Unexpected rebound for Boris Diaw: the former emblematic captain of the French basketball team, retired since 2018, will return to the courts this season to compete in the Landes Cup, an amateur competition that unleashes passions every year.
At 41, the man who became manager of the Blues announced his return to the columns of the daily Sud-Ouest on Friday: the 2013 European champion will wear the colors of the amateur club of Biscarosse, in Departmental 3, to play in this known tournament. for its warm atmosphere and nicknamed “the Landes World Cup”.
“I had the opportunity to attend the finals several times in the arenas,” the former San Antonio Spurs player, crowned NBA champion in 2014, told Sud-Ouest.
“I have always coveted this title, even if I had the chance to have others in my career. It is the Holy Grail for a Landais”, adds the one who lived part of his youth in Mont-de-Marsan.
Eager to play the tournament with his band of friends, Boris Diaw, who notably passed through Pau-Orthez, Phoenix, Charlotte or San Antonio in the NBA, plans to “make certain matches” with the first team, but also to participate in training “with the kids”.
“We will give ourselves the means to return to a drinkable form. I have already warned my osteopath to tell him to get back in shape, ”says the former partner of Tony Parker.
Created in 1946, the Landes Cup pits the clubs of the department against each other from September to May, with a men’s tournament and a women’s tournament, often contested in front of very large audiences.
The two finals are scheduled for June 1, 2024 in the arenas of Mont-de-Marsan (8,000 seats).