🏀0️⃣2️⃣7️⃣ Tariq Abdul-Wahad

Meet Tariq Abdul-Wahad, the basketballer who, following an NCAA career with the University of Michigan and San Jose State, was the first Frenchman to play in the NBA in 1997.

Born Olivier Saint-Jean on November 3, 1974, in Maisons-Alfort, a southeastern suburb of Paris, Abdul-Wahad grew up in the heart of the game. The women’s game, more specifically, for his mother, George Goudet, was a basketball player with Stade Français Versailles; as a boy he was a constant at practices and games, influenced by her teammates, “hard nosed winners”' like American legend Denise Curry. Abdul-Wahad learned the game from his mom–she beat him playing one-on-one–and began to play organized ball with Versailles Basket Club, sporting Goudet’s #15 on his jersey. He also enjoyed playground basketball, the informal streetball style popularized in the 1980s, and hit the outdoor hardcourts around Paris, which is where he met another player with an American hoops dream, Katia Foucade-Hoard. 

Tariq’s Story

Abdul-Wahad maintained an openness towards U.S.-style basketball, cultivated from his formative years, the playground basketball culture’s close association with its American cousin, and, of course, the NBA.

The 1989 Michael Jordan film,“Come Fly With Me,” was pivotal.“That tape, it stayed in the VCR,” Abdul-Wahad said of how he watched it continuously. “It didn’t even come out. I watched this on the loop.”

Overlooked by recruiters for INSEP, the country’s famed basketball school, he entered the youth academy at Evreux where he continued his school and basketball studies. He also learned from the senior team’s two Americans, Darren Queen and Michael Hackett: about the game, its U.S. style, and English.

In 1992, Abdul-Wahad traveled with the French junior national team to Germany for a European Championship qualifying match (he and the team won the championship title later that summer, weeks after the Barcelona Olympics concluded). There, in Germany, Abdul-Wahad attracted the attention of NBA scout Rob Meurs, who invited him to attend the Academic Betterment and Career Development (ABCD) camp in California, a recruiting ground for NCAA programs. Following that camp, he ​​received recruiting packages from a variety of U.S. colleges and universities, but ultimately signed with the University of Michigan. That’s how Abdul-Wahad began his American adventure in 1993.

The Sports Diplomacy Connection

Abdul-Wahad engaged in official sports diplomacy as a member of the French national junior and, later, senior men’s basketball team, Les Bleus. But the bulk of his sports diplomacy engagement came through the informal sports diplomacy of his NCAA and NBA experiences. 

For example, his first months in Ann Arbor were a deep dive into learning about the United States, which was different in reality than following its culture and hoops from overseas. He mastered English by watching CNN in his dorm room–he was complimented on his accent and command of the language–and quizzed teammate Ray Jackson about Texas-style barbecue. “I had a million questions,” he recalled. 

Abdul-Wahad also experienced first-hand U.S. collegiate sports culture. He was wowed when he attended a U-M football game in the Big House which, with a capacity of some 107,000, was the largest sports stadium he had been in to date. But playing basketball in the school’s famed Crisler Center, which accommodated some 13,000 fans, and particularly playing against rival Duke University, was unlike anything he had previously experienced. 

 “That’s a whole other thing,” Abdul-Wahad said of the experience of not being able to hear himself think due to the noise levels as fans cheered on the home team.

“I had no idea what the level of madness that big universities such as Michigan could offer when it comes to sport. It was shocking to me–I was shell shocked. That game against Duke at home, when it gets tight in the second half and you feel the fans going crazy, there’s a point where the decibel levels, where your brain can’t function properly any longer. I was like, ‘this is hot. This is almost too much!’”

Abdul-Wahad taught his teammates and classmates about modern-day France and the country’s history of colonization and migration. Around campus, people were incredulous that Black people could be French. “You have to explain, you have to give this history lesson, this history overview about once a week,” he recalled of schooling his friends about the size and impact of the African diaspora around the world. 

After his sophomore year, Abdul-Wahad left Michigan, ultimately enrolling at San Jose State–even though a scholarship was not on the table–so that he could better learn the game.

“Even though my experience as a student and athlete at Michigan was out of this world, Michigan is not an environment where you learn to play. Michigan is an environment where you go to win national championships.”

He flourished with the Spartans while he worked his way through school to make ends meet financially. “My adventure in America wasn’t sweet,” he said of balancing it all. 

“I didn’t go for the easy thing, the flash thing. I went there to learn the game, like an apprentice looking for a master.”

During his first season, the Spartans won the Big West Conference title and made its first NCAA tournament appearance in 16 years. Although they were eliminated by Kentucky in the first round, 72-110, Abdul-Wahad averaged 17.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Known as a defensive specialist, the ‘Flying Frenchman’ earned a reputation as one of the conference’s best players and improved during his second and final season with San Jose State, inscribing himself in the school’s record book numerous times. 

Abdul-Wahad, who took the name when he converted to Islam during his years at San Jose, entered the 1997 NBA Draft and that June, was selected 11th in the first round by the Sacramento Kings. The 23-year-old wasn’t the first French to be drafted; that distinction went to University of Gonzaga’s Jean-Claude Lefebvre, who was selected by the Minneapolis Lakers in 1960. But Abdul-Wahad was the first Frenchman to play in the league and thus had to trail blaze a path.

It was akin to fighting an uphill battle, he recalled.  “The first guy’s going to catch the bullets.” Over his years in the league, Abdul-Wahad earned the reputation as a role player with an intense, physical defensive game and marveled that he guarded Kobe Bryant, played against Scottie Pippen, and was crossed by Allan Iverson. “Playing with your heroes or against your heroes, its your dream, it’s the best thing ever,” he said of being among peers, the best in the world.

Mapping the Connection

From Paris, France to Ann Arbor, Michigan

Further Reading/Resources

[E] Interview with the author, January 21, 2022.

[E] Thomsen, Ian. “For French Teen, a Chance to Play in Webber-Land,” New York Times, August 5, 1993.

[F] “Tariq Abdul-Wahad, à jamais premier (les débuts en France),” BasketUSA.

[F] “Tariq Abdul-Wahad, à jamais premier (les années NCAA),” BasketUSA.

[F] “Tariq Abdul-Wahad, à jamais premier : les débuts à Sacramento,” BasketUSA.

[F] “Tariq Abdul-Wahad, à jamais premier : l’histoire inachevée,” BasketUSA. 

How to Cite This Entry

Krasnoff, Lindsay Sarah. “Voices: Tariq Abdul-Wahad,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/027-tariq-abdul-wahad. (date of consultation).