French basketball players have “winning hearts”, commented Guadeloupean Rudy Gobert this Thursday, on the eve of the Euro semi-final once morest Poland (5:15 p.m.), to explain their regularity as their two qualifications snatched in overtime .
Overseas The 1st (with AFP)
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Published on September 15, 2022 at 5:30 p.m.,
updated on September 15, 2022 at 5:32 p.m.
The Blues are present in the last four of a major tournament for the third time in a row, thanks to victories in extremis once morest Turkey in the round of 16 then once morest Italy in the quarter. Interview with Rudy Gobert.
Did you expect to face Poland in the semi-finals and see the three NBA superstars already eliminated?
Rudy Gobert : It surprised me a little but we knew that the Poles were going to give everything, that it would be a physical match. (…) Slovenia came back but they were a little ‘short’ at the end. (…) Before the Euro, one would have thought that one or two of the three stars (the Serbian Nikola Jokic, the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Slovenian Luka Doncic, editor’s note) might come out before the semi-finals but not the three. We saw them go in the last four. But ourselves, we almost went there twice. It shows that the level is high and the collective game is more highlighted. In a match anything can happen: the momentum, once lost, is hard to recover sometimes. And when you’re the team that has all the pressure on your shoulders, it’s even harder. It’s not like a series of play-offs, when you can often lose the first game and win the next four. There, if you lose the first one, you’re out.
How to explain the air pockets in the third quarter time?
These are times when we lose our flow a bit. It often comes from the attack. We stand out less well, we are less connected and behind we have bad shots or we lose balls. It offers the teams in front of easy baskets because it is very difficult to defend following loss of balls. For us, who are a defensive team, it’s shooting ourselves in the foot to restore points and confidence to the opponent. These series must be reduced. (…) I am convinced that we will do it, it comes with collective experience. We all feel it when these moments come. After missing one or two possessions, on the third, it’s up to us to call a real system and put our attack on by playing to our strengths.
What does this third semi-final in a row mean following the bronze of the 2019 World Cup and the silver of the Tokyo Olympics?
We have winners’ hearts. I arrived in a team that has the culture of winning and we tried to keep this mentality. Even the years when people think we are going to be less strong, we come with the objective of the gold medal. Sometimes you lose in the final, other times in the semis. (…) No matter who is there, no matter the circumstances, we have enough talent to claim the top step every year, even if some are harder than others. (…) It really comes down to nothing, we come out of two matches which are decided by one possession. With our tenacity, we manage not to give up and to continue to believe in it. It’s a strength and I hope we will never lose it in the France team.