All over Europe, the championships will resume, and in Bologna, it was “media day”. The opportunity for Isaiah Cordinier to (already) return to the field, five weeks after the Olympic Games final. A revelation of the competition with his hot bursts, his defense and his 8.8 points average in 19 minutes, the Virtus winger is still having trouble realizing what happened.
“It's still too early to understand what really happened. I just focused on winning: that's what matters. For me and for my teammates. The concentration we had, the cohesion and the confidence allowed us to achieve this goal,” he explains to Eurohoops. “Honestly, I was just focused on winning, and when you win, you try to do things that help the team win.”
Looking forward to competing against American players
In Paris, Isaïa Cordinier challenged Team USA. Drafted in 2016 by the Hawks, he has never stepped on an NBA court, and this time, he was able to measure himself against the greatest.
“When you're in the competition, you see them as a team, not as players. You just want to compete against them and beat them, that's all that matters. Honestly, personally, I didn't want Serbia to win in the semi-finals, because I wanted to play Team USA in the final.” he confesses. “I had never had the chance to measure myself against these guys. The term already says it: it's 'measure myself', it's not just about seeing them. I wanted to measure myself against the best players in the world and see if we could beat them.”
And the French were not short of achieving the feat… We were very close, and we didn't miss much at the end: being down by three points with two minutes to go, that's the game we wanted to play. A few details, free throws, offensive rebounds that we gave away… At the end, we gave them the advantage, and obviously Steph Curry went crazy!
In the end, it remains ” unique” . “Having the honor of representing your country at the Olympic Games, in Paris, especially in front of your family, with the fans… It was crazy and very intense.” he summarizes.
