The coach of the French basketball team Vincent Collet, little surprised to meet Spain in the Eurobasket final on Sunday (18:30 GMT), wants to put an end to his “European supremacy” for fifteen years, he declared on Sunday.
“We are going to try to separate the Spanish from the European supremacy that they have had for fifteen years,” said Vincent Collet at a press conference, on the eve of his third continental final on the bench of the French team.
Spain, France’s black beast both in the Eurobasket (2009, 2011 and 2015) and in the Olympic Games (2012 and 2016), was a rival expected by Collet at this level.
“Since we started the competition, I haven’t stopped telling my assistants that Spain would be here,” says the French coach, who distrusts this Red under reconstruction, after the withdrawal of the brothers Pau and Marc Gasol, in addition to Sergio RodrÃguez .
“Since the Gasols are gone, everyone said that this team was going to take a step back in the hierarchy but we still have to prove it,” confirmed Vincent Collet. “The Spanish basketball school is based on other things than a few star players.”
Guided by nationalized American game host Lorenzo Brown, Spain qualified first from Group A, before eliminating Lithuania, Finland and Germany to reach a 10th European final.
The rivalry with La Roja, marked in the Eurobasket by the lost final in 2011 and the elimination after extra time in the semifinals in 2015, weighs less now, according to Vincent Collet, after six years without facing each other in major tournaments.
“It’s another time because it’s not the same generation and that’s a good thing for us,” he acknowledged. “This generation has not suffered against the Spaniards, contrary to the preceding one.”
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French basketball coach wants to “separate the Spanish from European supremacy”