WASHINGTON — Last month, Alex Sarr displayed an element of his personality people outside the French NBA rookie’s immediate orbit rarely see.
With Sarr’s Washington Wizards clinging to a one-point lead late in a game’s final minute, Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham hurtled down the center of the lane and elevated for an emphatic left-handed slam. Sarr shuffled two steps to impede Cunningham’s path, then leaped and blocked the dunk attempt, sending Cunningham backward to the court for a crash landing. Sarr turned to the Wizards’ bench and, hoping to hype up his teammates, flexed his muscles and screamed.
Advertisement
In a rookie year already marked by discoveries, abilities confirmed and weaknesses learned, the sequence nonetheless took on a revelatory feel. The block demonstrated, without nuance, that the 19-year-old Sarr can make a great defensive play that can swing a tight game against a playoff-bound opponent. It also exposed a level of emotion Sarr typically shrouds beneath a calm façade. In his 50th career NBA regular-season game, Sarr delivered an a-ha! moment that explained why the Wizards feel optimistic about his future — and why so many within the organization wonder what else he might show in the years to come.
“I love that he celebrated a defensive play,” coach Brian Keefe said. “It wasn’t just an offensive play. That’s winning stuff. That’s a winning play he made. If he wanted to be excited about that, that’s great, because we want him to anchor our defense.”
The long-term potential of first- and second-year bigs can be notoriously difficult to project, especially those who, like Sarr, need several more years to fill out physically and develop what NBA players sometimes refer to as “grown-man strength.” In the case of Sarr, who will turn 20 late this month, even his present can be difficult to evaluate because he has logged so many of his minutes alongside other inexperienced teammates such as rookies Bub Carrington and Kyshawn George and second-year fellow Frenchman Bilal Coulibaly.
What can be said with certainty, though, is this: Sarr already possesses abilities for a 7-footer that cannot be taught. He runs the floor with ease and, as someone who primarily played on the wing as a pre-teen, can handle the basketball deftly in the open court and passes well. Although his outside shot has been streaky, his motion is fluid and sound.
In a cautious estimate of the kind of player he might become, he could develop into a prototypical modern-day big: someone equally adept at spacing the floor on offense with his 3-point shooting and at protecting the rim on defense with his agility, size and shot-blocking.
Advertisement
As a top-rated draft prospect last spring, Sarr declined to work out for the Atlanta Hawks, who held the top overall pick, because the Hawks already had two capable bigs on their roster, Clint Capela and Onyeka Okongwu, and because the Wizards, who were drafting second, signaled that they would give him extended playing time as a rookie and extensive freedom to emphasize his strengths on offense and play through his mistakes and inefficiencies.
The Washington front office kept its word. The only other member of the current NBA rookie class to average more minutes than Sarr, at 27.1 per game, has been Carrington, who has played 29.5 minutes per game. (Another Wizards player, George, ranks fourth overall.) According to Basketball-Reference, Sarr is one of only three rookies in NBA history to have blocked at least 95 shots and made at least 100 3-pointers, joining Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama.
“Being able to have freedom helps you develop as a player,” Sarr said in an interview with The Athletic, “knowing the things maybe you shouldn’t do, the things you have to work on.”
After a strong December in which he made nearly 46 percent of his 3-point tries, Sarr looked like an early favorite to win Rookie of the Year, perhaps even the favorite. But his shooting trailed off in January before he missed eight consecutive games because of a sprained ankle.
Wizards officials are promoting Sarr aggressively for the award, but it’s unclear whether he will edge out fellow lottery picks like San Antonio Spurs guard Stephon Castle or Hawks forward Zaccharie Risacher, or the Memphis Grizzlies’ second-round surprise Jaylen Wells. Washington’s poor record and Sarr’s inefficient shooting almost certainly will work against him, even though his 13.0 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game are arguments in his favor.
Advertisement
On March 15, one game after he blocked Cunningham’s go-ahead dunk attempt, Sarr played his signature game of the season, scoring a career-high 34 points to go along with five assists, as he helped the Wizards stunned Nikola Jokić’s Nuggets in Denver, 126-123.
“He wants to be great, and he wants the people around him to be great,” said George, one of Sarr’s best friends on the team.
“He’ll not necessarily show it,” George added, “but you could see it in the way he plays and the evolution of his game since the beginning of the season, even since summer league. You can see him just taking steps every time he steps on the court.”
Sarr’s steady progression, as well as his greater comfort within the team, fits a pattern he had established before the Wizards drafted him. When he left his family’s home in Bordeaux, France, at 14 years old to join Real Madrid’s youth basketball program, he needed a few months to adjust and to become fluent in Spanish. Two years later, he moved to Atlanta to join Overtime Elite, and he found his footing as time progressed. Last season, as a member of the Perth Wildcats in Australia’s top pro league, he finished strong.
Olivier Sarr, who is Alex’s older brother, understands what it takes to reach the NBA. Olivier, 26, played 46 regular-season games for the Oklahoma City Thunder over a three-year stretch.
A torn Achilles tendon has prevented Olivier from playing this season, but it has allowed him to spend the season rehabbing in Washington and living with Alex as the younger brother adjusts to the NBA. Their parents visit often from France and are mainstays at Wizards home games, as is Olivier.
When they were children, Alex would emulate his older brother. When Olivier was 10, working with basketball trainer Vincent Mbassi, 4-year-old Alex would demand to shoot as well.
Advertisement
“He couldn’t even physically shoot a 3 or anything, but it didn’t matter,” Olivier said. “Everything I was doing, he would do with the same intensity for his age and the same attention to detail. And he would take things very, very, very seriously when it came to the game of basketball at an early age.
“Whatever he sets his mind to,” Olivier added, “he will make sure he accomplishes it or he’ll put himself in the best situation possible, and it’s been impressive. Whatever he said (about reaching the NBA and starring in the league) pretty much is happening or happened. So it’s amazing the power of his mind and his determination.”
It’s no wonder, then, that Alex Sarr has developed a reputation within the Wizards for being a serious, almost laser-focused worker. Whenever he does his early pregame individual shooting sessions, usually 90 minutes before the national anthem, he is the only player on the roster who wears the team’s official warm-up tops and warm-up pants.
As the year has gone on, though, teammates have also seen a silly side to Sarr’s personality. Although he tends to be quiet, he will chime in occasionally on teammates’ conversations, either with a few words — and a straight face — that demonstrates a dry sense of humor or an amused look.
“OK,” Carrington said, breaking into a smile, “I’m going to give you an insider scoop on Alex Sarr that not a lot of people know. Everyone thinks that he’s just some quiet guy and always some chill guy. But Alex is a troll. He is an absolute kid, the biggest toddler on the team. He’s going to find a way to make a joke out of anything.”
“Hey, look over there,” Sarr has said to teammates, motioning to a vacant space over a teammate’s shoulder, prompting that teammate to turn around to see, invariably, nothing special or no one else there.
A few moments later, Sarr might ask a veteran teammate a question about a defensive scheme or how to prepare for a back-to-back or about an opponent’s tendencies.
Advertisement
“Super goofy, super understated,” wing Corey Kispert said. “He’s quiet, but he’s super funny. He’s kind of one of those guys that sits back and observes and doesn’t say much. But when he does talk, it’s really, really funny. And then, most importantly, he wants to learn. He wants to get better.”
It took teammates a while to see Sarr’s goofy side, just as it took fans a while to see Sarr’s emotional side.
It’s enough to make everyone wonder how much he’ll continue to grow in the months and years ahead.
On a recent afternoon, Sarr was asked where he sees himself in 10 years. He paused for a moment, then answered seriously.
“Ten years from now,” he said, “I see myself in Washington still playing for the Wizards and us being a very, very good team and competing in the playoffs every year.”
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Photos: Patrick Smith, Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)
