By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
Preparing for the Olympic Games in Paris 2024, the French national team will try to display the best-available roster in front of its fans under the Eiffel Tower. France’s head coach decided he won’t count on both Killian Hayes and Ousmane Dieng at the Olympics, cutting them from the preliminary roster.
Growing up with Cholet, Killian Hayes played with the red-and-white side from 2017 to 2019 before moving to ratiopharm Ulm for the 2019-20 season and being selected with the 7th pick in the 2020 NBA Draft by Detroit. He stayed with the Pistons until the 2023-24 season when he was cut from the team.
The 2001-born guard is yet to debut with the French senior national team officially, having represented his country only at youth level in the 2017 FIBA U16 European Championship and in the 2018 FIBA U17 Basketball World Cup, respectively winning gold and silver medals.
Ousmane Dieng, drafted with the 11th overall pick in 2022 by the New York Knicks and coming off a Finals MVP run with the Oklahoma Blue in the G-League, also never played with the senior team in the French national team. He won the silver medal at the 2019 FIBA U16 European Championship.
After announcing these two departures from the originally extended 19-man roster for the Olympic Games at home, Vincent Collet will need to cut five more players before the start of this summer’s Olympics, where France will first face Japan, Germany, and the Latvian FIBA OQT’s winner in Group B.
PHOTO CREDIT: FIBA
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