A French Hoop Dream
The French national basketball team wasn't a force to reckon in international basketball. They were contenders in the European Basketball Championship, now known as the EuroBasket, but that was before and after World War II. Then something happened decades later. France won the silver medal in the 2000 Summer Olympics. Tony Parker and Boris Diaw came into the picture.
When the two first met at a training camp, not a few saw the signs that would change French basketball. Football is the national sports, always popular. Tennis isn't far behind. But basketball is something else. Back then, there were no French players in the National Basketball Association (NBA), the ultimate dream of anyone who wanted to make it big in the sports. A handful of players from the continent have infiltrated the league; Croatia was the leading team in European basketball, finishing second behind USA in the 1992 Summer Olympics. Led by Toni KukoÄ, the Balkan team played their best against the Americans, all of them considered as all-time greats.
Parker is six feet two inches tall, which is short by NBA standards. But he was undaunted, idolizing Michael Jordan, member of the 1992 US squad and the greatest player ever. The winner of six NBA titles could do anything, even carry the team by himself. This was how Parker saw himself, which didn't take long for most to find out. Diaw, on the other hand, idolized Magic Johnson. He thrived on a group of unselfish players, which was atypical in the NBA.
Both Parker and Diaw have big dreams, of giving France hoop glory, of playing in the NBA. The first happened earlier than they expected, at the 2000 FIBA Under-18 European Championship. Croatia was favored to win in the finals, but Parker and Diaw proved otherwise. (Parker was named the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.) The two have different fates in the NBA, though. Parker helped the San Antonio Spurs win four NBA titles, while Diaw changed teams. The latter was traded to the Spurs almost a decade later. Parker couldn't be happier.
The 2013 NBA Finals saw Diaw about to win his first NBA title, as the Spurs led the series at 3-2. But Miami Heat made a comeback.
"It's never easy to lose a game, and we'd been so close," Diaw said. "The main thing that we were thinking about was that Game 6 that we let go. That's really the one that we should have won and should have put an end to it. But we know we were close. We gave it our all."
Both teams met again the following year, but this time, the Spurs made sure there won't be a repeat. Their victory came after Parker and Diaw led France to her first EuroBasket title in Slovenia. They'll don the national colors in two months, as both will compete in the FIBA Basketball World Cup in Spain. The preliminary round will be a tough one, as France plays the home team, the 2006 winner. But nothing is impossible for the two.
