Shenzhen (China) (AFP)
The World Basketball Championship begins Saturday in China in the absence of the biggest American stars of the NBA, a disappointment that opens the field of possibilities for the underdogs, including the team of France.
The Blues are aiming for the podium, as in 2014 (3rd), and the Olympic ticket for Tokyo 2020 which should go with (it will be up to the two best Europeans of the tournament). The first match against Germany, Sunday (14:30) in Shenzhen, is already to win at all costs.
The International Federation (Fiba) dreamed of attracting all that basketball celebrities in China. It missed. Not very motivated by international medals, the best have preferred to preserve for the next NBA season, encouraged by their franchises who still fear to see their investments, paid up to tens of millions of dollars a year for the most expensive, to wear prematurely or even hurt themselves in these tournaments foreign to their culture.
- Neither LeBron, nor Curry, nor Leonard -
No LeBron James nor Steph Curry nor Kawhi Leonard, but neither James Harden, Anthony Davies nor Damian Lillard, who were in the preselection of San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich, the only real star of the team, but later withdrew, like twenty of their teammates!
The haemorrhage does not only affect the United States and particularly affects the potential rivals of France. So the Dominican Republic, which she will face Thursday, could have been a problem if she had her two NBA insides Karl-Anthony Towns and Al Horford. Australia will be easier to beat in the second round without his young winger All Star Ben Simmons; as for scary Canada with his 17 NBA players, he will only have one in the final selection. In the other part of the table, Spain recorded the withdrawals of Sergio Rodriguez and Nikola Mirotic, who are also deadlocked.
To the packages of these physically valid players was added, inevitably, a series of injuries. Serbia will not have its leader Milos Teodosic nor Russia's best player Alexei Shved. France itself has lost its leader Thomas Heurtel and his home Adrien Moerman.
If we add the absence of the champion of Europe, Slovenia and his young star Luka Doncic, the main victim of the new "windows" of qualification contested without the players of NBA or those of Euroleague, that is a lot for a test who wanted to become the basketball equivalent of the World Cup.
- Vulnerable Americans -
Of course there will be some good people anyway, starting with the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo, MPV of the NBA season and therefore best player in the world in 2019, but also the great Serbian pivot Nikola Jokic, the French Rudy Gobert, best defender of the great American league for two seasons, etc.
Above all, the defections have put on the carpet an exciting question: will the United States be dethroned again, as in 2002 and 2006, after their triumphs of 2010 and 2014?
This is a very different team from the potential "Dream Team", with only two All Star, Kemba Walker (transferred this summer to Boston from Charlotte) and Khris Middleton (Milwaukee), who will try to answer it. His vulnerability, heightened by his lack of common experience, was laid bare during preparation for a defeat in Australia. The first since 2006 with a workforce from the NBA.
With the "Boomers", the teams that seem the most able to take advantage of the situation are Serbia, vice Olympic, world and European champion, Greece and Spain, the last European nation to have won the title in 2006, and why not France.
The Blues, who remain on a bitter failure at the Euro-2017 (round of 16), must regain their defensive virtues and their collective spirit to make their way into the most difficult part of the table. With talents like Evan Fournier, Nando De Colo, Nicolas Batum or Rudy Gobert, it is not forbidden to dream.
© 2019 AFP