The general manager of the Blues was present alongside coach Vincent Collet on Wednesday after the announcement of the list of 12 players who will leave for Indonesia at the end of August.
We know the names of the 12 Blues who will try to place France on top of the world in early September. The coach of the French basketball team, Vincent Collet, revealed his list for the World Cup, Wednesday June 28, on the plateau of Tout le sport. If Nando de Colo and Nicolas Batum are making their comeback after having given up playing the Euros last year, the main information is the absence of Victor Wembanyama – number 1 in the NBA draft last week – who preferred to do the deadlocked out of competition (August 25-September 10) to listen to his body ahead of his American League debut in October.
If Vincent Collet shared his “surprise” and his “disappointment” not being able to take him while specifying that this would have no impact on his presence at Paris 2024, Boris Diaw considered the choice more than understandable. “Selfishly, we would have liked to have him in the teamacknowledged the general manager of the Blues at a press conference. But there is an undeniable sequence of matches that would be difficult for him. Victor is sincere when he says he wanted to play this World Cup, but there are external issues that make it impossible. It is also a choice that preserves it for later. Everyone understands among the staff and the team.”
An experienced group
Without the new jewel of San Antonio, the emphasis is therefore on the experience with no less than seven players from the selected roster already present at the Tokyo Games. “This group has a lot of qualities, detailed the former strong winger. What strikes me is our offensive strength: with a lot of dangerous players. Our adversaries will not necessarily know who to target. On the defensive side, we know the qualities of Rudy [Gobert] and Nico [Batum]”.
Also questioned about the case of Joel Embiid, Boris Diaw recalled that there was “nothing new so far”. The pivot of Philadelphia has still not made a decision in relation to the selection he wishes to defend between his native Cameroon, France or the United States.
Preparation, a major challenge
But for Boris Diaw, the main concern remains the approach to the competition, even before arriving in Indonesia. The first friendly match was originally scheduled for July 27, but an agreement between FIBA and the NBA forced the various teams to postpone the start of preparation to July 28. “The prepas are twice as short as beforeregretted Boris Diaw. We will try to build a crescendo. It’s important to play teams with very different styles of play.”
The Blues will thus successively face Tunisia, Montenegro, Venezuela and Lithuania, twice, before flying, first, to Japan “to get closer to the place of the competition and especially to have time to get used to the time zone”. Before setting foot on Indonesian soil where the group stage will be played against Canada, Latvia and Lebanon, Vincent Collet’s men will finally play two games against Japan and especially Australia, which will be the last “real test”.