During the French League semifinal between Strasbourg and Lyon-Villeurbonne earlier this month, Olivier Mazet, the French agent for Frank Ntilikina, arranged for a postgame dinner.

He invited his client, Ntilikina, of Strasbourg; Charles Kahudi, who plays for Lyon; and Ntilikina’s mother, Jacqueline.

Lyon led 2-0 in the best-of-five series, and Mazet was relieved. He soon would be on a plane to New York with Ntilikina and New York-based agent Rich Felder to start NBA draft workouts.

Nevertheless, Ntilikina — the 18-year-old, 6-foot-5 point guard the Knicks are considering with their No. 8 pick — was miserable and didn’t want to do dinner with an opponent he still was trying to beat.

“No, we’re going to win this series,” Ntilikina told Mazet. “We’re not going to New York yet. We’re not losing.”

Playing his season’s best ball, more aggressive on offense and playing his usually stellar defense, Ntilikina led Strasbourg to three straight victories to advance to the final against Chalon, which beat Strasbourg 71-70 on a buzzer-beater Saturday to take a 2-1 series lead.

Ntilikina’s two basketball worlds have collided — either fortuitously or frustratingly, depending on the viewpoint.

Mazet unabashedly admitted after Strasbourg fell behind 1-0 in the French finals he was rooting for a sweep.

“Frank is such a competitor, mature for his age,” Mazet said. “He wants to win this before he leaves for the NBA, even though he’s not able to enjoy the pre-draft process. He’s worked so hard — 10 years — to make that dream happen, meet the franchises and talk to the people, show them what he can do. Unfortunately, he’s not able to do that [yet]. He’d rather win.”

In an interview earlier this week, Ntilikina said it has been “difficult” focusing with the draft Thursday, but feels he is succeeding.

“He wears it well, even if it is overwhelming,” said Strasbourg teammate Romeo Travis, a power forward from Ohio. “He has a calm demeanor about him.”

“You don’t sense he’s distracted, but I imagine he is,” said Strasbourg guard A.J. Slaughter, who starred at Western Kentucky. “We hear his agent wants to leave for the workouts, and [Ntilikina] wants stay and win a championship. It’s a stressful situation. He wants to do what’s best for the team. I can’t imagine what he’s going through.”

Erving Walker, who hails from Bed-Stuy and played for Christ The King, added: “He’s got a lot of pressure on him. He doesn’t talk about it a lot, but he wants to win a championship really bad. Actions are louder than words, and all his actions are he’s 100 percent in this.”

But Ntilikina is not angry at Mazet for rooting against the club.

“He understands,” Mazet said.

It has been a unique journey to this bizarre culmination. Ntilikina’s mother, Jacqueline Mukarugema, escaped the atrocities of war-torn Rwanda with her two sons for Belgium, where she then had a third child she named Frank. The family moved to Strasbourg when he turned 3.

“It’s a really stable, educated family,” Mazet said.

Jacqueline, who works as a nurse and hospital administrator, raised the three sons by herself. The oldest, Yves, 30, is a back surgeon. Brice, 26, is a physical therapist.

“His mother was very young, and Frank saw the sacrifices and the work,” Mazet said. “She was a strong influence, and he learned a lot from all of them.”

His American teammates say Ntilikina’s work ethic oozes. Walker calls him “NBA Frank” because that is a lot of what he talks about.

“It seems he’s always in the gym — before practice, after practice — like he doesn’t have another life,” Walker said.

Slaughter says Ntilikina has earned the “gym rat’’ tag.

“He stays in the gym after practice, without coaches, working on ballhandling and the jump shot,” Slaughter said. “And when you walk into the gym and hear a ball bouncing, you know it’s Frank.”

Ntilikina leans on his three American mates and never stops quizzing them about the U.S. His English is, as Travis says, “perfect,” honed from listening to years of rap music (Future and Drake are his top two) and watching American movies and TV shows.

Slaughter has Ntilikina over to his pad to play video games — “FIFA” is his favorite.

“He’s always picking my brain,” Slaughter said. “He’s Americanized. Listens to the same music, same TV shows, likes American food — up to date on all of American culture.”

“He’s into American culture, but he knows he’s French,” Travis said. “That’s what’s cool. He listens to our hip-hop, but he doesn’t try to be over-hip-hop-ish.’’

Ntilikina’s got the body — 6-foot-5 with a 7-foot wingspan and still growing — the defense, basketball IQ and unselfish game that have the Knicks so intrigued.

The Post reported Knicks general manager Steve Mills, scouting director Kristian Petesic and recently hired scout Makhtar N’diaye flew to France in April to watch Ntilikina play. In fact, N’diaye, according to a source, spent nearly a month in France catching Ntilikina games in April and early May.

The Post has learned Jackson’s most influential advisor, Clarence Gaines Jr., secretly caught a Ntilikina game in France at another point. In addition, their Barcelona-based European scout Kevin Wilson caught his share.

Granted, the Mavericks were on Ntilikina’s trail first last season, when he barely played for Strasbourg. According to a source, the Mavericks were tipped off by former Mavericks guard, Frenchmen Rodrique Beaubois, who played for Strasbourg last season.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban flew to Venice last weekend to meet Ntilikina.

“He’s famous in France, too,” Ntilikina said. “It was interesting.”

The Mavericks select ninth and likely would take Ntilikina if the Knicks pass.

Though N.C. State’s Dennis Smith and Kentucky’s Malik Monk have their supporters in the Knicks organization, due to Ntilikina’s modest numbers, the opinion of Jackson/Gaines may be all that matters. Jackson likes his guards big and may be emboldened by success of his past European draft picks, including Kristaps Porzingis and Willy Hernangomez.

Chris Brickley, who left the Knicks in April after a stint as developmental coach, trained Ntilikina last summer when he visited New York. Brickley would have trained him in the weeks leading into the draft had Ntilikina’s season ended earlier.

“Put basketball aside, he is a sponge and extremely eager to improve,” Brickley stated in an email. “He can defend his position full-court and has a high basketball IQ. He can really handle the ball and has the ability to shoot the ball off the dribble. His catch-and-shoot 3 is much better than people give him credit for. One of his biggest strengths is his passing ability. He has great court vision.”

However, the numbers don’t justify the plaudits — even factoring in Ntilikina facing players five to 12 years his elder. (In the winter’s 18-and-under European championships, Ntilikina won MVP by averaging 22 points and 6.7 assists.)

In the French League regular season, the numbers were 5.2 points, 1.2 assists and 2.1 rebounds in 18 minutes. His coaches have begged him, in certain instances, to be more assertive and elevated him to starter in January.

“I have learned to be more aggressive — before I wasn’t aggressive enough,” Ntilikina told The Post. “I know it’s getting better. I have to do it a lot more. I’m working on it. I’m confident about it.”

Travis says Strasbourg coach Vincent Collet, also the French national team coach, has a system that prevents “eye-popping numbers.’’

“But his teams always win,” Travis said. “He wants balance.”

After Game 1 of the French finals, in which Ntilikina laid an egg (two points, one assist), Slaughter took Ntilikina aside in the locker room.

“I told him I didn’t think he was aggressive enough in the pick-and-rolls, taking shots in the lane — he was picking up his dribble,” Slaughter said. “To win Game 2, I told him he needs to draw people and kick it out. He’s young and doesn’t want to make a mistake to cost the team a game. He’s got to fight through his mistakes.”

Ntilikina was a different player in Thursday’s Game 2 win — 13 points, four rebounds, three assists in 23 minutes while supplying his stud defense.

“His defense goes without saying,” Walker said. “It’s impeccable — long arms, athletic. Not many people want do it. He wants to do it.”

And Ntilikina shows leadership his own way, despite being “a relaxed guy,” said Travis, who is 32 and a former high school teammate of LeBron James.

“He’s 18 and knows it’s hard for people to listen to him,” Travis said. “So he’ll come up to me and say, ‘Get everyone in the huddle and have a meeting.’ He’ll have me do it. That’s a leader knowing his capabilities.”

Ntilikina and his agents will fly to New York on Tuesday after Monday’s Game 4 to attend Thursday’s draft. Whether he pulls an all-nighter and flies back for a Game 5 on Friday is undetermined. It is a conundrum, but not a bad one and acknowledges he is taking a different path.

His American mates have taken the stance: “C’est la vie.”

“He’s got all the tools to be a great player,” Travis said. “He’ll be better in basketball than I’ll ever be, so I talk to him about life. What to look out for: the professional snakes out there, professional leeches, to be careful of those people. He’s a very trustworthy and nice guy, so he’s got to be careful.”