Get to Know Guerschon Yabusele

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Thank you, thank you, thank you.

So you're from France. You most recently played with Real Madrid in Spain. But let's just start in general. How does it feel to be joining this team? What are you excited about?

Feels great.

I'm really excited to be back in me to be a first of all, and excited to come to one of this great organization here with the great fan base.

You know, just excited to be here in kawait to be on the court.

And how did it feel to find out about the opportunity. We'll talk about the Olympics, but yeah, when you were getting some well deserved relaxation in on vacation with your wife and your your friends, how did it feel to find out about this NBA opportunity while doing that?

I mean it was pretty amazing because you know, of course I was relaxing, but I was still I still had that energy that I wanted to play ball, you know, after the Olympics and everything that we got going on, so I was I was just so excited. I was just so excited when I get the call to come in here, because of course that was the second chot, but that was the the the following summer.

That was pretty amazing for me.

What type of basketball player are Sixers?

Fans getting just a guy that come and play with a lot of energy.

It was a lot of heart. You know.

I gave everything on the court. I always try to, you know, do and play my best every time I were at a jersey and I put my shoes on, you know, so I just come in here. I have a lot of fun on the court, but I just give everything, you know.

The Paris Olympics, you were one of the standout players. I know the result wasn't exactly what you wanted. Another silver medal though for you and France. Again, back to how it felt. How did it feel to play so well on that stage, especially given the fact that it was a home Olympics in Paris.

I mean you just you just pointed a that it was at home.

So we have this uh, this different type of energy, you know, when I see my family, I see my friends on the in the crowd, you know, and this fan pushing us.

Of course, we have this second.

Uh let's say like hard, you know, so when we we step on the court, we we just play hard, you know. And my teammate did a great job of just you know, feeding me and and helping me play play my best, you know, and it was just us. It was something that we were building, something that we create with the players, and we just give everything in Bulla And.

It's hard to win a medal in any event. Yes, and Team USA is always the team to be and that you guys made it all the way to the gold medal game again against them. How much, if at all, did you think going into the Olympic Games that if you had a strong performance that it might help you get back to the NBA.

I wasn't thinking of it that way, but I knew that playing great will help me for sure, maybe get a shot or not. Because the Olympics was late, so I didn't know if it was still possible to make that move. But you know, I knew that even if it wasn't for this summer, maybe next summer, that would help me to have a good performance in the Olympics.

You dunked on Lebron James. How many text messages, calls, facetimes, whatever did you have after that?

It got crazy.

I didn't even I couldn't even go to social media anymore because the app was just lagging so much because every time I go it was messages. It was like people just comment and following me, and I don't know if it was for the Olympics in general, if it was for the final, or if it was just for the dunk. But you know, even my followers and everything just got so crazy, and a couple of days that I couldn't even get on social media.

You will have more moments in your basketball career, for sure, but do you have the poster of that yet or are you going to get it blown out?

So not yet, because you know, I was moving a lot. I didn't have time to settle, go home and really.

Relax a little bit.

But uh, when I was in France, I booked a room in a hotel right after the Olympic and they had the poster already with like a little message and everything. So I find it really really nice, and uh, you know it was. It was really I was happy to see that in a Mike smell.

It's got to be one of the most viewed plays history.

For sure.

You went up against Joel andb now your teammates with him on the Sixers. What do you think that's going to be like to be on the same team as Joel.

I think it's going to be good, and it's going to be fun. I know he had quite a history with the French fans, let's say, uh from you know, all the stuff that got going on.

But I never had any bad.

Blog with him, you know, and you know the way he reacts, for example when he was getting booed, and you know he actually enjoyed. I like this type of energy because I know that's what I would have done, you know. So this is the little thing that comes out and I know that we're going to be good.

Tomate for sure.

What have your early conversations been like with Joel and another former sixer from France, timoth Ay Luau Cabarell.

Yeah, and also Nico Opportunity was playing here, so I talked more to both of them because obviously I played with them in the French national team, and you know, we got more conversational contact. But I knew I knew Joel also from a little bit back in the day, and of course when Timothy was here, I had to spoke with him, so I said, we were in good contact, and of course I would get to know more about him this season and I think he's a good guy.

NBA experience for you from twenty seventeen to twenty nineteen, two seasons with the Boston Celtics. Do you remember your first career regular season game in the NBA? October twenty at twenty seventeen?

Was it wasn't it here? No? It was here? It was here. It was in Philly.

I remember I made it three. That was the first three in the NBA. You remember that oaking.

A lot of those open looks. That's why you have the selic's here. Yeah you can shoot a little bit, right.

How did that moment feel when you checked into a regular season NBA game for the first time, and just the fact now it's come full circle in Philly.

It was just special.

There was a special moment because you know, obviously I never hided you know, NBA always been my dream, you know, since gonna start playing basketball, So obviously to check in for your first minute, then you go in and you're able to hit the three, and you know get that feeling. It's just it's just amazing, and you know it just helped you to get in the game a little bit more.

But playing that first game against Philly.

And then you know, having this little history Celtics in Philly and not being Philly, it's just amazing.

This is just how the word is going.

You never know where you're going to be, who you're going to play, and stuff like that.

So I found that just amazing.

Second chances. It's your second chance at an NBA career. What's motivating you right now?

I'm just so excited. I'm just so excited. I've been there before. I've been the disposition. I didn't get the chance to really express myself in my game in the Celtics. But you know, like five, five, seven years after, I feel like, you know, I'm ready and I'm happy that he got the way he got because I got better

I mentioned Real Madrid earlier. The euro League is well known as a really tough league and your team, you and your team had a lot of success, multiple championships, But just with how that league goes and the style of play and how your team played, how do you think playing with Real Madrid will help you fit into this Sixers team back into the NBA.

Well, first, of all.

Real Madrid as we were laughing about it with Mario Azonia because we looked at the team and it was all NBA players in our team, like most of the guys went to the NBA or a top really top

And not just the euro League in recent years, but you've been a professional basketball player since you were a teenager, and I know before you were ever in the NBA. Some of the things that kind of threw you a little bit, where the back to backs and the long road trips, how does that compare to what you just experienced in the euro League. Do you think you'll be better prepared for the NBA schedule now that you've already done.

It, Yes, for sure, because you know.

Also is one thing that we cannot pass is the NBA also have the ability for rest, you know, for coming back, well, the plans and all the stuff that's made for the players, you know, saying we don't have this in Europe. You know, so even if we have back to backs here, then we don't in Europe. The recovery process and everything that the NBA got for the players is still going to be good, you know. So to experience the back to back, you know, and I

And I know here in Philly there aren't a lot of Jersey numbers to pick from because there are a lot that are retired. But you were number twenty eight with Real Madrid. You're about to wear number twenty eight again with the six Ers. Where does that come from?

So twenty eight is the postal code of my hometown. So I had it in the Madrid I had it also in the Asvil Tony Parker's Club. But you know, since that, I feel like everything has been well, and I want to say that then me kind of. You know, this was like after China and mistarting, let's say go back and has to go back up and start with twenty eight and everything's been great so far, so just keep it.

Two stints for you in the Chinese Basketball Association. What was different about them? Like what parts of your career did those come in?

So I will talk about my first experience in Shanghai Sharks before to Boston Celtics. It was just an amazing experience for me to have because as a young age, as a young pro, so I feel like I needed to leave my country just to experience to be a foreigner player and be on the team when you have that pressure that if you don't play good, you're going

But you know.

That was kind of like after Boston when I didn't have anything, so I decided to go to China and then I went to friends and as well, and then from there we just build and create and uh, you know, learn and got better.

It's all part of the journey and going way back as we begin to wrap things up. Growing up in France, your father was a boxer. Yeah, what is your family history with the sport of boxing?

My dad probably just uh train not the whole city, but pretty much of the people in the city. Uh, that's how everybody kind of like to my dad, my family and everybody, but in my family trained everybody. We all grew up boxing. My dad was a boxer, but he didn't a bunch of like other sporting fight for example, like he was karate. He was doing like a window like like a bunch of.

Are you a black belt in crowded me?

But I did a little bit of judo okay, and my dad did judo too, So in the family that we have this basil, you know, knowing a little bit of sport contact and stuff like that.

I'm going to try to stay on your good side. When's the last time you were in the ring.

It was now a long time agoing out of course, I you know, speaking about all this stuff, because after that, the people are going to take this out and act like I'm a violent guy.

But I'm really a nice guy. You know. I never I tried never to get mad or stuff like that.

When you were starting to play basketball, you left your family, your home at age eleven. How far from home were you?

What was that experience like so you have to take a train, I will say it was like, no, the first one from eleven to thirteen. I was in a place called the Pole and it was in two I think it was like three hours something to go there. But you know, I was there the whole weekend. I was coming back the weekend, so it wasn't that bad. And playing basketball and you know, meeting new friend and

You hear about it sometimes with fourteen fifteen year olds in the States, but eleven is super young. Yeah, to begin that process. But I know you said when you start getting more into basketball, that you wanted to be in the league, the NBA from a young age. What type of exposure did you have to the NBA? Were you able to watch it? Watch highlights in France?

I think when like YouTube and all this stuff came, like at the beginning, when we was watching of course, like you have the suggestions and stuff like that, and I was looking and like I was saying, I was watching Kobe Byrne, you know, back in the day and the wages he was playing, way it was moving and everything that he brought to the game. And when I was watching outside of the game, how he was training and all the stuff that he was doing.

I was just amazed.

At a young age, you had to work hard to become a good player, and I just got addicted to the to the work process, you know, just too good to the gym.

And at a young age.

I was going to the gym by myself just to sho hopes for like forty five minutes just by myself counting the clockdown and shooting birds like you know, little things like that and that make me love the gaming, that make me, you know, progress and get better.

I've got two more questions for you. One of them is more of a formality about the nickname that the Dancing Bear. I know it's it's you get asked in every single interview why you're called the dancing Bear. But just for anyone out there who might not know, what's the story behind it. Who gave it to you?

That was a Kutcher Srewsbury that I had in Boston Celtics.

It was it was just during the summer league. That's my first summer league.

And I don't I don't think he meant it the first one. The first time he said it, like you know, this is going to be a nickname, but it was just like.

I don't know.

The kids is just like he's strong, it's just like a bear. And then his feet moving so fast like he's for for his weight. It's pretty much amazing, like he's he's he's just.

Like it looks like he's dancing every time. It's just like a dancing bear.

You know, you just say that like that it's just like some of the media just took it out and then from there it become like this big thing when everybody was coming to be like that.

And that's Micah Shrewsbury, the former Celtics coaches now the head coach at Notre Dame exactly. And then wrapping up with this, you said that you've always, even when growing up, have kind of been into American music, TV shows, still, movies. Yeah, and now still I'm sure you've become even more acclimated with it all. But what are some of your favorites, favorite artists, shows, movies, all that stuff.

I will say, as far as like a artists stuff like that, there's a bunch of guys that I can't name, of course, but one that stands out that I like for the music and things that he said, because I like to listen to sorts of stuff that makes sense and not just a bunch of nonsense.

Let's say, but Jacob.

You know, I like Jacob and the music device and just just the guys in general. You know, like it's not the guy you will see with tons of Julie and tons of stuff like that. It's just being natural. And I think this is what it's all about and of course Kendrick Klamer or two and stands out that like the music and the words that they put in everything that he says, and if I have to peak up the movie and a couple of classics of course, like love and basketball.

Of course everybody went the movie and society.

And all this this good movie that I liked, and I like, grew up learning English redo this movie kind of so that have me a lot.

Gershani Abselli, thank you so much, thank you, thank you,