Throughout this month of August tinged with blue, white and red, we will have the chance to follow the backstage of the French team in a mini-series entitled ” Daily “, and whose fourth episode “Competition” was recently released. In the program ? Struggle, fight, fight… so many words to say that you have to fight to be one of the 12 players in the EuroBasket.
It’s clearly not the funniest subject, but without a doubt one of the most interesting. Competition, in the France team as elsewhere, is an integral part of the development of a group. Allowing both to pull the selection but also each player individually upwards, the latter must be present, without being heavy. So that’s why “Competition” is the title of the fourth episode of the mini-series ” Daily “ which will allow us to follow the Blues from the inside until the end of EuroBasket in September. A video of 2 minutes 42 – the longest so far – which deals extensively with the subject of this competition within the team, to find its place in the twelve who will be selected in fine. So we tell you just in case, but don’t expect to see Evan Fournier or Rudy Gobert in this capsule, since the two NBAers are of course not concerned by this aspect. So much the better, since it’s the opportunity to see faces and hear different voices from usual, like that of Mam’ Jaiteh, who gives her opinion on all that this implies, being logically concerned:
“Competition is something that is part of our daily life, it is something that is not necessarily going to be super different from our club life. Now, where it comes down to it is that there is less time to make a difference. […] The thing that will change is that we say to ourselves that this is very, very high level competition. – Mouhammadou Jaiteh
Yes, when one is selected by the Olympic vice-champions, it means that one is far from being a painter. We can also feel the frustration of Andrew Albicy who explains that it is more and more complicated for him to make his place with all the young people who arrive, what is more this year following his small thigh injury. But the reality is that it is always difficult to make a choice at all. In a short sequence where he discusses with Evan Fournier, Vincent Collet confides to the captain the difficulties he has in choosing the two players who will complete the list of twelve, in particular because of the injuries of Albicy, Wembanyama and Fall – two pivots therefore – who logically “redistributed the cards”. Rather absent from the first three capsules of the mini-series, the EdF coach also graced us with his first real intervention on our screens regarding this competition, to the delight of our souls as basketball players:
“I know that for some there is a selection process. But be sure of one thing: these are the values that we look at first. We all know that you are capable of scoring points, of doing things… but what interests us is who will be able to join the project by accepting a role that is not necessarily the one you want, but the one that will allow us to achieve our goals. –Vincent Collet
Never leave Vincent… In short, excuse me! More seriously, we can only note once once more how important the sense of sacrifice and service to the collective are in this France team where everyone must know their role. As assistant-coach Ruddy Nelhomme reminds us, it is sometimes the usefulness of a player in a very specific sector – such as defense, intensity or scoring – that will make the difference, and not so much its overall level in reality. Albicy speaks to him of bringing a “small stone to the building”, always with this idea of contributing on his own scale. It is also in this direction that Isaïa Cordinier also goes, who also spoke regarding this competition he must face:
“We’re not going to lie to each other, we’re all here to be part of the twelve. […] This competition which is inside the training, it must elevate everyone and be for the benefit of the group. […] As long as you arrive on the pitch, give the best of yourself and give it your all, you can have no regrets. You don’t control the rest. – Isaia Cordinier
Whatever happens, we fully trust Vincent Collet to make the choices that will allow us to go as far as possible look for that damn gold medal. In this France team, the competition is tough, but it is above all healthy, and that’s a luxury you shouldn’t deprive yourself of.
