Boris Diaw was passing through Paris in late September and thought he would check out a basketball game. A young player he had heard about for years was playing.
It was the first home game of the season for the Metropolitans 92, a French league team led by the star teenager Victor Wembanyama. At Marcel-Cerdan Sports Palace in Levallois, near Paris, N.B.A. scouts sat courtside and fans trickled into the stands. A person in a bee costume, the Mets’ mascot, trotted around offering high-fives.
Diaw grew up in Paris and played 14 years in the N.