He Dunked on LeBron. Now ‘The Dancing Bear’ Is Back in the NBA.

Not many people get to dunk on LeBron James in a job interview.

But in the gold-medal game of the Paris Olympics earlier this month, that’s exactly what Guerschon Yabusele did. Yabusele was a stocky forward for France, and a former Boston Celtics washout, with a gigantic Afro and outrageous nickname. When he soared in for a high wire slam over James, knocking the greatest player of his generation to the hardwood, the basketball world took notice.

France lost the game, but “the Dancing Bear” had become a viral sensation on both sides of the Atlantic. And Yabusele seized his opportunity.

“Been waiting for my 2nd chance,” he wrote on X the day after the final. “I’m ready.”

It wasn’t just the dunk—Yabusele had been France’s standout player throughout the Olympics, emerging as the team’s leader on a roster of NBA stars. More than a week after the final gold medals were given out, the Dancing Bear became the Olympics’ biggest winner.

The Philadelphia 76ers agreed with him on a one-year, $2.1 million contract this weekend. The contract was first reported by ESPN.

Halfway through the Paris Games, the host country’s hoops team had been lacking a little je ne sais quoi. So French coach Vincent Collet switched up his starting lineup, inserting Yabusele, a 6-foot-8 power forward weighing some 270 pounds, in place of the 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert.

On its face, it was a curious move. Gobert was an NBA All-Star with a $205 million contract. Yabusele was most definitely not.

The last time he had a pro contract in America, in fact, he’d bounced between the Celtics and the minor-league Maine Red Claws. Since then, he’d gone on to China to play for the Nanjing Monkey Kings, stopped back in France and joined Real Madrid in Spain.

But after Collet’s switch, Yabusele paced the French to nail-biting wins against teams loaded with NBA talent. He bulldozed his way to 22 points against Canada in the Olympic quarterfinals, then led France with 21 points in the semis against Germany. Forget Victor Wembanyama, the 7-foot-4 phenom known as “The Alien.” When the home crowd chanted “MVP!”, they were serenading Yabusele.

Yabusele’s Olympic emergence was only the latest step in a long and winding basketball life. As a kid, he first trained to be a boxer, studying under his professional fighter father. But he quickly found another use for his sizable frame, rising through the French professional basketball leagues. In 2016, the Boston Celtics selected him in the first round.

Then, Yabusele’s career turned sideways. In the NBA, he never quite reached the expectations the Celtics set for him, appearing in just 74 games over two seasons. He bounced from country to country, working his way around the basketball map: China, France, Spain.

In time, when he landed with Real Madrid, he emerged as a key contributor for one of Europe’s powerhouse clubs. When they did their international scouting of the Spanish league, the 76ers’ front office started taking notice of an improved player who looked qualified for an NBA spot.

Some players might have soured on basketball during a trek from continent to continent. Yabusele had the opposite reaction. He embraced traveling the world and refining his game. If Wembanyama is reimagining the possibilities of the sport, Yabusele is committed to living his best life in it.

“Since Boston, at first I took it as a failure,” Yabusele said. “Then I was like, ‘No. This is a life lesson.’”

During the most important tournament of his life, on sports’ biggest stage, Yabusele showed that the lesson had stuck. Over the knockout round, he scored more points than LeBron James, Kevin Durant, Sixers star Joel Embiid—and Wembanyama, the biggest star French basketball has ever produced.

“He’s been incredible,” said Gobert. “He plays tough, he plays smart, he’s doing everything we need him to do…It’s been great to be around him and watch him dominate.”

Yabusele will almost certainly not dominate in the NBA. He projects as a backup forward in Philadelphia, where he’ll supply some added muscle to a front line already fortified by Embiid.

But the Dancing Bear also has a chance to wrong-foot the league’s superstars just as he did James. In the NBA’s pace-and-space era, defenders are more used to dealing with long and nimble athletes than with a burly behemoth rumbling down the lane.

“I’m so blessed,” Yabusele said during the Olympics. “And, of course, I’m just happy to be here.” It’s a safe bet he’s even happier now.

Write to Robert O’Connell at [email protected]