By Eurohoops team/ info@eurohoops.net
Tony Parker’s ASVEL Villeurbanne is facing AS Monaco in an all-French EuroLeague clash Friday (26/11), a game that overlaps with the 2023 FIBA World Cup Qualifiers match of France vs. Montenegro. A quite peculiar and “sad” situation, as the ASVEL president and four-time NBA champion described.
“We could’ve effectively postponed the match. We had requested it. We pay for the wars between EuroLeague and FIBA,” Parker said per L’Equipe. “I hope they can talk to each other. FIBA and EuroLeague need to talk to each other and all the institutions need to work out a coherent and understandable calendar. This doesn’t help basketball.”
ASVEL will be missing forward Paul Lacombe in the game, along with several members of its coaching staff. On the other side, “Les Bleus” will be without ASVEL guard Elie Okobo, arguably the top French player outside the NBA right now and one of the best EuroLeague performers this season.
“I’m the No. 1 supporter of the French team,” Parker said. “Of course I want to help the French team. I will always try to work intelligently with Jean-Pierre [Siutat – French Federation president), Vincent [Collet, French team head coach] and Boris [Diaw, French team general manager] to find solutions for the French team. Besides, I thank them because they could’ve ‘forced’ to take Elie Okobo as well. We agreed on Paul because we couldn’t be decimated either”
Parker called for unity between FIBA and EuroLeague and for a stop in the “wars” between the two organizations.
“It’s sad,” Parker said.” We have been paying for the EuroLeague and FIBA wars for years and it’s really sad that we can’t find solutions. I hope that situations like that will make us find solutions. I don’t know where to start. But it’s not normal. We, as ASVEL, are also paying a heavy bill. It had already started last year when we couldn’t have our four-five best players for the semifinals and final of the French championship.”