but I think did you know the sort of extent of what you were walking into, even just with the other students and everything?

I, I don't think I did, um, but it was a pleasant surprise.

Um, honestly, it was those four years that turned out to be probably, like, you know, the best four years of my life up until that point, and, um, I didn't know.

We were expecting good things.

We had, um, a lot of ideas of, like, how it could turn out, but then, um, the way the institution and Stanford as a whole, like, took care of us and took care of just our people in general was unbelievable, um, and helped us a lot.

Um, we, we had many people on the staff really, you know, in constant communication, kind of like, like Nick mentioned earlier, it was like my family 'cause for them it was, you know, you can be 20 or 25, whatever, it's still like, oh, like, my mom was like, "My baby's leaving the nest, and I'm not gonna see him anymore." So they did a really good job with this, um, and yeah, it was everything and more than I could ever hope for.

Um, so just my role, I think, changed a little bit, and then the amount of time I started to get, um, was I feel like what kinda helped me get better over the course of this year.

Well, I think I kinda hit it, uh, right before All-Star break, to be honest, uh, at least mentally.

Um, what is it about, do you think, the system? Because you, you also developed in the US 'cause you played four years at Stanford, but what do you think it is about this moment that's en- enabling so many French players to come to the U- the US and have success?

It's a great question.

I feel like we, we started breaking the seal a couple years ago, um, you know, back when Boris Diaw with Tony Parker and them were killing it with the Spurs.

And I feel like our generation grew up watching these guys win NBA championship, win European championships, compete in the Olympics.

So I think naturally, um, the entire French community started, like, investing a ton into basketball and, and young kids started playing as well.

Um, I do believe we have a ton of freak athlete, extremely talented athlete all over the country, and over the past couple years, we've just seen the result of that, back-to-back first pick.

I believe last year we had maybe six, maybe seven, uh, player drafted, and which was the most in, in France history, right? Um, back-to-back silver medal in the Olympics.

Good luck getting him to stop.