France Basketball Faces Major Disappointment and Early Elimination in FIBA World Cup

Slapped on Friday by Canada (95-65), the Blues did not return the slap and saw the Latvians, who were participating in their first World Cup, pass in front for the first time in the match 37 seconds from time.

They experienced their biggest disappointment since Vincent Collet took the reins in 2009, even in the history of the France team: they were eliminated even before the last pool match, Tuesday against Lebanon. While they appear on all the current podiums (3rd in the 2019 World Cup, finalists for the 2021 Olympics and Euro-2022) and had proclaimed their title ambitions loud and clear.

“Obviously it’s my biggest disappointment with the France jersey. I’m ashamed, it’s the first time that I’m really ashamed. A lot of people believed in us,” Batum said at a press conference. English.

In French, as before at the microphone of BeIn Sports, he then called for a “big questioning of the players, the staff, and the federation. I spoke of everyone because it is a global failure.”

“It starts with us, the players, we are on the field. If we have instructions and we don’t apply them, no one can do it,” added “Batman”.

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We cannot perform at this level in such a competitive concert if we do not have the humility to fight.”

The players squandered a 12-point lead at the dawn of the last quarter (72-64), with ball losses (20) and rebounds left to Latvia (10) which canceled their address at three dots (14/27).

More generally on the competition, they have not displayed the defensive values ​​which have been the glue of previous campaigns. “Maybe we arrived with less hunger, more certainty and we paid very, very dearly for it,” said Batum.

“We cannot perform at this level in such a competitive concert if we do not have the humility to fight (…) Really, humility for me is at the heart of what it is. has passed”, engaged Collet, calling on the Blues to find, in Paris in a year, their “values ​​and their identity” from which “we are a little far away this year”.

In terms of individuals, the executives did not respond with the exception of Evan Fournier (27 pts against Latvia, 21 against Canada on Friday). Starting with Nando De Colo, whose exclusion 3 min 15 sec from the end, for a second unsportsmanlike foul on a gesture of humor when a foul had been whistled against him, derailed the blue train then in head (75-66). Batum (0 pt on Friday, 13 on Sunday), Gobert (8 then 9 pts) and Yabusele (4 then 18 pts) performed too poorly.

The Heurtel case

“I have to find out why I couldn’t bring everyone together and why I couldn’t be in a role with more impact. I mustn’t let my team down like that” , Batum said.

The Los Angeles Clippers winger, who will retire from international duty after the 2024 Olympics, also threw a big stone in the garden of the federation, which dismissed Thomas Heurtel after he signed up with a Russian club. Zenit Saint Petersburg’s experienced playmaker would have been invaluable after De Colo was sent off. “When I talked about politics, I wasn’t just talking about him. There are other things compared to other players and a lot of other things,” Batum said enigmatically.

Perhaps he was thinking of this preparation started against opponents far from the top level in the world (Tunisia, Venezuela, Montenegro), with several trips to France then one to Lithuania to finish in Japan. A last journey which imposed on the Blues a seven-hour trip and a two-hour jet lag before starting the competition in Jakarta. Where their dreams of a first world title were shattered.

2023-08-27 22:15:50
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