The pivot of the French basketball team Sandrine Gruda would have “let” Marine Johannès make a round trip to the United States before taking her in the group selected to prepare for Euro-2023 (June 15-25) if she had been president of the French federation.
Johannès was not selected on Thursday in the enlarged group of 15 players because she cannot fulfill the condition set to participate in all of the preparation: she is forced to stay until June 1 in the United States to validate her contract with Liberty New York for the WNBA season.
Because of this round trip, she could not tread the floors again with the Blue until June 7, eight days before the start of the Euro. Too short to refine the automatisms with the rest of the team which aims for the European title after five continental finals lost in a row, according to coach Jean-Aimé Toupane. “If I had been president of the Federation, without judgment and accepting the decisions taken, I would have let Marine leave for a week and I would have let her come back to the group,” Gruda, former captain of the Bleues, told the press. and best scorer in their history.
“Both sides have their reasons which are just. She to secure a foothold in the WNBA, (the coach of) the France team to form a group very early on. I respect everyone’s choices, everything is audible” added Gruda, retained in the enlarged group for the Euro.
Asked about the difference in treatment within the French women’s and men’s teams, whose staff frequently accepts dropper arrivals in preparation due to the constraints imposed by the NBA franchises, captain Sarah Michel felt that it there was “still a long way to go” towards gender parity in this area. “I hope that in the future there will be better arrangements because this kind of case is more and more likely to happen again” developed the rear.
