Jean-Pierre Siutat, president of the French Basketball Federation (FFBB), spoke to the press on Wednesday to come back to the failure of the France team, eliminated in the first round of the World Cup.
Very discreet since the start of the World Cup, the president of the French Basketball Federation (FFBB) Jean-Pierre Siutat invited the ten French journalists present in Jakarta (Indonesia), Wednesday August 30. His speech was particularly expected after the fiasco of the France team. A contender for the podium, she was left pitifully in the first round, concluded with a painful success against Lebanon (85-79) on Tuesday.
In one of the lounges of the imposing Fairmont hotel, south of the Indonesian capital, Jean-Pierre Siutat spoke for about fifty minutes – in the company of Boris Diaw, general manager of the national team – the failure at one year of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games but also the Thomas Heurtel and Joel Embiid cases. “I never do an intervention in the middle of a competition”he explained in the preamble, proof that the hour was serious.
Franceinfo: sport: At what level are the responsibilities for this failure?
Jean-Pierre Siutat: It was a big disappointment. We won’t put dust under the rug. We are all collectively responsible for this situation. It is up to each other to understand what happened. I think that does not call into question what we have done in recent years. Is it a blessing in disguise knowing that we have the Olympic Games next year and that our objective remains very ambitious? We must absolutely use what happened to look for the real reasons and build the future with rigor for 2024. The Federation must also ask its national technical management and the staff for the reasons for this failure. We agreed to meet on October 10 for the two French teams to present the results.
A word, too, on the competition formula. The first match was almost a final before the hour. This poor performance against Canada put enormous pressure on us and in two games, we completely broke the competition. I’m not saying we weren’t good because of the format, but he put enormous pressure. That’s also why we went down the drain.
“No decision has been made on anyone, including Vincent Collet. We can all be questioned. At present, this is not the case.”
Boris Diaw, manager of the France team
at a press conference
We are talking about an Olympic vice-champion team, which claims to aim for gold like next year and which loses against Latvia and suffers against Lebanon…
Three inside players were missing (Rudy Gobert, Moustapha Fall and Mathias Lessort) but we beat Lebanon anyway.
Can Vincent Collet be called into question?
All of this is part of the files that we will open and close on October 10. We have to watch everything.
Are you going to reopen the Heurtel case (not selectable according to an FFBB charter because it is evolving in Russia)?
Heurtel, today is not the news. By October 10, I would certainly have seen the government on this file because we have to talk about it. This is perhaps the only political decision that can be put to this assessment since it was we who decided that he was not called up to the national team. I know it’s complicated. It was a collective decision, it’s not my decision. We’ll see. The important thing is the Games but also a certain form of respect for values.
Are there any ministry guidelines on this?
No, we weren’t forced to do anything. We are on a political debate that we have assumed. Next, the problem of Thomas [Heurtel]is that he signed an attestation that he would not sign in Russia, and he signed anyway. This is also what is complicated. I respect the fact that he goes there, he does what he wants with his life. We do not prevent him from going to play in Russia but we try to respect the values that we convey to the Federation. It hit us. So no, the government does not impose anything on us [la ministre des Sports Amélie Oudéa-Castera s’est prononcée opposée à la réintégration des internationaux évoluant en Russie].
What is your reaction to Nicolas Batum’s comments after Latvia, notably criticizing political decisions?
We saw each other the next day with Nicolas. It was positive, it went very, very well. I was not angry. His disappointment makes perfect sense. This is his last World Cup. I don’t think it was against the Federation. Perhaps he regretted that some were not in the team. We all wanted Victor (Wembanyama) to be there but he chose not to come.
“We met Joel Embiid with Boris [Diaw] and he is in a desire to be in a national team.”
Jean-Pierre Siutat, President of the French Basketball Federation
at a press conference
Would you like Joel Embiid to decide quickly, on a specific date, whether or not he wants to play with the France team to consider the sequel more calmly?
The FFBB is there to facilitate the choice of coaches. If the staff wants Joel to be part of the team, it’s our job to make sure he can come. We can’t force his hand. I want him to come. I will be delighted if he can wear the France team jersey because he can bring us a lot. It may be a guarantee of success but we will not wait two days before the deposit of the lists at Fiba [la fédération internationale]. We will do it as soon as possible.
The timing of this crash is a bit catastrophic. How do you see next year, which is surely the most important in the history of French basketball?
After 2017 (elimination in the round of 16 of the Euro), there was 2019 (bronze at the World Cup). We have the team to bounce back. I’d rather it happen here than in Paris next year. Well, I wish that hadn’t happened at all.
What is the realistic objective in 2024?
We have to wait to find out which nations will participate in the Games, then how the pools will be made up and whether Joel is coming or not. The goal is a medal.
The French men’s and women’s team both announced title goals before falling short. Should we review this methodology in the discourse in order to expose ourselves less?
For the girls, we wanted to change staff to break the famous glass ceiling of having won five silver medals in a row. We fell to a possession of Belgium (in the semi-final) which was European champion. We still end up with a bronze medal, it’s not so bad. I remember being asked about the boys, I said: “I dream of a medal.” We were on the continuity of three successive podiums. If we say we’ve just come to participate, we won’t be believed, so it’s normal that we announce a medal. The players have announced a slightly higher ambition than ours, but so much the better. I’m not going to ask them not to be ambitious.
