{"id":2701,"date":"2024-06-28T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-28T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=2701"},"modified":"2024-07-26T01:57:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T01:57:17","slug":"alex-sarr-excited-to-play-with-fellow-frenchman-bilal-coulibaly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/28\/alex-sarr-excited-to-play-with-fellow-frenchman-bilal-coulibaly\/","title":{"rendered":"Alex Sarr Excited To Play With Fellow Frenchman Bilal Coulibaly"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Washington Wizards front office has a knack for scouting French talent after selecting <a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/28\/wizards-select-alex-sarr-and-other-top-prospects-in-2024-nba-draft\/\">Alex Sarr at No. 2<\/a> in the 2024 NBA Draft and <a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/23\/fan-react-to-wizards-selecting-bilal-coulibaly\/\">Bilal Coulibaly in the first round of the 2023 NBA Draft<\/a>. Nonetheless, the two Frenchman will be the new faces of the franchise and Sarr is excited to join Coulibaly in Washington for that reason.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing with all of my teammates. Especially Bilal,\u201d Sarr said. \u201cHe\u2019s French too and I think it\u2019s really special to play with another Frenchman.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">On the media call w\/ Alex Sarr, I asked him who he\u2019s looking forward to playing w\/ on the Wizards roster: \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to playing with all of my teammates. Especially Bilal. He\u2019s French too and I think it\u2019s really special to play with another Frenchman.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ForTheDistrict?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ForTheDistrict<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Carita Parks (@CaritaCParks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CaritaCParks\/status\/1806152849094574137?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 27, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>During a call with media on Wednesday night after he was drafted, Sarr admitted that he hasn\u2019t crossed paths with Coulibaly up to this point but he has been following his rookie year. And his rookie year was quite impressive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Coulibaly\u2019s success should be a blueprint for Sarr as he embarks on his journey with the Wizards. During a challenging year for the Wizards, Coulibaly quickly emerged as one of the team\u2019s bright spots.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout his rookie season, he played in 63 games, starting 15 of them, and averaged 8.4 points, 4.1 rebounds, and 1.7 assists per game. Coulibaly\u2019s performance earned him a spot in the 2024 NBA Rising Stars game, reflecting the league\u2019s recognition of his talent and potential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Looking forward, Coulibaly is expected to play a crucial role in the Wizards\u2019 future as they continue to rebuild and develop their young core. With the selection of Sarr at No. 2 in this year\u2019s draft, it is apparent he will also be a key piece of the team\u2019s rebuild. That is a prospect that Sarr appreciates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt means everything. The Wizards took a chance on me. I have a good opportunity. Now it\u2019s my turn to work hard and make the most out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As for teaming up with Sarr, Coulibaly shares mutual excitement. Wizards General Manager Will Dawkins spoke to Double Take Sports about Coulibaly\u2019s impressions of Sarr and how he sees them meshing together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Spoke to Wizards GM Will Dawkins after <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/NBADraft?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#NBADraft<\/a> Day 1 abt how he sees Alex Sarr &amp; Bilal Coulibaly meshing. Will said on a FaceTime call he had with Bilal that he described Alex as \u201ca defensive guy. He&#39;s a good guy. He&#39;s going to be good in the locker room.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/ForTheDistrict?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#ForTheDistrict<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/2TaldHguPz\">pic.twitter.com\/2TaldHguPz<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Carita Parks (@CaritaCParks) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/CaritaCParks\/status\/1806333716588810658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 27, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cHe was FaceTiming me earlier today? He said, who are we taking? Who are we taking?, Dawkins shared. \u201cAnd when we discussed the players a little bit because he obviously knows Alex. He said he\u2019s a defensive guy. He\u2019s a good guy. He\u2019s going to going to be good in the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think they both have great futures. They\u2019re going to be workers,\u201d Dawkins continued. \u201cThey obviously can speak French to each other, so that\u2019ll be helpful through the rookie transition for Alex. But they compete and they both have upside as two-way players. They\u2019re not your average rookies when it comes to mentality. And I think that\u2019ll help us but also help them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5144396\/2023\/12\/18\/roadmap-rebuild-wizards-roster-improvement\/\">Wizards rebuild<\/a> is slowing coming to fruition and with two young stars at the helm, the future looks bright.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Wizards No. 2 draft pick Alex Sarr spoke exclusively to Double Take Sports about his excitement to team up with fellow Frenchman  Bilal Coulibaly as they emerge as the future faces of the franchise. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[70],"tags":[29],"class_list":["post-2701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wizards","tag-features"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/SarrNYC2.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2701"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2713,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2701\/revisions\/2713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}