French basketball participant Victor Wembanyama talks to the viewers throughout a 5×5 France Olympics Basket Staff Media Day in Paris, on June 27, 2024. (Picture by GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)
PARIS — Victor Wembanyama performs towards the highest names within the sport with the San Antonio Spurs within the NBA. He can’t wait to do the identical for France on the Paris Olympics.
The NBA Rookie of the Yr was requested Thursday in regards to the potential for a France-USA last and presumably battling towards LeBron James and Stephen Curry for the gold medal in his dwelling metropolis.
“I can’t wait to face them, it is going to be a really attention-grabbing matchup,” Wembanyama stated at a information convention in Paris. “As a basketball participant, it’s additionally a dream to play towards Staff USA and even towards all these gamers, all these legends.”
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The U.S. beat France 87-82 within the last on the Tokyo Video games three years in the past.
This time, although, France has Wembanyama, who at 20 years previous is making his Olympic debut. He’s the most important star of the French group and on the focal point, each on and off the court docket.
“I consider it’s the most important competitors for an athlete. However I’m going to strategy it like every thing else in my life: a sporting pleasure,” Wembanyama stated.
For France coach Vincent Collet, it’s a sporting pleasure to have each Wembanyama and fellow NBA star Rudy Gobert, the four-time Defensive Participant of the Yr, disrupting opposing offenses.
READ: Paris Olympics: What to know and who to look at in males’s basketball
“If we wish to attain our dream, we must show distinctive protection,” stated Collet, who can be assisted by the newly appointed Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson.
France, which has by no means gained an Olympic gold medal in basketball, was set to carry its first full observe on Friday in Paris. They’ve six warmup video games in July.
The gamers will miss the opening ceremony of the Olympics on July 26 as a result of France is scheduled to play its first sport the next day in Lille, 220 kilometers (136 miles) north of Paris, the place the group stage for the 12-team match will happen.
“Victor can be arriving in Lille at 3 or 4 within the morning if he have been to take part within the ceremony. That might put a cease to his preparation for the Video games,” stated Fabrice Canet, a spokesman for the French nationwide group.
France doesn’t know its first opponent but — it is going to be the winner of the final qualifying match subsequent week. The host nation then performs Japan and reigning world champion Germany in Group B.
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Taking part in in entrance of dwelling followers, France is taken into account among the many strongest groups alongside the U.S, Canada, Serbia and Germany.