From a sensational team to disappearing in just one year. The slide suffered by the French club Metropolitans 92, the former team of San Antonio Spurs phenomenon Victor Wembanyama, is difficult to explain. Less than 12 months after the young French star was chosen number 1 in the NBA draft, his former team will disappear as a professional club due to its financial problems. Gone was the boom generated by the Wemby team, which the previous season had live television of all its games for the official NBA application.
Last Tuesday, the French National Basketball League reported that the company that owns Metropolitans 92 had informed it that it would not continue participating in the competition, since it had not been able to sell its shares. “Several attempts to change ownership did not bear fruit. They suspended professional activity but want to maintain the training center,” according to the president of the French league, Philippe Ausseur, to the newspaper L’Equipe.
And the final blow came this Thursday, when the Boulogne-Billancourt city council, main owner of Metropolitans 92, announced that it had decided to end its financial support and that it will not enter the team in the Second Division tournament. “In agreement with the partners, it was decided not to request the LNB to register in the French Pro B championship for the next season,” the city council announced, according to the specialized site BeBasket. The reasons are purely economic.
“Boulogne-Billancourt makes a responsible decision to safeguard the future, promoting a more environmentally friendly approach to sport, focused on associations and leisure activities,” reports the statement released by the city council, which also mentioned the financial difficulties. that passes through.
“Like all municipalities in France, Boulogne-Billancourt is facing increasing operating costs, a constant decrease in subsidies and a regular increase in government fees,” said the municipality’s mayor, Pierre-Christophe Baguet. “Unfortunately, we were forced to make these painful decisions. In recent years we did everything possible to maintain financial support for our professional basketball team. But now we have to make decisions for the future,” the mayor justified.
The announcement put an end to a catastrophic season for the ‘Mets 92’, which after Wemby’s departure to the NBA was relegated to the Pro B league, the second category, a year after having been runner-up. The financial problems of the club, which did not recover from the departure of its main star to the NBA, did not allow the entity to survive after its sudden international fame last season, when it was already apparent that the French phenomenon was going to be chosen in first place in the draft.
The emergence of Wembanyama, considered a true unicorn for his unique athletic and basketball skills, led the ‘Mets 92’ to the final of the French league, which they lost against Monaco, and their star was named best player of the tournament. So that their fans could discover it, the NBA televised all of the French team’s games from its exclusive platform, an example of the furor that was generated around the team. Shortly after, Wemby left for the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA, where a week ago he was unanimously chosen as the best rookie of the year.
Another player from the team from Boulogne-Billancourt, a town neighboring Paris, Bilal Coulibaly, also went to the NBA at the end of last season, specifically to the Washington Wizards, after being chosen seventh in the draft.
But that golden season, it fell like a house of cards. The club’s terrible financial management led them to a nightmare campaign, in which they suffered a flight of players due to non-payment in the middle of the campaign. With only four wins in 34 games they consummated their relegation to the second division, although now they will not even be registered in the promotion tournament. This decision represents the destruction of an emblematic entity of French basketball, born from the merger between PSG Racing, champion of France in 1997, and Levallois, champion of the French Cup in 2013. But above all, it marks the disappearance of the club creator of the greatest phenomenon that the NBA received at least so far this century.
2024-05-17 03:01:00
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