By Stathis Trapezanlidis/ info@eurohoops.net
Boris Diaw will remember the 2013-14 with a big smile. During this period he was Eurobasket and NBA champion and also a bronze medal winner in the FIBA World Cup. What more can you ask? The answer is pretty simple, a repeat both in the NBA and in Eurobasket.
As Diaw admitted, however, this is not going to be easy specially for the French national team: “It ‘s going to be harder. The team which plays at home has it always harder. That happened to Spain also, more pressure. We have to do it”. Still there’s no question that France playing at home will be the favorite: “We just won the last European Championship, so I think probably yes, we could say that we are the favorite”.
It’s going to be a great tournament with a full generation of European stars returning to their national teams, like Parker and Nowitzki, in order to get a shot for the Olympics: “Yes it could be because of that. They changed the way you qualify. Eurobasket is like a qualifying round for Olympic Games, so some will qualify and some not. It could be a great tournament with the most of the European stars there”.
France was impressive in the World cup without Tony Parker and for Diaw this was a good step for the future: “We are very happy and satisfied with what we managed. It shows our quality and gives the team more confidence”.
But don’t tell him that the gap between NBA and Europe is once again big because of the win in the final of Team USA. As he said smiling, the got was always big: “It was never close. It was not close”.