He had skipped Euro 2022 to better prepare for the Paris Olympics, going through the World box. When putting on the blue jersey again, Nando de Colo could not imagine such a turn of events: a sudden elimination from the medal race in the second match against Latvia.
What assessment can the tricolor rear already draw from it? “ It’s about the future in general. Of course, we all have individual responsibilities to assume. But in the end, we lost the first game and we let the second slip away. At that time, the tournament was already over », summarizes it briefly for BasketNews.
The France team and him knew ” respect the nature of the game “, as Evan Fournier said, until the end by imposing himself, sluggishly each time, against Lebanon, Iran and finally Côte d’Ivoire during not very honorable classification matches.
Nando de Colo zero points against Latvia
Enough to raise the statistical curves of the Asvel player who, after his zero points against Latvia (but 8 assists) then 5 points against Lebanon (1/5 on shots), chained outings to 12 points ( 8 rebounds, 7 assists) against Iran and 13 points against Ivory Coast.
Either a final figure of about 8 points (45% including 38% from afar), 5 assists and 3 rebounds. A performance below his 13.5 average points in Tokyo, two years earlier, and above all the feeling that the 36-year-old player was physically struggling. Thus jostled, he expressed his frustration a lot to the referees…
The following ? ” We will see. The first thing to do is to stay united. I hope we lost today to be better tomorrow. But the road will be long. We know that the Olympic Games are ahead of us. It is therefore an objective that we have already achieved. But we also have to be prepared for this “, Displays the former Spurs player.
While Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw have both called for collective questioning, Nando de Colo recalls that ” we don’t know which team we will have next summer. But I’m sure they won’t fire everybody (smile). We have to get over it and remember what happened this summer. »
Heal as quickly as possible to finish on a good note in Paris next year, for what will be the last international competition for the best scorer in the history of European basketball cups.
