The 2023 FIBA World Cup has registered its first shocking upset. Team France, winners of the silver medal in the 2021 Olympics and led by three-time NBA All-Star center Rudy Gobert, who by day plays for the Timberwolves, has been eliminated from tournament contention after a scant two games, writes The Associated Press. The club will play a third group-play contest on Tuesday vs. Lebanon, but neither club will advance to the next round.
France was bested by Team Latvia, 88-86, Sunday night. Latvia and Team Canada, who defeated France on Friday, now move on to the second round. France had won bronze at the two most recent World Cups, eliminating Team USA in the knockout round in 2019.
Here are more notes on Team France:
- Following Canada’s win over France on Friday, French forward Guerschon Yabusele, a former Celtics power forward, discussed some quick takeaways from the matchup, per Antonis Stroggylakis of Eurohoop. “Of course there are a lot of things to learn,” Yabusele said. “The way we came into the game. The first quarter was good and then we entered the second half with less intensity. We let them play and do their stuff. Defense, offense, we all saw what went wrong in the video.”
- Team Canada’s 95-65 massacre of Team France could serve as a galvanizing moment in the long-term trajectory of the Great White North’s national program, opines Michael Grange of Sportsnet.ca. Such a dominant victory, and hopefully an extended World Cup run, could well set the table for a deep, talented Canadian club to make a legitimate push for a medal in next summer’s Paris Olympics, Grange argues. Thanks to the win on Friday, Grange believes Team Canada should handily storm to a 3-0 record in Group H play.
- With fifth-ranked France now out of contention, the national team will strive to reset and prep for the 2024 Olympic games, writes Tim Reynolds of The Associated Press. As the host nation, France has automatically qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. “It’s very hard,” Knicks guard Evan Fournier said of his national club’s morale after its miserable 2023 FIBA performance. “Not much to say. We didn’t think we would leave the tournament like this. We have to learn from it and come back next year. There isn’t anything else to do.” Clippers forward Nicolas Batum spoke about the task ahead of France in international competition: “We have a big thing coming up in 12 months. We have to now look back at what happened — everybody, from players to coach to staff to federation. … Today was a big reality check for us.”
- The 34-year-old Batum confirmed in a live broadcast following France’s defeat that he will not play for his national club in the 2027 FIBA World Cup, according to Eurohoops. “This is my last World Cup,” Batum said. “I sacrificed many summers for this jersey and I don’t regret it… I have one more year left in France. We need them all next summer in Paris. And the best possible conditions. I messed up my last World Cup and it really hurts. That’s why I’m not interested in politics and I want the strongest possible team next summer at the Olympic Games.”
Rudy Gobert, man known for losing and shutting down the NBA.
Gobert’s teams have had a winning record for 8 of 11 seasons he played, all but his first 3 seasons and he wasn’t even a starter for the first two.
That’s not some brilliant achievement. Takes a village to build a winner. He’s not terrible, but his biggest success is regular season wins? Unimpressive.
His biggest success is being one of the best defensive Centers of all time who carried one of the worst defensive teams on paper to a top ten and even best-in-league defense for multiple seasons, but sure, he’s not known for being an elite defender before the Covid thing.
Is he some terrifically gifted scorer? No. Is he still a fantastic player anyway? Yes. And I don’t even like Gobert. Just a dumb take.
Best defensive centers of all time? Did you see his defense last year…? No worries, no one else did either.
Yes, because a single year is the defining attribute of every career ever, especially when you have to cover for a dummy who thinks he can be a PF when he can’t even handle being an actual Center. Maybe give him more than one chance to show his actual value.
Also, 3 DPOY and 6 All-Defensive selections. Only a small handful of players have ever done that.
“Did you see his defense last year?” I did, and the Wolves were one of the best defenses in the NBA with him on the floor (102.6 D-rating). It was scoring with him that was their problem. Did you see his defense last year? Because it doesn’t seem like it.
I did. He barely left his feet. Block? Hell, folks drive right past him. And yeah, he’s nowhere close to best ever. Not even top 10.
50 or 60 centers that are better than him defensively say hold my beer
Don’t forget being the centerpiece of what will end up being one of the worst trades in NBA history, if not the worst.
There will be others which are worse….if Utah doesn’t do anything with the picks or players it won’t matter
Whilst they are eliminated, France are not on their way home after the next game. All the teams which don’t advance going into a 17-32nd classification “tournament”. So still more games to play for them after the game vs. Lebanon.
How do you think Wembanyama feels now ??
I feel as though the first round only being 3 games is major let down. Everyone wants to watch these teams play meaningful games. 2 games in and now Gobert, Fournier, and company have no reason to play (the classification games are pointless for European teams). FIBA needs to drop the second round pool play and instead make the tournament start with a pool play of 5 or 6 games, then go into a single elimination tournament.
Yabusele was a horrible pick. Everyone was trying to find the next Draymond Green at that moment
No one was ever talking about his defense
Looking forward to the day that some of these Canadian players start reaching free agency and deciding to come back home and sign with the Raptors.
Try living in the USA and everyone moving here and celebrating their own thing and crap on the USA but I see what you are saying, that would be pretty awesome if every Canadian would bring home a championship. Leonard on the team
No shocker here. Gobert, Fournier…yeah, not shocking on the result.
Same Fournier who took it to US