympics backs it up. They poked the Dancing Bear and have seen the growl.

So why is this guy writing all about Guerschon Yabusele? Who cares if he’s balling out for France? Well, I’ll tell you why.

To me, so much of basketball comes down to timing. If this version of Yabusele played for the Celtics, he likely would have contributed more, lasted longer and become a true fan favorite rather than a source of sporadic and lighthearted amusement.

One of the most magical parts of the Olympics is that everyone in the world is watching. If you put on a tremendous performance, and show how far you’ve come, you never know where life will take you. Perhaps a phone call will come his way. Maybe he’ll come back to the Celtics. Probably not, but who knows…

It’s also a reminder that so much of basketball is about fit and opportunity. On the Celtics, a younger Yabusele was a promising but unpolished third-stringer who barely saw any time. It’s hard to get in a rhythm without legitimate reps. Just look at Jayson Tatum’s productivity with the Olympics versus with the Celtics.

When the best players in the world have the green light, play freely and have the ball in their hands over and over again to create, good things happen organically.

I encourage you to enjoy this France run. We’re one USA win and one France win (over old friend Daniel Theis, old frenemy Dennis Schröder and Moritz Wagner) away from a Yabusele versus Tatum gold medal game with the world watching. Who knows, maybe Yabusele will get the best of his old friend. I wouldn’t bank on it, but it is possible.

The Olympics are all about seeing countless hours of private work come to fruition on the most public of stages. Shout-out to Yabusele for continuing to pursue his dreams, becoming a better version of himself and representing his nation with passion and pride.

We should all try to live our lives like Guerschon Yabusele.