From July 25 to August 11, 2024, the Paris Olympic Games will take place. But for basketball, the first part of the competition will be played near Villeneuve-d’Ascq (near Lille), in the Pierre Mauroy stadium. Logistical problems actually pushed the orange ball 250 kilometers from the Eiffel Tower. In a long article on The AthleticJoe Vardon explains in detail how basketball was forced to move outside the capital.
“Wait, are you serious?”
This is how Team USA superstar Kevin Durant reacted when he learned that the first matches of the basketball tournament will take place in Lille and not in Paris.
Will this put some off when it comes time to commit to the big summer competition, when the Americans are planning to bring out the heavy artillery? The future will tell. In any case, one thing is certain: playing in Villeneuve-d’Ascq rather than in Paname does not have the same prestige or the same comfort. No disrespect to our friends in the North.
Lol it realizes that there is a confusion in the group phase on Team USA side. https://t.co/arEIB3xwns
— Alex // TrashTalk & TBNL (@ABallNeverLies) February 17, 2024
Gymnastics and badminton prioritized over basketball
If you are wondering why basketball will have to play the first phase of its Olympic tournament at the Pierre Mauroy stadium in Lille, you have to go back to September 2020.
It was in fact at this time that the map of sites hosting the various Olympic competitions began to be modified. At the origin of the changes to come? The relocation of certain swimming competitions. Initially, a brand new Olympic Aquatics Center should have hosted all swimming events, including races, synchronized swimming and diving. But for budgetary reasons, in the midst of the COVID climate, this new Aquatic Center (based in Saint-Denis) was built with fewer places than the 15,000 initially planned, and the swimming races were thus moved to the Paris arena. La Défense to meet the requirements of the international swimming federation.
Except that in the Paris La Défense arena, there were initially gymnastics competitions. These therefore also had to be relocated to the Accor Arena in Bercy. As you can guess, the Accor Arena – which has hosted the NBA Paris Game since 2020 – was also the venue where the entire Olympic basketball competition (men and women) was to take place. Since gymnastics is considered a Category A sport by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), it was favored over basketball, a Category B sport. As a reminder, sports are classified according to their degree of popularity, assessed by the IOC .
With the Accor Arena occupied by gymnastics during the first week of the Olympic Games, basketball had to find a new solution for the group stage of the tournament. Initially, it talked about… hall 6 of the Parc des Expositions, located Porte de Versailles. Very quickly, all the organizers understood that this place was not worthy of a major competition like the Olympic Games. But then, where to go? The Adidas Arena, a 9,000-seat venue that has just opened its doors in the 18th arrondissement, seemed to represent a much more viable solution. Indeed, this arena was designed primarily for the orange ball since the Paris Basket club (Betclic ELITE) resides there.
Problem: it is now reserved for badminton.
Badminton competitions at the Olympic Games were planned at the Adidas Arena from the start, and were not relocated unlike other disciplines. For what ? According to Étienne Thobois, Tony Estanguet’s right-hand man (president of the Paris 2024 organizing committee), it is above all a question of standards, the height of the Adidas Arena making it possible to organize badminton tournaments unlike to other places. The City of Paris and leaders of the Olympic competition also stressed that the costs would have been too high to relocate badminton outside the capital. But in the eyes of certain leaders of the orange ball, David Kahn in the lead, the real reason lies elsewhere. The president of Paris Basket (and former manager of the Minnesota Timberwolves) pointed out the status of Étienne Thobois.
“Everyone knows in Paris that the number 2 of Paris 2024 (Étienne Thobois, editor’s note) is a former badminton player and a high-ranking badminton leader.” David Kahn, via The Athletic
We’ll let you draw your own conclusions. But one thing is certain: the Paris Basket hall will host badminton, and the Olympic basketball competitions will take place in Lille for the first round.
Adam Silver’s concerns
If the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Villeneuve-d’Ascq – which has a retractable roof – has already hosted a major basketball competition in the past (EuroBasket 2015) and can accommodate more than 27,000 people in basketball configuration, at The base is not an arena reserved for the orange ball. It’s a football stadium. So obviously, NBA big boss Adam Silver asks himself a few questions.
For Silver, the most important thing is obviously that his NBA stars are welcomed and can play in the best possible conditions at the Olympic Games. This is even more the case when you have big names like LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry planning to make the trip. The Accor Arena, Adam Silver knows. He goes there every year in January to attend the NBA Paris Game, the third edition of which took place a few weeks ago. The Adidas Arena, Adam knows a little less, but at least it’s a basketball hall and what’s more it’s brand new.
The Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille? That’s another madness.
Olympic basketball is nowhere near Paris for the first week of the tournament, and NBA commissioner Adam Silver is concerned with the chosen venue — a soccer stadium in Lille with no air conditioning. @TheAthleticNBA https://t.co/MUOnbqJADb
— Joe Vardon (@joevardon) February 17, 2024
Main subject that worries the NBA commissioner: the absence of air conditioning in the stadium. In the middle of summer, it’s true that it can pose two or three problems for the players. Adam Silver would not want to see LeBron James cramp in the middle of a match like ten years ago during the 2014 NBA Finals in San Antonio, when the air conditioning in the Texas room failed.
Not hesitating to contact the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron last month to present his concerns, Silver was told that a temporary air conditioning system would be installed for the Olympic competition, and that the players will play in good conditions.
Was he convinced? Not sure.
“If we could have chosen between playing the entire competition in Paris or playing the group stage in Lille, I know we would have chosen Paris” – Adam Silver, via The Athletic.
NBA stars deprived of the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games?
In addition to the playing conditions, there are obviously logistical questions that come into account, particularly regarding travel between Lille and Paris. And in particular regarding the opening ceremony.
As a reminder, the ceremony is scheduled for July 26, 2024. The different delegations will cross the Seine – from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Trocadéro – on boats in front of more than 300,000 people. 10,500 athletes will be on the water… but perhaps not the NBA and WNBA stars. Indeed, with the start of the group stage the next day in Lille, it may be tense to participate in the opening ceremony.
“Team USA or Team France will play the day after. So potentially, we won’t be on the boats. And it’s a problem for the players because some of them want to participate in the opening ceremony, especially in Paris.” Jean-Pierre Siutat, president of the French Basketball Federation.
Will we see LeBron, Curry, Rudy Gobert, Victor Wembanyama and Co. on the Seine on July 26? Nothing is less sure.
The fact that the first phase of the Olympic tournament is played outside Paris, combined with the potential impossibility of attending the opening ceremony in the City of Lights, necessarily brings a dark side for basketball at the 2024 Olympic Games So of course, this is not new and not specific to the orange ball: we have seen in the past, in previous Olympics, sports being relocated outside the main city, forcing athletes to miss the ceremony. opening.
However, it is difficult not to regret such a situation for Paris 2024, especially when we are aware of the impact that such a competition can have in further boosting the development of basketball in France.
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Sources texte : The Athletic / Release / Paris 2024
2024-02-21 12:18:35
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