By Aris Barkas / barkas@eurohoops.net
PARIS, France – France is in the 2024 Paris Olympic tournament semifinals! Fueled by EuroLeague players, they defeated Canada and will face Germany for the final.
One of the players that stepped up was Panathinaikos’ big man Mathias Lessort.
“We knew everybody had to step up, all 12 of us. We knew what type of team Canada was. They’ve been amazing all tournament so far, and it was on us to be ourselves, to step up all together, and that’s why we did the best way possible,” Lessort said after the game.
He had special support from Panathinaikos’ head coach Ergin Atman, that he wasn’t even aware of.
“No, Ataman is somebody that doesn’t like to be seen. Sometimes we do, but when he’s not a coach he doesn’t like to be seen. So I didn’t even know.”
Next up – Germany. The 2023 FIBA World Cup winners that convincingly took down France just a couple of days ago in the group stage.
“We will see the scouting, we will see the scouting report, we will see what the coaches prepare for us. Obviously, you know, Germany kicked our ass the last game and we don’t want this to happen again in our home court in a semi-final and we want to show another face and I think that what we did tonight is an example of what we want to do again,” Lessort concluded.