By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
The French national team is ready for the post Tony Parker era. With “TP” retiring, as also Mickael Gelabale and Florent Pietrus, Rudy Gobert and the “nouvelle vague” of France are up for the challenge.
“We lose some guys, some guys like Tony, Flo and Mike, but we’ve got some guys that have been here for many years, Nando (De Colo), Nico (Batum), I don’t think our level is going to go down, but there will be a different style of play and it’s going to be a different era for sure,” Gobert said to FIBA.com. “It will be up to us, the young guys, to step up and carry the team. This is going to be a different era for sure. Tony is gone. Boris (Diaw) has a few more years, but not that many. It won’t be a different team, (just) a different hierarchy.”
With coach Vincent Collet staying on the bench after all, there’s continuity as Gober explains: “I think it’s a good thing. It’s stability, the team will change a little bit but keeping the same coaching and the same way of practicing, it’s going to help us in this transition. I still think I can be more of a leader in the future. I’ve become very important for the team and I want to be a leader.”
However, now it’s the time for Nicola Batum and Nando De Colo. “I think Nic likes to feel that people believe in him and have high expectations and that’s when he plays his best basketball,” Gobert said. “He is still a very unselfish player, who when you push him, that’s when he’s at his best. I think he’s a competitor and if you put him in the right situation, he’s going to do everything to get you the win”.