Five years after the European epic of Kylian Mbappé's ASM, Monaco is back at the top of the European scene.
Small detail that is important: the ball turned orange.
To vibrate on the rock, it is now necessary to turn to the Gaston-Médecin room and the Monegasque basketball team, qualified for the Euroleague playoffs.
A continental summit that David Cozette, emblematic voice of French basketball and now at the microphone of Monaco Info, did not even hope to relive by the end of his career as a commentator.
“I lived so many years with French teams that won three or four games in the season and were trailing by 20 points at halftime when they played away… It was a bit painful.
Inevitably, when a team ends the regular season in 7th place with a positive win ratio (15 against 13 losses) and hung matches against the best European teams like Barça or Real, you smile again.
Dyadechko, the Ukrainian who rescued Monaco
The other curiosity lies in the fact that it is precisely from this Monaco team that the salvation of French basketball comes.
Ten years ago, the club was fished out of the swamps by Sergey Dyadechko, a Ukrainian businessman, when he had finally come out of National 2 after years of wandering at this level. .
A marriage of convenience.
Dyadechko had just survived 26 shots aimed at his Mercedes in an assassination attempt that punctuated a financial scandal in which he was involved in Ukraine.
On the advice of Sergei Bubka, Dyadechko then joined Monaco.
His money and his attraction to basketball do the rest.
“He was so passionate that after the training of the pros we saw him with his tracksuit and his ball to come and shoot, smiles Cozette.
He was still the team's patron president… Only someone so passionate can carry such a crazy dream.
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Crazy to the point of not hesitating for a second when the French basketball authorities ordered him, in 2014, to pay compensation to compensate for the financial disparities with the other Pro B teams to which the Roca Team had just joined.
The last hurdle cleared, the team returned to Pro A the following year, 14 years after having left it in anonymity.
Mike James is like Zlatan in Paris
Money helped, of course.
You don't snatch Mike James from the Brooklyn Nets with a simple sports project.
Cozette: "We're talking about a player who was the best scorer in the Euroleague, he's not just a strong Euroleague player, he's a super star who arrived and made all the other arrivals pass for secondary.
We didn't even notice very strong players coming in because he drew attention.
It's a bit Zlatan who arrives at PSG.
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But you don't build a team capable of winning the Eurocup and dreaming of a Euroleague final four by simply lining up the rounds on the table.
“These people had basketball experience in Ukraine [au BC Donetsk], they knew basketball perfectly and knew exactly what to do to get the club up the stairs,” says Ali Traoré, former Monegasque and French international.
The experience is useful when everything goes downhill, like last winter, when the results were disappointing and the divorce consummated between the historic coach of Monaco, Zvezdan Mitrovic and Mike James.
In a final burst of inspired management, the management made the painful decision to separate from the first and to reappoint Sasa Obradovic in his place.
Healthy choice: the Roca team embarks on a crazy series, barely marred by elimination in the Coupe de France against Strasbourg.
Traore:
"Obradovich came in with a very specific plan, to 're-empower' the stars and prioritize the team.
He made choices, some players hardly play anymore and others are now the bosses, like Mike James, Dwayne Bacon or Will Thomas.
He worked hard to make it a team on and off the pitch.
Currently, the team lives very well and everyone knows their role and everyone is happy.
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“We are there because everyone has accepted their role, confirms Yakuba Ouattara.
It's a matter of sacrifice.
Individually, we could do more, that's for sure.
But we agree to put our ego aside for the collective.
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The Roca team has earned the respect of the greats
It remains to be seen whether this new formula and the resulting state of grace will be enough to bring Olympiakos down on Wednesday in one of the hottest rooms in Europe.
Small positive index on the credibility of the Monegasque hype, it is rumored that in high places, nobody was very hot to stuff the upstarts in the quarterfinals of the playoffs.
It's no exaggeration to say that Monaco has earned the respect of the greatest.
David Cozette concludes: “we clearly felt it when Monaco went to play in Barcelona.
The room was full, and that's not always the case there.
The atmosphere was almost a classico atmosphere, we really had the impression that it was Real Madrid opposite.
We took it for a form of respect.
The public came because they knew that Monaco had become a very good team.
“The best of the rock.
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