Rudy Gobert (pivot of the France team, after elimination at the World Cup): “The reasons for this failure? We all have our own idea… They are the same things. We can look at the referees, they are not worthy of a competition of this level, of course, but that is not the reason why we are not the team we should be now. I don’t know how many rebounds we give (10 offensive rebounds for Canada, editor’s note), how many stray balls (20 for the Blues, editor’s note)… It’s our rigor. We had a good state of mind in this match, we started well. The Latvians played very physical, they fought, they put the shots and took the rebounds when necessary. Despite this, it is not up to our team to be eliminated in the first round of the World Cup.
Have we seen the Blues look too good? Our team is beautiful. Except that being beautiful is good, but you have to go on the floor and get your hands dirty. Unconsciously, maybe the fact that we were expected a little too high made us forget what we are here for and what has been our strength in recent years, that is to say to play together , play hard and impact other teams. I take my responsibility 100%, go 99. We were the least hard team in the two matches. No matter the talent, the names: you can’t be rewarded like that. As they often say, the basketball gods will reward the team that plays the hardest and with the right values. We did it on alternating current, it was not our identity. (on beIN SPORTS)
