By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
France forward Guerschon Yabusele described a story from the 2024 Olympic Games that took place prior to the quarterfinal game between his national team and Canada.
According to Yabusele, after a rout to Germany in the last game of the Group phase, none of the coaches of the French national team believed that they could beat Canada and advance to the semifinals. The New Yorks Knicks player actually mentioned that the coaching staff was already thinking of ways to point fingers to others for the defeat.
“We had a bad start in the competition, to be honest,” Yabusele said while visiting the Roommates Show by his new teammates Jalen Brunson and Josh Hart. “We played Brazil – we won. We played Japan – we almost lost. We had Matthew Strazel that hit the four-point play at the end to send the game to overime. Before the quarterfinal, we lost to Germany pretty bad. It’s the first time I say it it somewhere public. The whole coaching staff and some people from the French Federation.. for them, it was over. We were playing Canada in the quarterfinals. Everybody was like, ‘there’s no way we’re going to beat them.’ Which was crazy. It was just us the players. We’re walking around, and all the coaches were already looking to blame somebody. The atmosphere was crazy.”
Two of the French team’s most prominent veterans stepped up and helped Les Bleus regroup. Eventually, France defeated Canada to enter the Top 4 and then got some payback against Germany to advance to the gold medal game against mighty Team USA.
“Nico Batum and Nando De Colo did a great job of just bringing the team together and be like: This is on us. Whatever happens, happens. This is on us. Nobody believed in us. It’s us against the world. When we when through that process and we started the quarterfinal against Canada, we were just dogs. We were like, no way. Beating Canada. Beating Germany. That gaves us an extra boost. We’re home. Nothing is going to happen today. We were super confident but this was Team USA. The best in the world.”
After the Olympic Games, it was announced that longtime France coach Vincent Collet stepped down to take an advisory role with the French Federation. He was replaced by Frédéric Fauthoux.