‘Les Sorciers:’ Rebuilding Wizards lean into their French connection

The first French phrases the Washington Wizards wanted to learn from their Francophone teammates this preseason focused on trash talk.

“Trop petit,” they learned, means “too small” in French. “Faible” means “weak.”

After hearing youngsters Bilal Coulibaly, Alexandre Sarr and Kyshawn George speak French on and off the court, Washington’s other players wanted to learn some phrases as they prepared for Thursday’s season opener against the Boston Celtics.

“Our teammates were getting mad at us,” Coulibaly said. “They think we were talking crap at them. We were like, ‘No, no, we’re just speaking French!’ … All of them, they wanted to learn. Even coaches, staff, everybody.”

The Wizards’ future is French.

It started in 2023 with first-round selection Bilal Coulibaly, who grew up in a Parisian suburb. It kicked into high gear during the 2024 draft with No. 2 pick Alexandre Sarr and No. 24 pick Kyshawn George, a Swiss-Canadian who attended high school in France before playing collegiately at Miami.

The three Francophones — alongside American rookie Bub Carrington — form a foundation for a Wizards squad mired in a years-long rebuild.

“Some of the developmental guys individually have made small incremental gains — and they’ve been able to stack those gains to make them bigger gains,” Wizards general manager Will Dawkins said at his preseason press conference. “I think that’s going to be the measure of success individually and as a team throughout the year.”

The expectations are low this year.

FanDuel Sportsbook set Washington’s preseason win total at just 19.5. Nineteen wins would still be an improvement from last season’s 15-67 record, the worst in franchise history.

This season isn’t about winning for the Wizards; it’s about moving forward. Dawkins isn’t scared to call the current process a rebuild, noting that it takes several phases to move toward contention.

It starts with deconstruction, the general manager said after his second offseason with the team.

The summer’s roster moves reflected that idea. The team traded forward Deni Avdija, who was Washington’s longest-tenured player, to the Portland Trail Blazers in exchange for 31-year-old guard Malcolm Brogdon and a pair of first-round picks.

The team also signed 32-year-old center Jonas Valnciunas to help anchor the frontcourt.

The new veterans, along with returning starters Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma, will lead an otherwise inexperienced roster into the future.

But the young stars — Coulibaly, Sarr, George and Carrington — will be the reason fans trek to Capital One Arena.

“The fan base is excited overall about the rookie class in particular, and Bilal, and hoping that they’re going to be the future of the team,” said Rebecca Winn, the team’s senior vice president of marketing. “So they’re leaning in for anything and everything that we’re doing with them.”

And the Wizards are doing a lot.

The Feb. 10 game against the San Antonio Spurs will be a French heritage night, with fans receiving bobbleheads of Sarr and Coulibaly. The team shop will be outfitted with French-inspired designs, including a “Les Sorciers” (the team’s name in French) shooting shirt that went viral during the team’s preseason trip to Canada. Coulibaly and Sarr even designed unique hats for the season based on their backgrounds.

The Wizards are just one team coping with a league-wide French invasion. San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama took the league by storm last season and his countryman Zaccharie Risacher, the top pick in this year’s draft, hopes to follow in his footsteps with the Atlanta Hawks.

Washington’s marketing department is putting the team’s international ties front and center. Winn said the team is already working with embassies and French-focused travel groups who want to come to a game — they all want to see “Les Sorciers.”

The franchise started to expand its international reach this summer, starting a French language account on X while Coulibaly earned a silver medal at the Paris Olympics.

Wizards coach Brian Keefe, who shed his interim tag in June, expects big things from Coulibaly this season. The coach has said throughout training camp that he plans to give the second-year player the toughest assignment on defense and playmaking responsibilities on offense.

The 20-year-old has embraced an important role off the court, too, showing George and Sarr the basics of NBA life. The camaraderie came easily — the French-speaking trio weren’t friends before this summer, but they knew of each other.

Now, the three teammates go to dinner together as D.C. residents try to make them feel at home.

“When we go into restaurants, the waiters, they try to speak French and everything,” Coulibaly said. “Even fans say, ‘Bonjour.’ It’s dope.”

The warm welcome has worked on Sarr, who said the multicultural nature of the District makes it feel more like a European city.

George, Sarr and Coulibaly became fast friends after meeting for the first time this summer. Speaking the same language helps, but so does being the same age. At 19 and 20 years old, none of the three can legally drink yet.

“We’re all young and we all have the same goals of building those habits for the future,” George said. “Having this young core from different backgrounds, we all have the same objective.”

Sure, they work hard — Sarr wants to grow from the 0-for-15 Summer League performance that drew ridicule from social media and TV’s talking heads — but they’re young. Sarr pointed out that basketball is still a game. A game that has turned them into millionaires, but a game nonetheless.

“You know, we play around a lot. I think you got to have fun, definitely, when you’re playing basketball,” he said. “That’s the sport we love.”

The Wizards have goals — a championship would be nice, but that will likely have to wait. Washington has the longest odds in the league at most sportsbooks.

“As a team, it’s building the habits for the future years, setting the base of what we’re going to build in the future,” George said.

That path to the future begins on Thursday with the home opener against the defending champion Celtics.