Fate can be terrible sometimes. While there had been a championship title without going up in 2018 and a season hiatus in 2020 in first place in the regular season, the history of the possibilities of accession of the ADA Blois in Jeep ELITE was not obviously not sad enough. This time, it took another turn by falling on the irreproachable captain, until then, Benjamin Monclar, guilty of a terribly heartbreaking unsportsmanlike foul while his team had the match in hand 35 seconds from the final buzzer (87- 83). A free throw, then a long shot later from Enzo Goudou-Sinha, the SLUC had snatched the extension and was preparing to go it alone during the additional five minutes (97-112).
Three years later, already a new world for Paris
A Lorraine triumph which is especially the immense happiness of Paris Basketball, now certain to discover the Jeep ELITE at the start of the school year. A real hold-up for a team that has never been among the top two in the standings, before this final gong, and the reward of an end of the season in cannonball (10 victories out of the last 11 games), provoked by the arrival of Ryan Boatright at the beginning of March, the incredible progression of the young shoots (Juhann Begarin, Milan Barbitch, Ismael Kamagate), the dedication of the veterans (Amara Sy, Nobel Boungou-colo), the superb consistency of a Dustin Sleva (which Paris would like to extend over time) which would not have mismatched among the candidates for the MVP trophy and an extremely pleasant collective game to watch.
Another golden line added to the legend of the Admiral
(photo : Lilian Bordro)
Also, a first major achievement for an entity born in 2018 on the financial ruins of Hyères-Toulon Var Basket, thanks to the vision of a UFO in French basketball, David Kahn, the former boss of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Often criticized within the Pro B, 11th in 2019, 10th in 2020, Paris Basketball did not have an easy youth but now finds itself exactly where it wanted to be, a novice in an ELITE Jeep two years before the delivery of the future Arena Porte de la Chapelle (8,000 seats).
“This club has created incredible things in two and a half years”, underlined Jean-Christophe Prat at the microphone of Paris Basket on Air, after the victory against Poitiers last Tuesday. “In terms of image, DNA, it’s strong. In 25 years, some clubs are still not there. There’s a real fellowship, there’s something going on in this club. We will use it for future years. Yes we would like to ride in a Jeep Elite. But the first year, I arrive on July 25, training camp on August 10. There are no players, no equipment, no physiotherapists, nothing. Just a GM and a coach. We put it all together in 12 days. Last year, we are gaining momentum, Covid boom. This year, Covid. This club has not yet experienced a normal season. If we go up this year it’s the best of the best, if we don’t go up, let’s have a normal season. And we’ll do anything to get up, I can assure you. There are things going on at the club right now. Players at the end of their contract who are starting to think about staying when they are called upon by Jeep Elite clubs. They want to go up with this team. I would like to finish and congratulate the administrative staff, managed by Mathias Priez. They do a remarkable job: Violaine, Romane, Marie-Pierre… This club is structured like a Jeep Elite club. Everyone is important. That’s how we built the DNA of this club. These are the values that we want to transmit. And finally, a big up to our president. 19 years old in the NBA, he had a crazy fad when he saw that there was no basketball in Paris. He comes to Carpentier, it’s not very glamorous, in our offices where even rats don’t dare go. He believes in it, he is 60 years old and he is still looking for ideas to make French basketball glamorous. Basketball is a great product that we can’t sell and that’s not normal. Hats off to all these people. “
The double for Fos-Provence
Finally, the party will last a little longer in the ranks of Fos-Provence, officially crowned French Pro B champion 2021. After having celebrated the climb at La Trocardière and in their Nantes hotel on Friday evening, with their supporters in Parsemain then in a beachside restaurant in Sausset-les-Pins on Saturday, the BYers can now savor the first major trophy in their history, them whose accessions had never been accompanied by a title until then (in NM2 in 2002, in NM1 in 2006, in Pro B in 2009 and the first in Jeep ELITE in 2018). The proof, despite a season with eleven defeats (champion the least sovereign since the SPO Rouen in 2008), of the southern grip on this season, with already the gain of the Leaders Cup last November. A coronation that may well have taken a decisive turn on May 21 with an authoritarian victory in … Paris (102-92), a few days after two avoidable defeats against Lille and Saint-Chamond. The top for the champion, facing his runner-up, overwhelmed for the only time by the final sprint. If this season was only a long litany of uncertainties, if the lack of fairness was often glaring, if the ADA Blois will be able to rehash its injuries and its cases of Covid-19 while the rise was reaching out to it, it There is all the same, at least, a small form of logic at the end.
Diggs and Boatright led their teams to the promised land
(photo : Christophe Canet)
