In 100% CSP, we take advantage of the international window to open the memory box with former players of the French basketball team. After Franck Butter, Crawford Palmer and Yann Bonato, Frédéric Weis looks back on the highlights of his career in Blue. When she started, Fred Weis was very young. Not yet 19. When he entered the Blues locker room for the first time, it made him feel a little weird: “It was an honor and it was mostly freaking out. Antoine Rigaudeau, Jim Bilba, Fred Forte, Laurent Foirest. The big names in basketball. Laurent Sciarra. More big mouths. It was weird and at the same time, I was playing in Limoges. I was a little used to“.
It’s the first time I’ve seen a guy with so much aura
Like all his generation, he has an indelible memory of the Sydney Olympics in 2000. But beyond the course and the silver medal, he keeps in mind a very significant episode outside the parquet floors, at the Olympic canteen. “One day, Mohamed Ali came to visit us. He sat down on a nearby table and we ate across from each other. He already had his illness problems. He was not in very good shape. But it’s the first time I’ve seen a guy with so much aura. I must have watched it for 20 seconds straight. It’s long ! He hypnotized me” image the former pivot, still marked by this meeting with the legendary boxer.
During these Olympic Games, Fred Weis won a magnificent silver medal but also around the planet basketball following the legendary dunk on him from American Vince Carter. An action that still follows him. “When I am called out on social networks or in life by just saying Vince Carter… Already, start by making a sentence! And bringing a medal, a whole story to just a dunk, I find that ridiculous. Afterwards, I find this action fantastic, incredible. If it advertises basketball, so much the better!“explains a Fred Weis for whom some basketball fans should find out about his career, especially in Spain, before disrespecting him.
Before a selection, he asked me to pretend to be injured!
Vince Carter’s dunk, the Sydney Olympics. This is all part of the history of French basketball, but for Frédéric Weis, we must not forget the euro basketball 2005. “Despite a bad start, we manage to regroup. We beat Serbia in Serbia. And we bring back a medal anyway. There is progress. There was already Tony Parker, Mike Gelabale, all that backbone. I tend to say that 2000 was useless. But Euro 2005, I think it’s the beginnings of the culture of winning“analyzes the man who became a television consultant. Frédéric Weis, who shared his room a lot with Cyril Julian then Aymeric Jeanneau, always made it a point of honor to go to the France team and sing the Marseillaise.
– JF Molliere/FFBB
“I am of Italian origin and for us, being considered French is something very important. Especially for my mom who at the time was always treated like a dirty ritual. So me, I’ve always sung the Marseillaise because it’s culturally, in my family, something important“he specifies. But there was an exception. “I was coached by Bogdan Tanjević who was my mentor and who allowed me to explode in the eyes of everyone. As I had physical problems, he wanted to preserve me. So before a selection, he asked me to pretend to be injured! It’s not really what I wanted but for a young player, it was difficult to refuse. It allowed me not to go to the France team and to work with him and recover a little from all my injuries.” reveals Fred Weis.
When we play the United States in 2000, we have posters of them in our room
It only happened once. The rest of the time, Frédéric Weis always responded. The former pivot for whom the evolution of mentalities, the culture of winning that is omnipresent today among the blues is finally quite logical. “As time has passed, we have players who have established themselves in the NBA. We, when we played the United States in 2000, we had posters of them in our room. Them in 2021, it’s their office colleague, limit we’ll drink a coffee at the end. They know each other, they rub shoulders. Basketball has become so international that no one scares anyone anymore“says Big Fred for whom France is clearly one of the favorites for the 2024 Olympics in Paris.