By Antonis Stroggylakis/ info@eurohoops.net
France is leaving Tokyo and the Olympic Games with a medal for the first time in 21 years. Yet it doesn’t have the color Les Bleus were hoping to wear around their necks since the loss to Team USA sent them the silver.
It’s a superb accomplishment by all means, but not quite fulfilling for French national team captain Nicolas Batum. It makes absolute sense to feel that way since he and his teammates put their squad in a place that created aspirations as high as winning the gold even against such superpower as USA.
“Being disappointed is a satisfaction,” Batum said per the French Basketball Federation. “We aren’t satisfied with a silver medal in the Olympic Games and that’s a satisfaction. We set up a base with the Tony Parker and Boris Diaw generation. We hope to now inspire the rest. We believe in it and we will believe in it every time. We hope that French basketball will continue to bring medals and why not a gold medal.”
“Of course we are proud but that makes us even more demanding,” France coach Vincent Collet said. “It’s the mentality of this group. We think we can be better. Because we want to win.”
A huge opportunity for France to go all the way to the gold is coming in the next Olympic Games that will be held in Paris in 2024. The cream of the crop that French basketball will have around at that time won’t be missing this potential appointment with history. Several members of the current version of the national team are expected to be ready for duty as well.
Evan Fournier and Rudy Gobert will likely be at their prime, maybe the peak of their careers. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot and Guerschon Yabusele, 26 and 25 respectively, are ever-improving and will be carrying valuable additional experience. It will be surprising if Batum won’t be there and Nando De Colo is the kind of player who shall probably pack a punch even at 37.
They can be joined by a younger generation of players like Theo Maledon, Killian Hayes and possibly the next big thing out of international basketball products: Victor Wembanyama.
“Our dream does not end there. Paris Games are coming in three years,” Gobert mentioned.