Symptom of a team plunged into embarrassment: none of the players of the France team were available to answer questions from the press on Monday. In the aftermath of the terrible disillusion with Latvia, only the manager of the Blues, Boris Diawwho, like others, struggled to ” Find sleep “, took the floor.
The balance sheet? It is still too early to draw it because the competition is not over. After a last group meeting, tomorrow Tuesday against Lebanon, France will try to save the honor with classification matches. But the former NBA player, taken up by the newspaper L’Équipecan already say: We are far from the objectives set so it is difficult. »
The objective, one year before the Paris Olympic Games, was to “ to be able to chain as we have done in recent years, chain the medals, increase in power. We have to take the hit. Remobilize. »
To achieve this, an exercise in introspection, for which he will take the share of responsibility, is essential. According to the leader, the explanation is ” multifactorial(THE), there are plenty of different reasons that lead to this poor performance. No one is beyond reproach, in the broad sense of the France group. We will analyze, review. »
By “group France”, the former Spurs player means that ” everyone will be called into question, from the manager to the last player, including management and the press officer “. A broad frame targeted, as Nicolas Batum had done the day before, hot: “ Everyone must question themselves: players, coaches, federation, even up there. »
“The problem is that we lost with the players who were there”
Without naming him, the captain of the Blues had highlighted the absence of Thomas Heurtel, removed from the tricolor formation because of his commitment in Russia, which made him unselectable in the eyes of the FFBB. ” We have to re-think how we got here. We are not necessarily going to look at the absentees or not. The first reflection, with this group, is how we did not manage to do better “, prefers to evade Boris Diaw.
” Players are sometimes missing due to injury, sometimes because they don’t want to come, sometimes because they are banned. Depending on why the player is not there, all you can do is get 12 players and try to win. The problem is that we lost with the players who were there “, insists Diaw who does not think there is a” magic answer ” to bring.
Including if the “answer” in question were to be called Joel Embiid. The manager does not intend to be more “aggressive” on this issue, to try to convince the native of Yaoundé to put on the blue jersey. ” These are people who want to come. It’s a special case and it has its own reasons “, loose Diaw who now hopes that the players of Vincent Collet will “ show a beautiful face of the France team » until the end of the competition…
