Basketball player Florent Piétrus retires

Florent Piétrus with the ball during a match between France and Belarus, in LiŽvin on July 13, 2012. -

He is an old lion of the Tony Parker generation who will stop roaring on the floors in professional matches.

Florent Piétrus, 230 times selected for the French basketball team, decided to retire at the age of 39, at the end of a long career whose apotheosis was the title of European champion in 2013.

I'm out ✌🏾✌🏾 pic.twitter.com/8I2HjRVbJ9

- Florent Pietrus (@flopietrus) September 9, 2020

"It was the moment"

"I'm out", posted the player on Twitter on Wednesday, explaining to L'Equipe that "weariness was gradually setting in".

“The urge was no longer the same, even if the passion remained intact.

I knew it was the right time ”.

With 230 caps, he is the fourth most capped player in the history of French basketball, behind Hervé Dubuisson, Jacques Cachemire and Boris Diaw, for whom he was the ideal complement to position 4.

The Guadeloupean was in almost all the campaigns from 2001 until the 2016 Olympic Games with the best team in France in history.

His energy and his defensive intelligence played a large part in the five international medals collected by the Blues in his time: gold at Euro-2013, silver at Euro-2011, bronze at the World-2014 and Euro-2005 and 2015, but no Olympic podium despite two participations.

Thanks for all the battles in blue!

A true warrior an example for all!

Respect Flo 🇫🇷🇫🇷🇫🇷 pic.twitter.com/jdYzg1feBt

- Nicolas Batum (@ nicolas88batum) September 9, 2020

Thanks for everything Flo '.

Thank you for this constant fighting spirit.

Thank you for your aggressiveness.

Thank you for 2013. Thank you for all these medals.

Just thank you.

You will forever remain an executive of the French Team 🇫🇷 💙 https://t.co/EwJez7c1sF

- French Basketball Teams ⛹️‍♂️⛹️‍♀️ (@FRABasketball) September 9, 2020

On the floor, Pietrus was always ready to donate his body for the common cause, thus compensating for a lack of height (2.01 m) which always prevented him from achieving his biggest dream, to play in the NBA, like his Brother Mickaël (retired in 2016) who spent ten years there.

Over the years, "Flo" has never lost any of his roughness which always ended up annoying his rivals and his taste for fighting with heavier than him.

His statistics, most often modest, did not reflect the influence on the game of this essential of the lists of Vincent Collet.

On the Spanish floors

In club, Piétrus was crowned champion of France, very young, in 2001, 2003 and 2004, with his training club Pau-Orthez, the first two times alongside his brother and Boris Diaw.

Then, he left to develop his talent in Spain, in Malaga, the club with which he won La Liga in 2006, and in Valencia in particular.

He spent his last years in France in several ProA clubs, including Nancy, Strasbourg and finally Orléans before confinement.

He was one of the last of the Parker generation still active with Mickaël Gelabale (Chalon-sur-Saône).

Piétrus owed his playing identity to what he experienced as a child: the death of his mother from cancer when he was only ten years old, his abandonment by his father and the rough education he received from his Grandmother.

A past that he evoked in an autobiography

published in 2014. "If I play like that, it's really compared to what I knew when I was younger", said -he.

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