There is the snapshot appetizer that can explain why New York City is going to love Guerschon Yabusele. That’s easy to find. That’s all over YouTube, all over TikTok. There are GIFs galore. This was Aug. 10, 2024, the Olympic gold medal basketball game at Paris’ Accor Arena.

This was late in the second quarter. Yabusele — who’d already emerged as the most intriguing outside-the-envelope player of those games — drove around Devin Booker, curling for the baseline. The U.S. led France by seven. There were 20,300 partisan fans who’d been screaming themselves hoarse all day.

Now the player they called “L’ors Dansant” — “the Dancing Bear” — was about to rocket them toward Pluto. Standing in Yabusele’s way on his path to the basket was LeBron James. James wouldn’t be in his way for long.

Yabusele rose. Kept rising. And dunked on LeBron.