What a desappointment ! France basketball is not world champion. Les Bleuets under 19 (U19) did not beat Spain in the World Cup final in Debrecen (Hungary). At the end of a stifling and defensive match, the players of Lamine Kébé fell (73-69) La Roja, the black beast of French basketball. With 18 seconds remaining, the two teams were tied 63-63, match point for the Blues who led by 7 points with two minutes remaining. Misused match point. It is therefore compulsory to pass through the extension box. The Blues, perhaps a little paralyzed by the considerable stake, got stuck. Too many lost balls, a bit of clumsiness, a few very legitimate and pardonable youthful mistakes and wreckage, the dream collapsed. As two years ago with Victor Wembanyama in its ranks, the French team lost in the final.
France came within a whisker of a capital feat which would have entered into the line of the European title for juniors in 2000 with the Parker and Diaw generation. Except that this time, we are talking about a World Cup for which the Americans are favorites every two years. Only this time, the United States double defending champions fell in the semi-finals in front of these Blueberries that we discover (89-86). In the final, the task was just as perilous: in a pool match at the end of June, the Spaniards had given a lesson to the little French beaten in the wide widths 88-69. The Blues were therefore not favorites in this final. Carried once again by Zaccharie Perrin, stupidly taken out for 5 faults 40 seconds from the end of regulation time, Melvin Ajinça and Zaccharie Risacher, they were admirable in their courage, even when the Spaniards got into their heads as they know so well do it. But he missed nothing.
Despite this defeat on the wire, the France of basketball, however, has incredible talents. It’s even more masterful if you think that the Bleuets went to Hungary without four players who were still old enough to travel: Victor Wembanyama (19), Bilal Coulibaly (18), Rayan Rupert (19) ) and Sidy Cissoko (19 years old) the four tricolors recently drafted by the NBA. Occupied elsewhere – Wemby officially signed his contract with the Spurs on July 1 – these four prodigies could not join the selection. Imagine what it would have been like with Wemby and Coulibaly…
In the end, it doesn’t matter: the generation born in 2004 makes an appointment. For Paris 2024, apart of course from Wembanyama and perhaps Coulibaly, this generation is too tender and young. The owners (Batum, Fournier, Gobert, de Colo) are still there and unless there is a problem, there is no question of taking their place in a year. But what great promises for the future. This generation will be 24 years old for the Games in Los Angeles and 28 for those in Brisbane in 2023. They will be in the prime of life and it looks promising. Once the sadness of this Hungarian evening digested.
