French national team guard Sylvain Francisco remains determined to pursue his NBA dream: "I'm really confident about it."
French national team guard and Zalgiris Kaunas star Sylvain Francisco is 27 years old, but he hasn't given up on his dream of playing in the NBA.
Sylvain Francisco
Sylvain Francisco
Position: PG, SG
Age: 27
Height: 185 cm
Weight: 79 kg
Birth place: Creteil, France
His career path has been steadily rising.
Francisco began in France, spending four years with Metropolitans 92, Paris, and Roanne. From there, he moved abroad—first to Spain with Manresa, then to Greece with Peristeri.
His EuroLeague debut came with FC Bayern Munich in Germany, and now he has taken on a starring role in Lithuania with Zalgiris Kaunas.
Asked by BasketNews who could be the next French player to make the NBA, Francisco replied with a smile:
"Maybe me. We'll see, for sure. I'm really confident about it, that's a good thing," Francisco noted. "Maybe me, we'll see. We got some other guys that are gonna get drafted and all that, but you never know.
"It's still a dream," he added. "I'm not gonna deny that. It's still a dream. And I'm just gonna go step by step."
Last season, Francisco was the undisputed leader of Zalgiris, averaging 14.6 points, 2.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, and 15.6 PIR over 34 EuroLeague games. He also came up clutch in the domestic league finals.
With Zalgiris trailing Rytas Vilnius 1–2 in the best-of-five LKL series, Francisco buried a dramatic game-winning buzzer-beater in Game 4 to force a decider—one that Zalgiris went on to win in Kaunas.
This summer, his rise continues. Francisco made the final 12-man roster for France at FIBA EuroBasket 2025, his second major international tournament after the FIBA World Cup 2023.
Pijus Sapetka
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