France hopes to continue enjoying the view it has carved out for itself in the last half-dozen years.
France is enjoying its best run in international play in more than 50 years, coming off a bronze medal at the 2014 World Cup, which included a stunning upset and elimination of the host nation, Spain.
That followed France’s first FIBA EuroBasket championship, in 2013.
The team is in lockstep with the national development program, INSEP, and has been led for the last decade on the court by Spurs guard Tony Parker and his best friend and now-former teammate, Boris Diaw, traded to the Jazz last month.
France won the silver at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, though that tournament is more widely known in the States for what Vince Carter did to French center Frederic Weis during group play. Parker and Diaw have helped create new memories.
Both INSEP graduates, they have re-programmed the national team culture, taking the lessons learned from San Antonio and melding them with their own ball movement-centric skills. Along with former NBAer Mickeal Pietrus, they’ve formed the spine of the national team since 2005. Injuries helped limit Parker’s participation through a couple of cycles, but by 2011, he was healthy and helped lead France to a silver at FIBA EuroBasket in 2011. The 2013 EuroLeague title cemented their legacy.
“I think it would be raising Team France to the level that it is today,” Diaw said Sunday. “And it took a few years. It was not an overnight thing. It took a few years for teams to respect us and the way that we play. And so, the legacy is that, and the championships and the medals that we’ve won … I think the winning culture is there now. And that’s what we tried to pass along. That’s what we tried to bring. And I think that’s what we’re going to leave.”
But Parker and Diaw are now both 34, and former stalwarts like Joakim Noah and Ian Mahinmi are likely cycling out of national play. The search for new leaders has gone on for years.
“Today, it’s so obvious, when you have guys like Tony and Boris,” French Coach Vincent Collet said Sunday. “They are the captains of the team. For sure, it will be the main difficulty for French basketball, to build. But I think we have protection, a chance to do it. This will be most important if we are to be successful in the next couple of years.”
Said French forward and Charlotte Hornets swingman Nicolas Batum:
“Those guys have been huge for us for a while. We have so much respect for them. They’ve been our big brothers on the national team, and they’ve been winning with the Spurs for years now. I have such respect for those guys. We’re going to miss (their) leadership. I learned a lot every summer I played with those guys, about winning and stuff like that.”
There is serious talent on the current roster: a core group that includes Batum, Utah center Rudy Gobert, Nuggets forward Joffrey Lauvergne and former Spurs draft pick Nando DeColo. New Orleans forward Alexis Ajinca has taken part in international competition. (Collet, somewhat surprisingly, left Orlando Magic guard Evan Fournier off the Olympic team, telling the website EuroHoops that he felt he owed it to the players who’d played for France in the Olympic qualifying tournament in Manila in July. Fournier, who’d played for France at the World Cup in 2014, did not play for France in that tournament, but neither did Gobert; the French didn’t need either as they defeated Canada in the championship game.)
“Every year, we try to win something, try to get a medal. This year, we’re trying win the gold,” Gobert said Sunday. “Every year is a great experience. There’s always some new guys. There’s always some guys who leave. So, right now we’re focused on this year, but next year, we’re going to have a few guys who retire (from national team play) and some more guys coming up. Every year is exciting.”
Playing without Parker (kept out in advance of the medal round after injuring a toe Friday), France still managed to drop 97 points on the U.S. team Sunday, falling by three. The Americans’ lack of defensive buzz has been the story of the last few preliminary round games, but France should get credit for what it did offensively, too.
Guard Thomas Heurtel, who played in the Turkish League for annual power Anadolu Efes, started for Parker and more than held his own against Kyrie Irving, with 18 points, eight rebounds and nine assists. DeColo also scored 18 for France, which finished 3-2 in pool play.
“You saw DeColo and Heurtel tonight,” Batum said. “I think people in the U.S. don’t really know them. Those guys can really play. I mean, DeColo was the MVP of the EuroLeague, and Heurtel was the best prospect in EuroLeague, too. And we’ve got Rudy coming, and Lauvergne, and Fournier is pretty good, too. So, we have a lot of guys that have been drafted the last two years or so on good teams in the NBA. It’s going to be a different era, of course, but it’s still going to be good.”
As he is in Utah, Gobert is a major key to France’s hopes going forward. Big man play is different in international basketball than it often is in the NBA, but it is no less crucial. Gobert will never be a “stretch five.” His livelihood comes from his amazing defensive prowess in the paint and what he can put together in screen and rolls with his guards. If he continues his development, the French will continue theirs, even without their two stalwarts in future cycles.
“I think they have room to do great things,” Diaw said. “They are, the young guys, hungry and very talented. Hopefully they’re going to be able to carry on and to win big championships and get some medals. For sure, I think France is going to get some medals in the next few years.”