By Eurohoops team / info@eurohoops.net
This week, the captains of all French Jeep Elite teams co-signed a letter to the LNB asking for the cancellation of the season-ending Final Eight tournament which will crown the next French champion. The format has not yet been officially approved, with the deadline expiring at the end of this month.
In the letter, the players state, among other things: “We see that the calendar currently imposes an intense rhythm on us which makes it very difficult to preserve our physical and mental integrity. Despite a certain effort from our clubs to adapt to this situation, injuries are linked within our workforce and complicate the [load] management of the end of the season”, as published by L’Equipe.
ASVEL President Tony Parker addressed the situation with a recent interview on L’Equipe, in which he opposed the players’ initiative, a letter that was also co-signed by ASVEL captain Charles Kahudi.
“I don’t agree with him, that’s for sure! I will tell him straight in the eyes: “We must stop the joke there!” When you see that NBA players have played 72 games, back-to-back this year. We rested, we played from November to February one or two games a month and then we don’t even want to play. Frankly, this is a joke!”
“The players are paid until June 30, it’s not like we’re asking for more. You have been paid for all these months, you were very happy to receive your salary at 100%. In addition, we are talking about a regular season that ends on June 15 and the Top 8 is in 10 days. There is plenty of time to rest and prepare for the playoffs”, stated Parker.
“And that only concerns eight of the eighteen clubs. For me, fatigue is not an argument. They are lucky to be paid a lot more than the average person in France. You do a job, it’s your passion and there you want to explain to me that you are tired but you still want to continue to be paid? At a given moment there are limits to the system and we should not go too far”.