“It will be my launching pad, which will put me back in the bath”. Evan Fournier awaits the 2023 World Cup (August 25 – September 10) with great impatience to turn the page on a season to forget. After a very complicated year in New York with the Knicks where the French rear / winger only played 27 games, including 7 as a starter (80 the previous season), it’s time for cards.
In an interview with L’Équipe, the native of Val-de-Marne admitted to having spent a richer season outside than on the court. “I trained like in an off-season […] I was able to enjoy my wife, my children, the environment in New York… No more naps. I could drop my son off at school, pick him up. […] I was waiting for the match to start to go on the bench”.
The former Orlando Magic player also returned to his relationship with Tom Thibodeau, a non-existent relationship, without much surprise, since Fournier did not fit into the plans of the 65-year-old coach at “Big Apple”. “I have no relationship with him. When he took me out of the five, he just told me he was going to try something else. Then at the first game of a road trip, he told me that I was coming out of the rotation and ciao”.
While he knows his future far from New York “I am going to trade (exchange) it is not possible otherwise. […] If I stayed, it would be a disaster, sportingly, for my career, everything”.
Looking to the future, San Antonio could need the qualities of the tricolor international who could then possibly be associated with Victor Wembanyama. “It is sure that playing for Pop (Gregg Popovich, legendary Spurs coach), learning from him, it would be a pleasure, an honor. Afterwards, being with Victor with a view to the Olympics, to start an agreement on the ground would be great”.
