Tariq Abdul-Wahad (born Olivier Michael Saint-Jean; November 3, 1974) is a French

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 ...

coach and former player. As Olivier Saint-Jean, 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 ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and

San Jose State San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

. In 1997, the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference Pacific Division. The Kings are the oldest ...

selected Saint-Jean in the first round of the NBA draft as the 11th overall pick, and Saint-Jean converted to Islam and changed his name to Tariq Abdul-Wahad. From 1997 to 2003, Abdul-Wahad played in the NBA for the Kings,

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was establ ...

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

, and

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

. He was the first player to be raised in France and play in the

NBA 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 St ...

Early life and college years

Olivier Saint-Jean was born in

Maisons-Alfort Maisons-Alfort () is a commune in the southeastern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the center of Paris. Maisons-Alfort is famous as the location of the National Veterinary School of Alfort. The Fort de Charenton, constructed betwe ...

near Paris. His mother George Goudet was a professional basketball player. His father Quinis Brower was a former Hofstra University and pro basketball player who was drafted by the ABA's New York Nets before a professional career in France, playing with the club team Limoges. After graduating from Lycee Aristide Briand in 1993, Abdul-Wahad first played

for two years at

and transferred to

in 1995. Abdul-Wahad was part of the San Jose State team that won the 1996

Big West Conference men's basketball tournament The Big West men's basketball tournament (formerly the Pacific Coast Athletic Association men's basketball tournament) is the conference championship tournament in basketball for the Big West Conference. It is a single-elimination tournament and ...

and made the NCAA tournament despite a 13-16 record. His No. 3 jersey was retired by San Jose State in 2002, however the banner hanging in

the Event Center Arena The Provident Credit Union Event Center, formerly and more commonly known as the Event Center Arena, is a complex consisting of an indoor arena and a fitness club on the main campus of San Jose State University in downtown San Jose, California. ...

refers to him as Olivier Saint-Jean, the name he used while in college. He changed his name to Tariq Abdul-Wahad after converting to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

in 1997.

Professional career

Abdul-Wahad's peak year as a pro was with the Sacramento Kings in the lockout-shortened

1999 NBA season File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoo ...

, when he was a starter for the team. They pushed the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

to the brink of elimination but lost in the fifth and final game of the series. He was known as a defensive specialist, but his playing time was restricted in later seasons due to injuries. He only played in 236 out of a possible 624 games between

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

and

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. In the whole 2003–04 and 2004–05 seasons Abdul-Wahad was on the

' roster on injured reserve, as he was permanently unable to play. He was released by Mavericks on 28 September 2005, during training camp prior to the 2005–06 season. In November 2006 Italian team

Climamio Bologna Fortitudo Pallacanestro Bologna 103, commonly known as Fortitudo Bologna and currently known as Fortitudo Kiğılı Bologna for sponsorship reasons, is a basketball club based in Bologna, Italy and currently plays in the second division. Histor ...

invited Abdul-Wahad to a try out, but he was not signed.

NBA career statistics

Regular season

, - , align="left" , 1997–98 , align="left" ,

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, 59 , , 16 , , 16.3 , , .403 , , .211 , , .672 , , 2.0 , , .9 , , .6 , , .2 , , 6.4 , - , align="left" , 1998–99 , align="left" ,

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, 49 , , 49 , , 24.6 , , .435 , , .286 , , .691 , , 3.8 , , 1.0 , , 1.0 , , .3 , , 9.3 , - , align="left" , 1999–00 , align="left" ,

Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

, 46 , , 46 , , 26.2 , , .433 , , .095 , , .762 , , 5.2 , , 1.6 , , 1.2 , , .3 , , 12.2 , - , align="left" , 1999–00 , align="left" ,

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

, 15 , , 10 , , 24.9 , , .389 , , .500 , , .738 , , 3.5 , , 1.7 , , .4 , , .8 , , 8.9 , - , align="left" , 2000–01 , align="left" ,

, 29 , , 12 , , 14.5 , , .387 , , .400 , , .583 , , 2.0 , , .8 , , .5 , , .4 , , 3.8 , - , align="left" , 2001–02 , align="left" ,

, 20 , , 12 , , 20.9 , , .379 , , .500 , , .750 , , 3.9 , , 1.1 , , .9 , , .5 , , 6.8 , - , align="left" , 2001–02 , align="left" ,

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

, 4 , , 0 , , 6.0 , , .000 , , – , , .000 , , 1.5 , , .5 , , .5 , , .3 , , .0 , - , align="left" , 2002–03 , align="left" ,

, 14 , , 0 , , 14.6 , , .466 , , .000 , , .500 , , 2.9 , , 1.5 , , .4 , , .2 , , 4.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 236 , , 145 , , 20.4 , , .417 , , .237 , , .703 , , 3.3 , , 1.1 , , .8 , , .4 , , 7.8

Playoffs

, - , align="left" ,

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, align="left" ,

Sacramento ) , image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg , mapsize = 250x200px , map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...

, 5 , , 5 , , 19.8 , , .455 , , .000 , , .813 , , 3.8 , , .8 , , .8 , , .8 , , 8.6 , - , align="left" ,

2003 File:2003 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The crew of STS-107 perished when the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry into Earth's atmosphere; SARS became an epidemic in China, and was a precursor to SARS-CoV-2; A des ...

, align="left" ,

, 8 , , 0 , , 9.9 , , .300 , , .000 , , .875 , , 2.8 , , .9 , , .0 , , .0 , , 3.1 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 13 , , 5 , , 13.7 , , .381 , , .000 , , .833 , , 3.2 , , .8 , , .3 , , .3 , , 5.2

National team career

Abdul-Wahad (as Oliver Saint Jean) played for the

France men's national under-18 basketball team The France men's national under-18 and under-19 basketball team is the junior national basketball team representing France in international under-18 and under-19 competitions. It is administrated by the French Federation of Basketball (''Fédéra ...

at the

1992 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 1992 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was an international basketball competition held in Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slov ...

where his team won gold.

Post-playing years

In 2005, Abdul-Wahad played the part of King Negus of Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in the video play ''Mercy to Mankind: Part 1, The Prophecy Fulfilled'', sponsored by the MAS (

Muslim American Society The Muslim American Society (MAS) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1993 and headquartered in Washington, D.C. MAS describes itself as a grassroots Islam, Islamic movement. It has more than 50 chapters across the United States. History M ...

) Youth Chapter, Dallas, Texas. Abdul-Wahad finished his

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

art history Art history is the study of aesthetic objects and visual expression in historical and stylistic context. Traditionally, the discipline of art history emphasized painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, ceramics and decorative arts; yet today ...

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sys ...

in 2008 and enrolled in the

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

program at San Jose State afterwards. He later started a clothing business in Brazil with a friend and a television production company in France. On July 21, 2011, the Division II Cal State Monterey Bay Otters women's basketball team hired Abdul-Wahad as an assistant coach.Tariq Abdul–Wahad Joins Women's Basketball Staff
/ref> Abdul-Wahad became head varsity boys' basketball coach at Lincoln High School of

San Jose, California San Jose, officially San José (; ; ), is a major city in the U.S. state of California that is the cultural, financial, and political center of Silicon Valley and largest city in Northern California by both population and area. With a 2020 popul ...

in 2012.

Notes

External links

NBA bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abdul-Wahad, Tariq 1974 births Living people American women's basketball coaches Basketball coaches from California Black French sportspeople Cal State Monterey Bay Otters Converts to Islam Dallas Mavericks players Denver Nuggets players French expatriate basketball people in the United States French Guianan basketball players French men's basketball players French Muslims French people of French Guianan descent High school basketball coaches in California Michigan Wolverines men's basketball players National Basketball Association players from France Orlando Magic players People from Maisons-Alfort Sacramento Kings draft picks Sacramento Kings players San Jose State Spartans men's basketball players Shooting guards Small forwards Sportspeople from Évreux Sportspeople from Val-de-Marne