This Wednesday, December 31, it’s time for the big recap. The year 2025 of French basketball was made up of peaks and precipices, never-before-seen records and worrying alarm signals. Never has the French presence internationally been so strong, never have national structures seemed so fragile.
A black summer for the French teams, after the euphoria of 2024
The contrast with summer 2024 is striking. A year after an exceptional Olympic vintage in Paris, French basketball experienced a summer of 2025 without the slightest international title. Out of 14 competitions contested in 5×5 and 3×3, only three medals were won, all in silver or bronze.
The early elimination of the French men’s team in the round of 16 of the EuroBasket against Georgia on September 7 symbolized this missed summer. The Blues ended the year with a gross record of 70% victories in 5×5, but without any major reward, a rare occurrence for a nation that has become a continental reference.
The cascade of packages, the post-Olympic transition and the absence of automatic qualification for the Los Angeles 2028 Games now place French basketball under pressure, from the next international events.
Paris Basketball champion of France: a founding coronation
June 24, 2025 will remain as a founding date. By beating Monaco in match 5 of the Betclic ELITE final, Paris Basketball won the first French champion title in its history.
In a melting Adidas Arena, the duo TJ Shorts – Nadir Hifi embodied the rise of a club born in 2018 and already winner of the Leaders Cup, the EuroCup and the Coupe de France. This title definitively established Paris as a stronghold of European basketball, both sportingly and structurally.
Monaco in the final of EuroLeague, 32 years after Limoges
Another historic moment: the qualification of theAS Monaco Basket in the EuroLeague final. A first for a club in the French championship since Limoges CSP in 1993.
In Abu Dhabi, the Roca Team overcame Olympiakos in the semi-final, erasing the trauma of Kaunas two years earlier. Led by Mike James, Alpha Diallo and a solid collective, Monaco has put the Betclic ELITE back on the map at the very high continental level.
The mass exodus to the NCAA, accelerated by the NIL
The year 2025 also marked a structural turning point. Nearly 70 French players are playing in the NCAA this season, an unprecedented figure. The establishment of the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) has upset the economic balance, offering young people – both boys and girls – amounts unattainable for French clubs.
At the end of 2025, departures during the season, like that of Alicia Tournebize, from Bourges to South Carolina, symbolized this new situation. From now on, the NCAA is no longer an exception but a central trajectory in the development of French talents.
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NBA Europe: a revolution announced from 2027
Major confirmation of 2025: the arrival of the NBA in Europe is now confirmed for the 2027-2028 season. The future league will include at least two French clubs, in Paris and Lyon.
This project is profoundly reshuffling the cards. The EuroLeague could lose several major clubs from 2026-2027, opening a period of unprecedented instability for European and French basketball.
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Six French people drafted in the NBA, an absolute record
On an individual level, 2025 will remain a historic year. Six French players were selected during the NBA Draft, a record. From Noa Essengue to Mohamed Diawara, including Joan Beringer, Nolan Traoré, Noah Penda and Maxime Raynaud, the diversity of profiles confirms the potential of the tricolor breeding ground.
With 19 French people under NBA contract this season, France is asserting itself more than ever as the third provider of players in the league behind the United States and Canada.
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The WNBA always attracts more French women
Ten French players played in the WNBA in 2025, in a league in full expansion. This development, however, has a direct impact on the European calendar – and in particular the end of the Boulangère Wonderligue season – and international competitions, several internationals having missed EuroBasket to honor their American commitments.
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French records in EuroLeague and NBA
Another striking figure: 38 French players involved in the EuroLeague for the 2025-2026 season, a historic record, and 19 in the NBA, another record (see above). French basketball has never been so visible at the top of world club basketball, with a massive presence in these two major competitions.
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Le Mans, fairy tale of the Leaders Cup
On the national level, Le Mans Sarthe Basket wrote one of the most beautiful pages of the season. With a reduced squad, MSB won the 2025 Leaders Cup in Caen, becoming the most successful club in the history of the competition, beating Cholet, Saint-Quentin and especially Monaco – future EuroLeague finalist – over the weekend in Normandy.
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Tarbes, symbol of an LFB in great difficulty
Conversely, the fall of Tarbes Buckle Bigorre embodied the economic fragilities of French women’s basketball. Vice-champion of France in the spring, the club found itself on the verge of liquidation in a few months.
Between administrative relegations, political tensions and disengagement of partners, the Tarbes case illustrates the structural difficulties of La Boulangère Wonderligue, caught between national economic crisis, competition from the WNBA and growing attractiveness of the NCAA. Without forgetting the numerous departures of French players towards a Liga Endesa which is clearly becoming more attractive.
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A pivotal year for the future
In 2025, French basketball confirmed its sporting power internationally, while revealing its structural flaws. More than ever, the past year poses a central question: how to transform this wealth of talent into a sustainable model, capable of withstanding the economic and geopolitical upheavals of world basketball?
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