The American president of Paris Basketball has successfully carried out his project. For four years he has been at the head of the Parisian club, which will discover the Eurocup at the start of the school year, Paris is where David Kahn (61) wanted to see him. Discreet man, but hyper determined, the ex-NBA manager advances with a method, certainties and a vision of basketball business that do not necessarily please. And remains an intriguing and divisive character, seeking to revolutionize the landscape of French basketball.
The anecdote runs in the wake of David Kahn. She says that when Emmanuel Macron was re-elected as president, when the president reaffirmed his desire for “change” for the country, the concept had pleased the American leader, who would have exclaimed: “Macron wants to change France? I’m going to help him.”.
Of course, the thing will please the supporters of the Parisian president, when it will even more ruffle the hair of those who find it difficult to accept his irruption as a cannonball in French basketball. This Portland native – “I grew up in Portland, where the Trail Blazers were the only pro team in major sports. But I don’t really play basketball.” he says – arrived in Paris in 2018, after enjoying a busy career in the NBA. First as a reporter, covering the NBA, for six years for “The Oregonian”. This aroused, in this graduate in English from the University of UCLA, the desire to pass to the other side of the barrier, that of the decision-makers, of the senior executives. After studying law in New York in 1990, he experienced a great rise, which led him to be very quickly hired by the Indiana Pacers in 1995, of which he became director of basketball operations in 1999. He was also called to the rescue, by the Commisioner himself, David Stern, after the end of his lease in Indiana, to work on the economic recovery of the NBDL (today G-League).
But there are still serious downsides to his rise. At first, he will fail to create a professional baseball franchise in Portland. And above all, in the eyes of the NBA community, when he was director of basketball operations, at the head of the Indiana Pacers (2009-13), he remains the man who twice refused to draft Stephen Curry!
This misstep sticks to his CV. It must be said that Indiana had, in this 2009 draft, the 5th and 6th choices, and that Kahn twice preferred to select two other leaders: Ricky Rubio then and Jonny Flynn. Flynn will quickly disappear from the NBA, but the Golden State Warriors, who had the 7th choice, rushed to Stephen Curry…
Opening photo: David Kahn (Thomas Savoja)
