He started playing professionally at the age of 15, won the MVP at the age of 18, and was a shining talent in Europe, but he was marginalized in the NBA!

In recent years, France’s basketball talent pool has shown a blowout situation. Victor Vembanyama, Zachary Rissache and Alexander Sarr have won two No. 1 picks and one No. 2 pick respectively for France. It can be said that even if the French stars of Rudy Gobert’s generation retire, the French team will still be the biggest opponent of the American team.

In fact, as early as 10 years ago, the French team began to have many stars entering the NBA. They are all top European talents, but what is somewhat surprising is that they have failed to perform as they should in the NBA, such as Killian Hayes, who had high hopes for the Pistons before, and our protagonist today - Frank Ntilikina.

As early as the age of 15, Ntilikina began to compete in the French professional league, and soon emerged as a star. He was even selected for the Jordan Brand Classic international event at the age of 16.

In addition, he reached the top spot in Europe at the age of 18 and is truly a top talent. But now that he is only 27 years old, he has faded out of the NBA and joined the European powerhouse Olympiacos. There is a high probability that he will not be able to return to the NBA stage in the future. So what happened that caused this unprecedented genius to quickly fall from grace in the NBA? Let’s find out below!

The genius who shines in Europe is regarded by France as the core of the future.

Since the age of 5, Ntilikina has received professional basketball training, and was soon spotted by the French Ligue 1 club Strasbourg and became a member of the team's youth training camp. It has to be said that his talent is indeed quite attractive. When he was 12 years old, his height had reached 1.78 meters and his wingspan was 1.93 meters. He was almost at the top level among his peers.

Under his leadership, Strasbourg's youth team was unbeatable in the French Youth League, and successfully won the final league championship in the 14-15 season. With such a dominant performance, Ntilikina successfully entered the team's adult team. At the time, he was only 16 years old. He was one of the few players in the history of French basketball who could join the adult competition before he was an adult. Although the data is not that impressive, in the 15-16 season, he still successfully won the league's best young player award, which is undoubtedly the best recognition of his potential, talent and ability.

At the same time, at the national team level, he was selected for the U16 national team in 2014, and averaged 7.4 points per game in the U16 European Championship, winning the final championship. In the European U18 Championship held in 2016, Ntilikina became the most shining star. Throughout the tournament, he averaged 15.2 points, 2.8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game. Especially in the final, facing the European powerhouse Lithuania, he scored 31 points in the game, almost single-handedly defeating his opponent and winning the final gold medal. There was no problem. With such a dominant performance, he was directly elected as the MVP of the event.

Whether it is at the club level or the French youth team level, he has shown quite good abilities, so in the summer of 2017, at the age of 19, he announced his participation in the NBA draft. This top talent in Europe was spotted by the Knicks and was selected with the 8th overall pick in the first round, realizing his dream of playing in the NBA.

was never able to adapt to the NBA and was given up by the team in turn.

After joining the Knicks, Ntilikina faced a good situation. You must know that the Knicks had just cleaned up many old players, including Carmelo Anthony and Derrick Rose, and completely began to rebuild. As for Ntilikina, who just joined, as long as he can perform in line with the team's expectations, he will definitely be one of the core players in the future.

But what is unexpected is that in his first season, he averaged only 5.9 points, 2.3 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game, and his shooting percentage was only 36.4%. This performance was definitely not satisfactory to the Knicks. Although he has elite defensive capabilities, his offense is not stable enough. What's worse is that in the second year of his career, after only playing 43 games, he was directly declared reimbursed for the season due to a groin injury. He averaged only 5.7 points, 2 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Ntilikina's performance in the first two seasons was disastrous, but under such circumstances, the Knicks were still willing to continue to give him opportunities.

You must know that in the NBA world, no matter how attractive your talent is, if you cannot show improvement in 2 years, there is a high probability that you will be abandoned. Therefore, the Knicks are still willing to give Ntilikina time, which is enough to prove their desire and patience. However, in the 19-20 season, Ntilikina still only contributed 6.3 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3 assists, and there was no improvement at all on the offensive end. Therefore, in the fourth year of his career, the Knicks also lost expectations and directly marginalized him. They did not renew his contract after the end of the season.

Although he later received a short-term contract from the Mavericks, he really failed to live up to his expectations. In his two years with the Mavericks, his most outstanding season only contributed 4.1 points, 1.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists. This disappointed Mark Cuban, who has always loved international players. After the 22-23 season, he was allowed to become a free agent. He was only 24 years old at the time.

He left the NBA at the age of 25 and now returns to play in Europe.

In the summer of 2023, Ntilikina is on the verge of being eliminated from the NBA. Fortunately, the Hornets gave him a contract. Although this contract is only guaranteed at $200,000, he still hopes to stay in the NBA.. But Ntilikina still failed to impress the team. In 5 games, he averaged only 1 point, 1.2 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game. The Hornets quickly terminated his contract, and the 25-year-old lost the opportunity to play in the NBA. In order to support his family, he had no choice but to return to Europe and join Partizan Belgrade, a powerful team in Serbia. This season, he moved to Olympiacos.

However, what is a bit embarrassing is that after returning to Europe, he regained the long-lost feeling of winning. Not only that, he was also selected for the French national team list many times, and won the Olympic silver medal with the team in 2021 and 2024. Perhaps Ntilikina is indeed not suitable for the NBA. Leaving the NBA and returning to Europe may be his best choice.