Published on : 19/05/2023 – 08:32
The Monaco club is playing the semi-final of the Euroleague, the most prestigious of European basketball competitions, on Friday evening. The end of a long tunnel for French basketball, thirty years after the only tricolor title of European champion conquered by Limoges in 1993.
That the wait was long for French basketball enthusiasts. They had been waiting for twenty-six years to see a club from the French championship compete in the Final Four of the Euroleague, an event bringing together, for a weekend, the four semi-finalist teams of the most prestigious European Cup. Basketball Europe.
AS Monaco faces, Friday, May 19 in Kaunas, Lithuania, the Greek club Olympiacos for a place in the final, disputed on Sunday, against the winner of the duel 100 % Spanish between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. A return to the highest European level for French basketball.
“It’s really an excellent thing to see Monaco in the Final Four. For us, it’s a sign that doesn’t lie about the quality of our basketball. Their presence in the last four of the Euroleague is also a reward for the work of structuring the clubs that we have accomplished in recent years”, rejoices Alain Béral, president of the National Basketball League (LNB) since 2011.
Before Monaco, you have to go back to 1997 with ASVEL (Association sportive de Villeurbanne Éveil lyonnais) to find traces of a French club at this stage of the competition. A time when reaching the Final Four of the Euroleague had almost become a habit for the representatives of the French championship : the CSP Limoges thus participates three times in the years 90 (1990, 1993, 1995), even becoming, on April 15, 1993, the first French club in any sport to be crowned European champion.
No French club in Euroleague between 2016 and 2019
But with the Bosman judgment – which sanctioned the free movement of European athletes – in 1996, the best French players gradually left France for the best European championships, then for the United States and the NBA. The years 2000 and 2010 then reveal a curious paradox for French basketball : its players have never been so numerous to join the world elite, its national team has never won so many medals in international competitions (9 medals between 2000 and 2022, including the title of European champion in 2013 ), but his clubs are becoming the laughingstock of Europe.
During this period, the best French teams (Limoges, ASVEL, Pau-Orthez) experienced financial difficulties. The hierarchy of the French championship is constantly shaken up, so that eleven different clubs participate between 2007 and 2014 in the Euroleague, a competition where winning a match is now almost a feat.
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“A victory in the Euroleague for a French club is always a great moment”, even launched Philippe Hervé, the coach of Limoges, on the evening of a success in 2015 against Milan.
The CSP will not pass that season the first phase of the competition, the format of which has evolved several times. But whatever the formula, the French balance sheet remains implacable : between 2000 (ASVEL) and 2022 (Monaco), no tricolor representative participated in the playoffs, the final phase of the competition.
Worse, no French club was even invited between 2016 and 2019 when the Euroleague, organized by a private company since 2000, tightened to become a half-closed league with permanent members (Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Fenerbahçe , Olympiacos, Panathinaikos…).
“Introduce French basketball to a new audience”
“To exist in the Euroleague, it’s simple, you need a substantial budget that can allow you to sign big names and double all the positions. A team like Monaco is almost two five majors”, underlines Alain Béral, in reference to the term used to designate the five players starting the match.
Biggest budget in the French championship with 20 million euros, Monaco was notably able to afford a Euroleague star, the American Mike James, in the summer of 2021, and steal from ASVEL last summer a Frenchman who returned from the NBA in 2021, Elie Okobo.
In France, such means are exceptional : if ASVEL approaches it with a budget of 15 million, the average budget is rather around 7 millions of euros. But Monaco is still very far from the biggest teams in the Euroleague. Real and Barça thus have a budget of 40 millions of euros.
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Regardless, the “Roca Team” – nickname of the Monaco team – proved this season that they could beat the biggest in Europe, allowing French basketball to end years of scarcity.
“Between Monaco going to the Final Four and the phenomenon Victor Wembanyama, future first choice of the NBA draft, we have really had an exceptional year, confirms the boss of the LNB. made it possible to introduce French basketball to a new audience who were won over by the show on offer.”
Thirty years after the Limougeaud coronation, Monaco has the opportunity this weekend to make this 2022/2023 season even more historic. But, whatever happens, the Monegasques have already achieved a feat : French basketball lovers have started dreaming again.
2023-05-19 07:25:26
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