Basketball: “We will explain,” thunders Collet after Fournier’s comments “sad and unacceptable”

2024-08-03 16:58:24

Critical of the French team’s game plan before the quarter-finals of the Paris Olympics, Evan Fournier saw coach Vincent Fournier give him a sharp answer on Saturday.

The coach of the French basketball team Vincent Collet made the decision on Saturday “Sad and unacceptable” The announcement of his player Evan Fournier, who had calculated the day before, after the defeat against Germany (85-71), that the Blues “Sometimes they (they) are wrong about the way (they want) to play”. “Evan Fournier, it’s not the team, it’s Evan Fournier. This is a sad and unacceptable statement for which he bears responsibility. We will explain it. I have no further comment to make.”Collet told the press in Paris, that the French had assembled from Lille.

Asked about the possible consequences for the backlash behind these comments, Collet said: “The French team does not belong to a coach but to a federation, you will see on Tuesday in the training rules” during the quarter-finals, at Bercy. Fournier appeared before the media and said that “I’m sorry Vincent got that, I’m sorry”. “It’s not a badly taken goal, I just want us to go forward. There is only one thing that drives me, and that is to do well”he added.

Fournier said: “I stand by what I said

“I think, at times, we made mistakes in the way we wanted to play, said the angry leader of the Blues in recent years. These days, the best defense is still an attack. It’s not the game of the 90s or 2000s, where you can really defend half the court. Your attack is important for balance, for change. Especially when you work with a team as strong in transition as Germany.declared Fournier after the defeat against the Mannschaft in Villeneuve-d’Ascq.

Fournier, one of the executives of the Blues for several years, explained his comments on Saturday. “What I said is valid for all teams: when you lose balls, when you take shots from 15 meters, you feed other teams on the game quickly and it is difficult to be safe in the half ground , to fall back. This is not something we can write. I stand by what I said”said the fullback.

“If we want to take advantage of our defense, it is better to attack”he added. “We never said we shouldn’t attack, Collet retorted. We are still looking to find the flow in attack, but for the moment it is not the key. The key is to find a strong identity (defender)”.