Batum blog Feb 19

[Blog Batum] “J’ai eu un petit pincement au coeur”

I arrived in Phoenix Thursday night, right after our game against Golden State. With Oden, Rudy, and Brandon Roy, we arrived in a private jet (we don't overdo things here!) chartered by the president of the team.


D12 and Duncan at the Jam Session

My weekend started Friday with a meeting with the team from Intérieur Sport, a show from Canal+, which is following my for a week. Then, I met some people, including some from the French National Basketball Federation, who were in the same hotel. We made a quick stop at the Jam Session. It’s crazy, there’s too much to do! There are courts everywhere, video games everywhere, kids can meet NBA players: you can’t get bored there. For kids, it’s awesome.



And afterwards we left the room fairly early because I was commenting on the Rookie Game for Canal+. It was a really cool experience. It’s was funny doing that, even if at the beginning it was a bit hard because I didn’t really know when I was supposed to talk. But George Eddy and Bruno Poulain were really cool with me because they integrated me in the discussion. So it was really fun to do and I’m happy to have done it at least once.

During the opening tip, I was a little disappointed to not be playing. Especially since I spoke to someone from the NBA and in fact, I really almost made it. I was told that if there had been ten or 11 players, I would’ve been in, namely because there’s only 4 rookies that have been starting. But oh well, they only took 9. And I don’t know why. So I felt a twinge of sadness at first, but at the same time, looking at this rookie class… This year it’s ridiculous.

I thought that it was a good game, with a close first half. It wasn’t the Rookie Game where there’s +30 at halftime for the sophomores and it’s over. Here, it was close, the rookies were up 5 at half time. It was even a tough game: between Scola and Gasol, it was a Euroleague game. They thought they were in ACB [Spanish league], it was funny. They hit each other. Afterwards, I saw Gasol, I told him “you thought you were in the Euroleague with Scola or what?” He answered “I don’t know, I didn’t understand, he wanted to play hard, so…” Scola finished with 5 fouls.
Regarding Durant, I knew that he was going to have a good game, but to put up 46 points, 30 in the 2nd half... And he made 3 three-pointers in a row, when they were down 10 or 12, important three-pointers. It has to be said that he's good. We played him the Wednesday before the All-Star break and he was coming off of a series of 30-point games in February. With Travis Outlaw, we swore that he wouldn't get 30. In the end he scored 19 or 20.



After the game, I was at a little party at Steve Nash's house, it was nice. Saturday, woke up at 9:00 because I had a lot of things to do. I had a mini press conference with the French press at the Jam Session at 10:00... I finally got there at 10:30. After I went to see the practice for each conference. Quick practices, open to the public. It was more of a case of... they do three sprints, with high knees and heels-butt, they went over the plays a bit, and voilà. It lasted three quarters of an hour, an hour.

And between the practices, there was a guy from the Guinness Book of records. And there were lots of records tried. There's Devin Harris who broke the world record for crossing the court while dribbling: 3.89. There was a guy who spun the ball on his finger... except that he had two balls one on top of the other and he held it for 32 seconds. And at the end, the highlight of the show, the attempt on the world record for free throws in a minute, blindfolded. Shaquille O'Neal tried. We already know that for him with his eyes open, it's tough, so blindfolded... But in fact, the worst is that his shot had a better arc, better motion. But he made 4, when the record was 5. After there was Chauncey Billups who tried and he equaled the record.