He fell asleep one night in Los Angeles, he woke up the next morning on the other side of the United States, in Philadelphia: that’s pretty much what happened to Nicolas Batum three weeks ago when his then team, the Clippers, sent him without warning (a common practice in the NBA) to the 76ers. Met yesterday in the locker room of his new team, after Philadelphia’s victory in Brooklyn (121-99), he tells here behind the scenes of this transfer and his pride in lasting in the NBA, 16 years and more than 1000 games after his debut.
Have you digested your surprise transfer to Philadelphia last month?
I was super surprised. I didn’t think I was going to be one of the transferred players. It was my wife who taught me this when I woke up. It’s the NBA! Even after more than 15 years in the NBA, you don’t get used to it. Learning about it like that, without being informed, is hard. Especially when you have a family and children at school, when the season has already started. It’s business, I’m moving on. My three years in Los Angeles were very cool, but now I’m here, they wanted me and I’m going to make everything work out for the best.
Since then, you have crossed the threshold of 1000 games played in the NBA. Was this a goal?
I was warned when I was at 997. The last three matches, I counted them! It’s a little bit of pride all the same. I am one of three French people to have made it (Editor’s note: after Parker and Diaw). I was also told that there were 150 or so of us who reached this bar, and that that only represents 3% of all players in history. Anyway ! This shows that it is not obvious. I haven’t done too bad things in my career…
You are not the most spectacular player but your coaches often rely on you. What do you bring to the team?
Of course, I don’t score 20 points per game, but I’m on the floor, and I have the confidence of the coaches and my teammates. I try to be efficient in the science of the game, through small details: freeing up the right spaces, the right pass, the right timing, the right screens. We can say Batum-this, Batum-that, but these are things that the coaches, the GMs (General Managers), the players, see. And that’s all that matters to me. This is what saved me since my debut in the NBA and allowed me to stay there. Four years ago, after my visit to Charlotte, no one imagined that I would still be here today. And four years later, not only am I still here, but I’m also playing, and in teams that have ambitions.
Have you mourned individual statistics?
I’ve tried to be smart about it my whole career, to put the team’s results before my individual stats. I just tried to play basketball the way I like it. I have often been criticized for this: I could have done this, I could have done that… Certainly, but perhaps if I had looked more closely at the stats, I might have gotten lost in a role and I wouldn’t have lasted that long in the NBA. Who knows ? It’s a temperament that allows me to be, 1000 games or so and 16 years later, playing 25/30 minutes in a team that is counting on me, almost 35 years old.
There are plenty of players who were much stronger than me but who don’t have as long a career. I have no regrets. I am that player who makes himself useful to the team and that suits me very well. I play, we win matches, it’s cool.
In Philadelphia, you got a closer look at Joel Embiid, MVP last year. Is it easy to be by his side?
With Joël, we speak French almost all the time. Playing with him allowed me to realize how much he controls the game. He knows how to make the team play when everything is going well, but he also knows how to say: “Okay, it’s not going well, give me the ball, I take care of it.” I try, as I already did at the Clippers with Kawhi (Leonard) and PG (Paul George), to make life as easy as possible for my leader. How to play around him, how to give him the ball. Things that are quite rare in the NBA. I don’t think there are many players like me. Of course it doesn’t show in the figures but I try to do all the work behind the scenes so that my leader and my team are in the best possible conditions to win the match.
Victor Wembanyama discovers the NBA. What do you think of his debut?
I’m not worried about him. He is still learning. He will have ups and downs for a year or two, which is very normal. We have so much hope regarding him. Everyone thinks he’s going to have 35 points and 15 rebounds from the start, it doesn’t happen like that. I already said it this summer, I repeat it now: he will learn, he will experience difficult times, but it will be part of his story. And when it takes off and dominates the whole world, we will have forgotten everything.
