The 2013 All-Star Game held in Houston marked a first in the history of French basketball: two French players – Tony Parker and Joakim Noah – were selected by the coaches of the Major League. But during this weekend of festivities, a third French representative was invited: Benjamin Chevillon.
On the back of the latter, the red jersey of the Bulls, like the future defender of the year in the NBA. With the number 13 too, to push the wink a little further. This star-studded passage in Texas will remain one of the highlights of his year spent in Chicago, with the wheelchair basketball team affiliated with the legendary NBA franchise.
More than ten years later, and a few days after the Paris Paralympic Games, the documentary “Les Bulls en roue libre” looks back at this crazy adventure, which was highly publicized at the time and has since been somewhat forgotten. A story ” fabulous ” describes Guilhem Peaucelle, co-founder with George Eddy of the association PlaygroundTime, who helped with the screening of this documentary directed by Gaëlle Schwaller.
Surfing the Paralympic Games
” It allows us to stay in the excitement of the Games, to continue to get the message across. Okay, it was eleven years ago, but it allows us to serve the cause in a global way, to move things forward. “, summarizes for BasketUSA Benjamin Chevillon, who has been using a wheelchair since the age of 5 due to leukemia.
At the time, he was experiencing complications related to a new treatment. Suffering from cauda equina syndromehe is affected at the level of the nerves in the lower part of the spine. With time, he can recover partial use of his legs and remains a ” walking poorly “.
At the age of 16, he tried to get into sports. He realized that the wheelchair section of the local club, the JDA, was training 50 meters from his home in Dijon. Chance does things well. It is the ” thunderbolt ” with discipline. Then everything happened very quickly: matches in the first division with Dijon, detection in the French Under-21 Team with coach Bernard Ganser, European Under-21 Championship in Turkey…
Basketball or business?
The STAPS student in sports organization management also tours with the first team. But he can hardly combine his activity as a high-level athlete with the start of his entrepreneurial adventure, which leads him to take over a leisure complex in the north of France.
Already the question of the professionalization of wheelchair basketball arises. Then, by chance during a Facebook conversation, he crosses paths with Daniel Fereira, who is none other than the coach of the Chicago Wheelchair Bullsthe team linked to the Bulls since 1987 and involved in the National Wheelchair Basketball Associationa league founded in 1949.
” If you're up for it, come take a test “, the coach told him in essence. A few years after a trial at the University of Tuscaloosa (Alabama), the American contact was thus reactivated. His partner, at the sports complex, told him to rush towards this adventure with the Bulls. The latter would finance the visa, insurance and installation in the accommodation.
Derrick Rose in the locker room!
For administrative reasons, he will not be paid, unlike his teammates (“ $6,000 for the best player » of the Bulls), but will be at « 100% paid » (shopping, rent, etc.). It cost me almost nothing. I was the only Frenchman in the league at that time. I said to myself: 'You're here for the fun, to learn, do your thing'. »
Around fifty games await him, bathing not far from the NBA environment. Like the Mavs or the Pacers, the Illinois franchise does not put the Wheelchair Bulls aside. The latter, accustomed to playing in the championship in front of 500 to 2,000 people, has the opportunity to give demonstrations in front of the 20,000 people of the United Center, the Bulls' lair, at halftime of NBA games.
Memorable memories for the Frenchman, especially the day when a certain Derrick Rose, injured that day, invited himself into their locker room to motivate them. He will stay at the edge of the field to watch the demo. Benjamin Chevillon will also cross paths with Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum, the Noah family and Charles Barkley.
Elimination in the playoffs
The Frenchman is immersed in another world that sometimes gives rise to comical scenes. During one of his first trips, the members of his team stare at him when they see him taking care of his suitcase and his chair himself. The steward said to me: 'That's my job, big guy!' »
On the sporting level, the one who was supposed to be the understudy of the starting point guard is gaining playing time, week after week. Enough to be worth ” Yes man ” of the team to be selected to the All-Star Game (in Houston, chance made him find himself sharing a room with Patrick Anderson, considered the best wheelchair player in the world).
And to contribute to qualifying for the playoffs. The Bulls will fall against the Pacers where Steve Serio and Brian Bell are playing at the time, both members of the US team that won the Olympics in Paris this summer. Throughout his adventure, he is closely followed by the camera of director Gaëlle Schwaller, who, having just graduated from Sciences Po journalism, fell in love with his story.
What about professionalization?
His documentary was set to sit on the shelf for a few years. Until PlaygroundTime, which also organizes screenings, heard about the project. I didn't know about this crazy story at all. We really had to do something. “, defends Guilhem Peaucelle, whose traveling companion, George Eddy, will speak with the public in the company of the director and the main character.
A way for the former member of the Bulls, 36, to come full circle. But also to ride the wave of the current dynamic around disabled sport. The Games have created a base. The second step is professionalization. “, judges the consultant for Google, who would like France to take inspiration from the German or Turkish models and their salaries which can climb to several thousand euros.
The thirty-year-old does not find ” not normal “that the French wheelchair basketball team had to wait twenty years to participate in the Paralympic Games again.” We tinker too much, other countries don't tinker anymore “, he says, thinking of the last place (8th) of the Blues, without winning a single match in Paris. ” It would be good if there was some awareness. »
Screening Friday September 20 at 8:15 p.m.Louis Jouvet cinema in Chatou (78). Reservation recommended.
