Paris (AFP)
The Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Charlotte Hornets 116-103 in a game that will go down in history as the first regular season ever organized in France by the NBA, in a Paris-Bercy arena packed with fans conquered in advance .
There were in the stands the crowd of lucky winners out of the rush on the tickets (more than 100,000 requests) and in the "courtside" seats, on the edge of the floor, many celebrities, especially sports, invited to this very evening "people".
Kylian Mbappé, Neymar and their PSG partners Mauro Icardi, Thiago Silva, Marco Verratti and Marquinhos were there, judoka Teddy Riner and the decathlon world record holder Kévin Mayer too.
Among the former basketball players was the tallest of all, Michael Jordan, who had made the trip as boss of the Hornets and also of the sports shoe brand in his name, the former Hornet Muggsy Bogues, the smallest player in NBA history (1.62 m), and the immense Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, champion with the Bucks in 1971, who received a standing ovation at the height of his legend.
- Electric Marseillaise -
A tribute was paid to Tony Parker who still wore Charlotte's jersey last year during his last season in the NBA. The young retiree being in the gallery, it was his friend and ex-teammate Nicolas Batum who crushed everyone with the applaudimeter. His coach James Borrego did him the honor of lining him up in the starting five, even if the Frenchman is going through a difficult period. He finished the game with 5 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists.
After an American hymn a cappella and a Marseillaise on the electric guitar like Jimmy Hendrix, the match could start (with about fifteen minutes of delay) in a room where there was not an empty seat, the fans having snatched the last tickets for particularly high sums: nothing less than 315 euros during the last official sales session, not to mention the black market.
The spectators attended without surprise a pleasant but ordinary match, because there was not more stake than in any other meeting of regular season (the franchises play 82 each before the possible play-offs).
- Antetokounmpo double-double -
The atmosphere was also pretty wise, as often happens in the NBA in the United States, but the organizers had deployed the whole panoply of "entertainment", competitions of skill and quiz rewarded with various prizes, dancers, basketball acrobats and omnipresent sound system, to leave no downtime during game interruptions.
Fans had come to see the Greek phenomenon, the "Greek Freak" Giannis Antetokounmpo, and the Bucks star did the job with a big double-double: 30 points and 16 rebounds and a big acceleration in the last quarter (13 points). Leader Eric Bledsoe scored 20 points. On the Hornet side, we noticed the young backs Malik Monk (31 points) and Devonte Graham (19 points).
"It was the first game in history in Paris, France. It is a historic moment, I am very happy to have participated in it," replied the Greek at the microphone of BeIn Sport.
While feared a lone rider from Milwaukee, the best NBA team of the season (40 wins now, including 8 in a row, ongoing series, 6 losses), the Hornets (15 wins, 31 losses) led for 35 minutes and only gave in the last quarter.
The Bucks and the Hornets will leave immediately for the United States to replay on Wednesday in Washington and New York respectively, but the NBA will be back next year in Paris where it intends to settle for a long lease after nine years in London. The agreement for the second NBA Paris Game in January 2021, with two new franchises, has already been signed.
© 2020 AFP