By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohops.net
In his last tournament with the French national team, Tony Parker wants to be on the pontium. The French star talked to the French news agency AFP about the Rio Olympics and his goals.
As he explained his motive of finishing his tenure in the team the right way, was enough in order to leave his baby boy behind this summer: “It was not easy to leave my baby (ed. note: he became a father for the second time in late July). I’m super motivated, I want to finish in style with this team of France. This is… fifteen or sixteen years of my life every summer. I invested for this team qualification in the pre-Olympic tournament and now we are here, and we want to get the medal. If we can get a medal, that would be a bonus but it’s not an obsession. I’ll still be proud of what we accomplished. Getting the first gold Eurobasket medal for France, it was a dream and we did it by winning Euro 2013. We started from the very bottom and tried to take this team to the highest level”.
However without Tony Parker, France lost its last three preparation games before the Olympics. Is that an issue: “It’s always a bit worrying, it’s true. But those were the warm-up matches. The bottom line is to be ready in the quarterfinals. This is the most important game. Four years ago in London, we played great in the group stage, with four wins and one defeat and then we lost in the quarterfinals against Spain. If you lose this game, it’s over, whereas if you win, you have two chances for a medal”.