France basketball history is quite exciting, It has experienced a lot of ups and downs.
There was a time that they had experience winning consecutively but they too had been in dark times wherein they won nothing at all. France up to now is building a stronger framework in the field of basketball in order for them to become a more competent country. Here is the history of the France men’s national Basketball team.
The time periods where the national team earned medals have been quite streaky. Its period of glory that marked in France basketball History began in the late 1940s / early 1950s. At the 1948 Olympics in London, the France team led by Robert Busnel won an Olympic silver medal, the first medal in its history. The French finished second only to the United States.
In the wake of this Olympic medal, France, under coach Andre Vacheresse won two consecutive medals, including bronze at the Eurobasket 1951 and the Eurobasket 1953. The following years were less glorious, France’s basketball team disappear almost completely from the two major world competitions during the 1960s and 1970s The following years was not very good for France a less glorious mark in France Basketball History.
Then, the 1980s were marked by a generation of hope, counting in its ranks French basketball icons such as Richard Dacoury and Jacques Monclar. During this decade, France returned to the Olympics (1984), and the 1986 FIBA World Championship.
At the Eurobasket 2003, France competed with an immensely talented squad, which included the NBA players Tony Parker, Jérôme Moïso and Tariq Abdul-Wahad, future NBA-player Boris Diaw and Euroleague players Laurent Foirest, Cyril Julian and Florent Piétrus.
The stated objective was the title, which would come as the second within a short time-period to Tony Parker who had won the NBA title only a few months ago. But despite competing with one of the most promising rosters ever, France lost in the semifinal against Lithuania and then also barely lost the match for 3rd place against Italy, which France had declassified in the preliminary round.
At the end, France even failed to qualify for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. Hoping not to repeat the disappointing performance of 2003, France’s squad again saw some considerable changes in 2005. Then, for the Eurobasket 2005 team France was built based on team chemistry instead of big names; Amongst others, Jerome Moïso and Tariq Abdul-Wahad disappeared from the roster and the newly formed team was built on the three NBA players Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, and Mickaël Piétrus as well as the returning Euroleague and NBA-veteran Antoine Rigaudeau.
The new coach Claude Bergeaud, surprisingly also selected Frédéric Weis, a underachieving player once drafted at the 1999 NBA Draft, who did not participate the team’s preparation. After a sobering first round, team France improved to stunning performances in the playoffs. First, France eliminated world champion Serbia-Montenegro on their home court, then the team defeated the European champion Lithuania.
Then, in a game where both side battled each other through tough defense, France failed in the last second after leading by seven points, 45 seconds before the game ended. Unlike 2003, however, France recovered to win a bronze medal by beating Spain in the small final by more than thirty points. Hoping to achieve greater glory in basketball, France basketball History is still an unfinished book.
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