Evan Fournier enjoyed a well-deserved rest, after having greatly contributed to getting the French team back on track after a turbulent start to the Olympic campaign, and before embarking on a new adventure in Greece, at Olympiakos.
Guest on the show “Stephen Brunch”the French full-back notably returned to the way in which he radically drew a line under the frustrating failure of the Blues in the final against the Avengers of Team USA.
“During my holidays, I thought about it very often, if not every day.”he confided, adding that he had not rewatched the match lost 98-87 against the Americans, marked by this memorable 4/4 3-pointers from Stephen Curry in the last minutes of the match.
More frustration than in 2021
“No, and I think I would never watch it to be honest.”he continued. “When you lose finals, you don’t want to go back over them. You can definitely learn, but when you lose, for me it’s too painful. The only final I watched again was the one in Tokyo (2021 Olympic Games), because there was a feeling where, really, I left Tokyo saying to myself “I don’t know what else we could have done”. You felt like we had played a great game, the game we needed to play. Lack of guts, we come across a Kevin Durant who decided not to miss anything that day. But when we lose at the Euro, or there, we’re not at our best and it’s too painful to be able to really watch and make an objective analysis.”
Even though the tone rose between him and his coach, Vincent Collet, because Evan Fournier had publicly questioned the way the French team played following the defeat against Germany in the group stage, the former Detroit Pistons player nevertheless wanted to salute the career of his long-time coach, while waiting to know the name of his successor at the head of the Blues.
Thanks sent to Vincent Collet
Not everything has always been rosy in their understanding, especially after Evan Fournier was not selected for Rio in 2016, but the new Olympiakos full-back has also quickly turned the page, preferring to remember the good times and successes under the Collet era. While we wait for the rest…
“Vincent is the only coach I've had, like many other players, because he's been there for a really long time. I wasn't surprised (by the change of direction decided by the FFBB), because we're at a special time, where we're starting another Olympiad, there are a lot of new people arriving, etc., etc. I sent him a message, I thanked him for these great years, these great campaigns that we've been able to experience together. And that's it. Now we have to move forward. The federation has made its decision. We still don't know who to take over, so I'm waiting a bit like everyone else.”
