We knew that this Olympic final would be the last match with Nicolas Batum and Nando De Colo's Blues. It should also be the last match of Vincent Collet as a selector.
“Normally I finish so it's a match I'll remember for a long time” he explained at a press conference. “If I have any regrets, it's for this reason, because I dreamed that we could do even better. Despite everything, I'm very proud of what the players accomplished throughout this week.”
The farewells were not firm and final, but the technician should turn the page.
Fifteen years after having taken over a French team that had to go through the repechage to play in Euro 2009, Vincent Collet will therefore leave the Blues in an Olympic final, admittedly lost, against the United States.
“Twenty years ago, in the small training room at Antarès, we could not have imagined that we would end up at Bercy, against this team, in an Olympic final”
A silver medal that adds to his fine collection of trinkets: gold at Euro 2013, silver at Euro 2011 and 2022 and at the 2021 and 2024 Olympic Games, bronze at Euro 2015 and at the 2014 and 2019 World Cups.
“These fifteen years have been a great privilege for me. I have had the chance to experience emotions like those of this evening and of the entire Olympic competition, to win medals with this French Team, to be European champion in 2013, to be in the Olympic final twice to finish. So I am obviously happy about all that.”
“What's next? I have no idea right now, but no NBA, unfortunately. I'd like to, but I haven't been asked.” he concludes with a smile as Nicolas Batum celebrates their common end.
“When he came to get me, at 15 and a half years old in Le Mans, during the training of the cadet espoirs, I did not expect to spend twenty years with him, to work literally every year with him. He launched me very young in pro, he put me in difficult situations to know that very quickly and I owe him a lot. He made me play in the Euroleague when I was very thin, very frail and that is what helped me prepare for the NBA. Same with the French team. I had this chance to spend twenty years with him and that we both ended up in that match, it was written. But twenty years ago, in the small training room of Antarès, we could not imagine that we would end up in Bercy, against that team, in an Olympic final. It had to end like that.”
Interview conducted in Paris
