Olivier Sarr (born 20 February 1999) is a French professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player for the Oklahoma City Thunder of the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

(NBA), on a two-way contract with the Oklahoma City Blue of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) official List of developmental and minor sports leagues, minor league basketball organization. The league was known as the National Basketball Development ...

. He played

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

for the

Wake Forest Demon Deacons The Wake Forest Demon Deacons are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Wake Forest University, located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. They compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a mem ...

and the

Kentucky Wildcats The Kentucky Wildcats are the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic squads of the University of Kentucky (UK), a founding member of the Southeastern Conference. The Kentucky Wildcats is the student body of the University of Kentucky. 30,473 ...

Early life and career

Sarr started playing basketball at age three with his father, a former player, and drew inspiration from

Hakeem Olajuwon Hakeem Abdul Olajuwon (; ; born January 21, 1963), nicknamed "the Dream", is a Nigerian Americans, Nigerian-American former professional basketball player. From 1984 to 2002, he played Center (basketball), center in the National Basketball Ass ...

. He played for club teams Bouscat and TOAC before joining

INSEP INSEP, the National Institute of Sport, Expertise, and Performance (Institut national du sport, de l'expertise et de la performance), is a French training institute and center for excellence in sports that trains elite athletes. It is located on th ...

, a sports institute in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. He competed for Centre Fédéral in the Nationale Masculine 1 and represented INSEP at the Adidas Next Generation Tournament. Sarr moved to the United States when he was 15 years old. He was considered a four-star

recruit __NOTOC__ Recruit can refer to: Military * Military recruitment * Recruit training, in the military * ''Rekrut'' (English: Recruit), a military recruit or low rank in German-speaking countries * Seaman recruit Books *''Le Réquisitionnaire'' (En ...

Scout Scout may refer to: Youth movement *Scout (Scouting), a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement **Scouts (The Scout Association), section for 10-14 year olds in the United Kingdom **Scouts BSA, sectio ...

and committed to Wake Forest over offers from

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, Vanderbilt and

UCF The University of Central Florida (UCF) is a public research university whose main campus is in unincorporated Orange County, Florida. UCF also has nine smaller regional campuses throughout central Florida. It is part of the State University ...

College career

Sarr averaged 3.2 points and 3.0 rebounds per game as a freshman at Wake Forest. He gained 20 pounds going into his sophomore season. As a sophomore, Sarr started 16 games and averaged 6.2 points and 5.5 rebounds per game, leading the team with 25 blocks. On 29 February 2020, Sarr scored a career-high 37 points and grabbed 17 rebounds in a 84–73 victory over Notre Dame. As a junior, Sarr averaged 13.7 points and 9.0 rebounds per game and had 11 double-doubles. He was named to the Third Team All-

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

. After coach Danny Manning was fired, Sarr entered the transfer portal. In May 2020, he announced he was transferring to

Kentucky Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...

after receiving interest from

Duke Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ran ...

, Baylor,

Florida State Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher e ...

and Gonzaga. Sarr applied for a waiver for immediate eligibility at Kentucky. He, along with fellow transfer Jacob Toppin, received immediate eligibility on 21 October 2020. Sarr averaged 10.8 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. He declared for the

2021 NBA draft The 2021 NBA draft, the 75th edition of the National Basketball Association's annual draft, was held on July 29, 2021, at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. With the first overall pick, the Detroit Pistons selected Cade Cunningham. The NBA us ...

, forgoing the additional season of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Professional career

Oklahoma City Thunder / Blue (2021–present)

After going undrafted in

, Sarr played for the Memphis Grizzlies in the

NBA Summer League The NBA Summer League, also known as the Las Vegas Summer League, is an off-season competition organized by the National Basketball Association. NBA teams come together to try out different summer rosters instead of their regular season line-ups ...

. On 16 October 2021, he was signed and then immediately waived by the Oklahoma City Thunder. He subsequently joined the Oklahoma City Blue of the

, posting 14 points and 7 rebounds in his debut versus the Salt Lake City Stars. On 27 December, Sarr signed a 10-day contract with the Thunder and re-joined the Blue on 6 January 2022. Three days later, he signed a second 10-day contract with the Thunder. He was reacquired and activated by the Oklahoma City Blue on 19 January. On 21 February 2022, Sarr signed a two-way contract with the Thunder. He was waived by the Thunder on 6 April 2022. Sarr joined the

Phoenix Suns The Phoenix Suns are an American professional basketball team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA), as a member of the league's Western Conference Pacific Division. The Suns are the only team in t ...

for the

2022 NBA Summer League The 2022 NBA Summer League, also branded as the NBA 2K23 Summer League 2022, was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) primarily at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the campus ...

. On 7 September 2022, the Portland Trail Blazers announced that they had signed Sarr. On 13 October, the Trail Blazers announced that they had converted their contract with Sarr to a two-way contract. On 18 November, the Trail Blazers announced that they had waived Sarr. He never played a game for the team. On 11 January 2023, Sarr was re-acquired by the Oklahoma City Blue. On 13 February, he signed a two-way contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

National team career

Sarr played for

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

at the

2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship The 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship (Spanish: 2016 FIBA Campeonato Mundial Sub-17) was the 4th edition of the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U17 national team ...

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

, Spain. He averaged 4.4 points and four rebounds per game and helped his team finish in sixth place. At the

2017 FIBA U18 European Championship The 2017 FIBA U18 European Championship was the 34th edition of the FIBA U18 European Championship. The competition took place in Bratislava and Piešťany, Slovakia, from 29 July to 6 August 2017. Venues Participating teams * * * * * * * * ...

in Slovakia, Sarr averaged 7.6 points and 5.4 rebounds per game for the sixth-place team.

Career statistics

NBA

, - , style="text-align:left;", , style="text-align:left;",

Oklahoma City Oklahoma City (), officially the City of Oklahoma City, and often shortened to OKC, is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The county seat of Oklahoma County, it ranks 20th among United States cities in population, a ...

, 22 , , 2 , , 19.1 , , .574 , , .448 , , .828 , , 4.2 , , .9 , , .3 , , .7 , , 7.0 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 22 , , 2 , , 19.1 , , .574 , , .448 , , .828 , , 4.2 , , .9 , , .3 , , .7 , , 7.0

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2017–18 , style="text-align:left;", Wake Forest , 30 , , 0 , , 15.1 , , .348 , , .250 , , .600 , , 3.0 , , .4 , , .3 , , .7 , , 3.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;", Wake Forest , 25 , , 16 , , 21.7 , , .472 , , .250 , , .705 , , 5.5 , , .5 , , .4 , , 1.0 , , 6.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;", Wake Forest , 30 , , 15 , , 26.7 , , .527 , , .143 , , .761 , , 9.0 , , .9 , , .4 , , 1.2 , , 13.7 , - , style="text-align:left;",

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

, style="text-align:left;",

, 25 , , 25 , , 25.1 , , .470 , , .444 , , .791 , , 5.2 , , 1.3 , , .4 , , 1.2 , , 10.8 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 110 , , 56 , , 22.0 , , .476 , , .311 , , .740 , , 5.7 , , .8 , , .4 , , 1.0 , , 8.5

Personal life

Sarr is the son of Massar and Marie Sarr and has a younger brother, Alexandre. He is of Senegalese descent. Sarr's father played professional basketball in France, and Alexandre plays for

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

at the youth level.

References

External links

Kentucky Wildcats bioWake Forest Demon Deacons bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sarr, Olivier 1999 births Living people Centers (basketball) French expatriate basketball people in the United States French men's basketball players French sportspeople of Senegalese descent Kentucky Wildcats men's basketball players Oklahoma City Blue players Oklahoma City Thunder players People from Niort Sportspeople from Deux-Sèvres Undrafted National Basketball Association players Wake Forest Demon Deacons men's basketball players