Little test: do you know how many victories and defeats La Rochelle has in the championship?
Ah! In any case I know that they didn’t lose a match at home… They lost 3 matches right?
Exactly (1), they are at 22-3… Pro B is a thousand miles from your professional spheres, it’s okay, you manage to take an interest in it, there is no “class contempt”?
(Smile). So the cool thing is I’m a lover of any basketball. I was born into FIBA basketball, I was already watching the Euroleague on TV… I follow everything, with a lot of passion.
Little test: do you know how many victories and defeats La Rochelle has in the championship?
Ah! In any case I know that they didn’t lose a match at home… They lost 3 matches right?
Exactly (1), they are at 22-3… Pro B is a thousand miles from your professional spheres, it’s okay, you manage to take an interest in it, there is no “class contempt”?
(Smile). So the cool thing is I’m a lover of any basketball. I was born into FIBA basketball, I was already watching the Euroleague on TV… I follow everything, with a lot of passion.
On the same subject
Stade Rochelais Basket: all the episodes of our “Time-out” series
“Time-out”, the series on Stade Rochelais Basket… where we don’t talk basketball. The episodes already online: 1. Cherif Haidara and his ten years spent in China; 2. Lucas Hergott and his love for Olympique Lyonnais; 3. Jérôme Sanchez and his passion for dinosaurs, from the “Jurassic” universe
This somewhat unreal La Rochelle season, does it amaze you?
I feel crazy proud when I turn on my computer and see La Rochelle at the top of the rankings. I don’t put any pressure on the club, zero, the climb is not something expected, due. If there’s no climb, it absolutely won’t be a drama or anything. But for everyone to say good things about La Rochelle in the media, I find it fucking incredible!
Since your time at the club (from 1999 to 2005), the name and colors have changed… It’s a multiple choice question but do you think that the whole thing has been distorted in some way, or are you happy to have seen the Stadium Rochelais arrive, or are you pragmatic in telling yourself that without being Stade Rochelais ambitions cannot exist in La Rochelle?
I understand the three positions but I find it fantastic to see the room in yellow and black. I grew up in blue and white but I am a resolutely optimistic guy, looking to the future. Succeeding in building something intelligent from a medium-sized club, seeing Deflandre filled year after year… Sometimes I have friends who write to me while I’m in Paris to ask me if I haven’t no places for rugby (laughs). If it can rub off on basketball – and I have the impression that is what is happening – that’s a chance. La Rochelle is not a city big enough to pull in one’s own hands; let’s all pull in the same direction. This is a phenomenal opportunity.
In your opinion, is La Rochelle gradually establishing itself on the French basketball map?
I feel like it. Basketball is a traditional, “sub-prefecture” sport, where we have been attached to clubs, Pau, Limoges, etc., for decades… Well I have the feeling that this season is offering, to open a small door for La Rochelle to enter this landscape. The Stade Rochelais identity will contribute to this. We were talking about pragmatism earlier: I’m very down to earth and what could rock La Rochelle is a room! I know he’s a terrible sea serpent… Gaston-Neveur I love him with all my heart, I spent my best years as a basketball player there, but if this club wants to grow, it’s going to need a new setting for one moment.
Betclic in Gaston-Neveur? I find it anachronistic, almost romantic. The problem is that romanticism has its limits”
You are not with the broadcaster Skweek but, in the short term and knowing that a rise is of course to be conditional, can you imagine Betclic Élite filmed in Gaston-Neveur?
(Laughs). I already find it funny. I think back to the years when I went to play in France at 1 p.m. in front of parents and friends, 35 people. With daylight still entering the room in the afternoon… Me being confronted with ESPN, the Lakers and Co., it puts a little smile on my face. I find it anachronistic, almost romantic. The problem is that romanticism has its limits, it’s nice for a while, but in general it’s not meant to last in the world of sport. If La Rochelle goes up this year, magnificent, I will be the happiest in the world. But there has to be a sequel.
Stade Rochelais is sure to compete in the playoffs; you who comment on March Madness (the final NCAA table) and will soon cover other playoffs, in the NBA, what is concretely changing in this new championship?
I would like to point out first of all that it is still a rather harsh twist of fate to make this season the only time where the first of the Pro B regular season does not go up!
We knew it in advance…
We knew it but it’s still crazy to think that we would have done that last year or next year, it was going up (laughs)! Either way, it doesn’t matter, that’s how it is. We will have to capitalize on this season, on what Julien Cortey and Aymeric Jeanneau are doing, it is extremely commendable, they are laying stones. But I would like people to understand, while remaining cool, that it is not at all because there is this course that it will go up in Betclic. You said it, it’s a new championship which is starting, cleaver, “win or go home” [gagne ou rentre chez toi, NDLR]. Some teams will reach their peak performance at this time. You take Orléans, they are perhaps “only” 5th but it is a club with a strong culture, with a coach (Germain Castano) preparing his troops as best as possible. You see Vichy, who are keeping the right rhythm with Guillaume Vizade… It’s not being my Guy Roux to say that La Rochelle would not be favorites in a dry match against Orléans.
Afterwards, they were well on their way to finishing 1st, with home advantage…
It’s true and it’s a significant benefit. But we have to keep our feet on the ground, I remind you that La Rochelle is not supposed to go up, what is happening is an anomaly. There is an alignment of the planets. This construction must be used for the medium term, whether there is an increase or not. I wouldn’t want there to be a disappointment.
It would probably come from the fact that they are crushing the regular season?
Obviously, I myself would be hugely disappointed! I have trouble getting back to La Rochelle because I have my shows and all that on the weekend, so I can tell you that if I go up I will be the first to go see La Rochelle play at Adidas Arena against Paris Basketball, or in Nanterre. But you can’t base your future on a sporting result in the playoffs.
(1) The interview was carried out on the morning of March 26, before the defeat in Antibes (72-69) the same evening.
2024-03-28 14:14:53
#feel #crazy #proud #turn #computer #Rochelle #top
