15 months ago, during the NBA Paris Game 2023, Adam Silver met Emmanuel Macron, but also the president of the FFBB, Jean-Pierre Siutat. At the time, there was talk of a “global collaboration plan” with France and Africa with a view to a formal partnership which would be announced on the occasion of the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris. At the time, there was already talk of a collaboration between the NBA and the LNB, the French basketball league, on their commercial practices, to develop the league and its teams. Today in the newspaper The worldthe LNB, through its general director Fabrice Jouhaud, we learn that this agreement aims to help French clubs keep their young talents before they leave for the NBA.
“This program will allow a certain number of players to be supported and highlighted in order to magnify an already excellent French team”explains Fabrice Jouhaud to World. “ The clubs will also benefit from logistical and financial assistance to encourage them to trust young people. »
Internships in front of NBA “scouts”
Estimated to cost several million dollars, this agreement builds on the foundations of the “Next Stars” program which has proven itself in Australia. This program allows “foreign” players to prepare for the NBL Draft, as was recently the case for LaMelo Ball, Ousmane Dieng and of course Alexandre Sarr. For the LNB, the objective is obvious: to prevent Dieng, Sarr but also Killian Hayes or Pacôme Dadiet from leaving France to have playing time and responsibilities abroad.
