The Blues have just arrived in Jakarta, where Canada awaits them on Friday, then Latvia and Lebanon in Group H. Barely landed in the Indonesian capital, Nicolas Batum played the game of questions and answers for a last press point before the start of serious business.
Nicolas, you are clearly one of the captains of the team, and you are even logically the captain, what does this role consist of in concrete terms?
It’s true that I have nevertheless accumulated, just like Nando, a lot of experience in international competitions now, it will be my fourth World Cup and my eleventh or twelfth competition with the French team. I no longer have the same role, nor the same physique as ten years ago. I’m not as fast or athletic anymore but that’s okay because we have a lot of players who are. We have a lot of players who can do a lot of things. My role is sometimes to calm the guys down, to show the good things we’ve done, or just to tighten the bonds. I really like that role.
“There are a lot of strong teams that can claim the podium”
With your long NBA career, you know air travel, but isn’t it more difficult to manage when it comes to much longer trips, from one continent to another, with jet lag and… other factors to manage?
We don’t often have flights that last 13 hours in the NBA, but hey, that’s part of the game. When you play in FIBA, when you play in the French team, there can be trips that can be quite crazy. But that’s what makes the charm of the experience and also creates team cohesion. We are all in the same boat, sometimes it can be tiring but we support each other. And then, Vincent’s staff tries to do things intelligently, with adapted sessions so that we can continue to work. That’s why we have reduced training or why I didn’t play certain matches… It’s hard, it’s tiring of course, but we are still in superb conditions and we see fantastic things, that we would not necessarily see without the French team.
There are a lot of missing marks in this World Cup, do you see it as a (golden) opportunity to go all the way?
We are also affected by that, with two or three players who are also missing from us. The Germans, the Americans, other teams could say that too… I don’t think it increases our chances of winning. We don’t think about that because we still have so many things to manage with our own team. Last year, few people would have put a coin on Spain and yet, they are the ones who ended up European champions. We don’t focus on the absentees because there are still a lot of very good players.
You have already amassed two bronze medals in the World Cup, we imagine that you want more…
That’s why we come back, that we sacrifice certain things but that we come with pleasure to the French team. Afterwards, where we want to go, we know very well that other teams want to go there too! There are a lot of strong teams that can claim the podium, which would be a first for some. The path we have is not obvious either. We know it. Anyway, it’s not because we have already won medals in the last competitions that we will do the same this time. We have very high goals but it’s up to us to do things right to get there.
“You can’t be completely ready by having to create a group in three weeks, a month, it’s impossible! »
In this case, which teams do you think are the most dangerous?
Team USA has the best defender of the year, three All-Stars… It remains, on paper, the most beautiful roster each time, if we look player by player. So of course they will be dangerous, they are the favourites. After Germany showed very good things, already last year and still in preparation. I watched their match against Canada and they were very impressive. Australia are a bit more of a novice but they are a big contender. Spain remains Spain. There’s us… I’m probably forgetting some, but that’s going to be picked up! Slovenia with Luka, Lithuania who is still there in the big league. In short, there are about ten teams that can take a medal.
We are only three days away from the start of the competition, give us the pulse of the group: do you feel ready to start well on Friday? And then, to progress in the competition?
You can’t be completely ready by having to create a group in three weeks, a month, it’s impossible! So the progression will continue to be made day by day, from match to match. We will continue to progress as the games and adversity progress. We will be able to correct things. The team we have now is less strong than next week, and that’s normal. Now, on defense and concentration, we already have achievements. We already know what we want to be and what we want to do. We still have the same big black spot which is that of defensive finishes in general. It will be a key issue in the first two games. We know that Latvia almost only shoots three-pointers and it will not only be necessary to count on Rudy to grab all the rebounds! It will be important from the start, because if we have a good defense, we cannot afford to leave ten more shots to an attack like Canada.
Comments collected by videoconference
