After Ousmane Dieng, Tom Digbeu and Hugo Besson last season, then Rayan Rupert this season, it’s the turn ofAlexandre Sarr (18 years old, 2m13) to join the Australian first division, in order to increase his rating for the Draft 2024, where he is expected among the first 20 choices.
“Little” brother ofOlivier Sarr, the interior who learned his skills at Real Madrid, in the youth team, has spent the last two years in the Overtime Elite, a professional league created in 2021, based in Atlanta, which is aimed at young basketball players aged from 16 to 20 years old. He also participated in the U17 World Cup where France won bronze (12 points, 3.9 rebounds, 1.4 blocks, 1.3 assists and 1 steal in 18 minutes per game).
The time has therefore come to rub shoulders with a more physical basketball and probably closer in the style of what is done in the NBA / G-League. He will thus be the very first prospect to join Perth as part of the “Next Star” program set up by the NBL to attract young talent with the aim of sending him to the NBA.
Advice from Ousmane Dieng
“I was looking for a new challenge. The Overtime Elite experience was great. I received a lot of help and I improved a lot in the last two years. I now have to take the next step in my game, and the NBL is what I need,” did he declareexplaining that he exchanged with the other players who made the same choice before him. “It helped me because I know these players and I know what they say. I spoke with Ousmane Dieng because he is my brother’s teammate at OKC, he told me it was a great league and a path to take the next step in my game.
At the end of the Overtime Elite season, Alexandre Sarr will return to Toulouse to train with his big brother and is then expected to join Australia at the end of July.
“My brother and I are very close. We talk to each other every day. Our paths were drawn differently. He didn’t follow a straight line to the NBA. He told me not to think of myself as Perth’s little youngster next season, but to go on the pitch to be competitive, to have an impact on both sides of the pitch and to be one of the best players in every game, it doesn’t matter if I’m playing guys my own age or adults. That’s my mentality”he added.
2022/23 stats in the Overtime Elite: 11.1 points at 48% shooting success including 30% from 3-pointers, 6.4 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.9 steals and 1.1 blocks per game (25 minutes on average)
