Not Only Did Yabu Posterize LeBron And Live To Tell About It, It Also Basically Got Him Back Into The NBA

Catherine Steenkeste. Getty Images.

We used to live in a world where if you found yourself in a position where you dunked on LeBron James, it was more likely you'd come across Big Foot than see that footage on the internet. We all remember the Jordan Crawford story of how he put LeBron on a poster at a camp and then LeBron's team immediately did everything in their power to have it scrubbed from the internet like it never happened. A sad move given that people get dunked on all the time, but one that was pretty on brand with the early days of the LeBron era.

Fast forward to 2024, and it's pretty hard to follow that same plan when you find yourself getting dunked on during the Olympics for the world to see. Unfortunately, there's no scrubbing that from the internet. Even with the Olympics making it virtually impossible to share online clips of their games, we all saw it

As one of the last remaining people on the Yabu bandwagon heading into the Olympics, watching him dominate in Paris was incredible. I've always believed that this new and improved version of Yabu deserved at least a minimum deal to return to the NBA, mostly because he's about a billion times better than the version I saw play for the Celts and that guy ruled

It was clear watching Yabu in the Olympics that Danny Ainge wasn't wrong when he selected Yabu #16 overall (and stashed him so he could sign Al Horford), he was just early. What we see now is the vision of what Yabu could turn into as a player come to life, and watching him play I couldn't understand why no NBA team was willing to even give him a look.

Then the dunk on LeBron happened, Yabu continued to show he was one of the best players for France during the entire tournament, and wouldn't you know it, the NBA finally came calling

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Now I know what you're probably thinking. That being a Celtics guy I'm going to clown on Daryl Morey and the Sixers for this signing, talk about how desperate they are etc. Normally that would be the case, but not here. I fucking love Yabu and mostly I'm happy to see he's back in the league. Granted I feel he deserves better than ending up in Philly, but whatever. I'm just happy The Dancing Bear is back in our lives again. It's definitely going to sting seeing him unleash his patented "Dab" celebration after he makes a 3PM, but I suppose that's the cost of doing business.

From a positional/skillset standpoint, he also makes sense for the Sixers roster. While we technically don't know how this new and improved version of Yabu will translate back to the NBA game, the Sixers definitely needed Yabu's size/skillset at the 4. Right now their PFs are Caleb Martin, Paul George (in certain lineups), and KJ Martin. Given that Yabu looks like he's in the best shape of his life and is a more mature and well-rounded player, in theory he presents a role that should help the Sixers as long as he actually gets the opportunity to see the floor whether that be rebounding or playing as a stretch big. 

If his outside shot somehow translates? That's a big deal and probably the biggest question. He shot just 32% in his two seasons as a Celtic the first time around, but things were MUCH improved with the shorter FIBA distances since he left the league. If he can find a way to get that to at least league average (34% or better), for the minimum there's no reason to not like this signing. 

It did feel like it was only a matter of time before Yabu got his second chance given how he was playing

and now that it's happened I hope he can make the best of it and truly stick around this time.