A report from the French National Team: Nic Batum

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I got the chance last night (7.30.09) to watch Nicolas Batum play for the french National Team.  You might think that I would spend one of my last nights in Paris walking along the river, under the lights of notre dame or drinking a glass of wine looking out at the effeil tower.  But about half way through my trip I decided I should stop pretending.  I can’t change who i am.  I love basketball – so there I was – last night in Paris, watching the French National Team play. Plus I’d already seen those things.

I wish I could report on the first quarter of the game, but I cannot because we paced around outside for 15 minutes walking back and forth between various dignitaries who were scalping (sp?) us tickets.  This game was sold-out because it was in a gym the size of a mid-major college.  maybe even like a really big high school gym.  Why are the best players your country has to offer playing in this gym?  I guess because it’s france and it’s not football. 

The second quarter was uneventfully, with france mostly being non-chalant, and Hungry playing great team basketball and winning.  The second quarter was annoying to watch because of how bad it was.  And nic didn’t play much because he was starting.

two sidenotes: 1.) I would hate to play for Hungry based on how much their coach was yelling.  He did not stop for an entire quarter, and pulled his best player right after he put him in when he got his pocket picked by nic to ask him what happened. He was so animated with his players it looked like he was doing Disco as he pointed at them, made motions as to what defense to play and pointed at the clock.  Over-coaching to the extreme. 2.) the best entertainment was half time when I explained to my wife who all the players were and then she went down to the sidelines and yelled to Ronnie Turiaf “Ronnie!  Go sacramento” to which he gave a big thumbs up.  Just learning new players names was a lot for my wife.  especially if they don’t have famous wives.  Anything more is an afterthought, like who plays for what team.

I never heard another american’s voice this entire night and that paid off later (more to come).

I won’t go into details because I’m not good with them anyway – but here is what I saw of Nic in general. using first names cause I feel like it. 

First the bad:

The bad was that nic stood around a lot on offense and NEVER hit an outside shot.  At least that I saw.  I mean, never… Might have been one of those nights and they might have organized the offense so that nic was in the corner.  Either way, it was uninspiring.  I felt disappointed that he didn’t do more off the dribble.  However, whoever was guarding him was always a lot shorter, but probably as quick.  Regardless, lots of standing around on offense. 

THe Good:

Clearly Nic’s coach trusts him and had him in for huge minutes in the second half and almost the entire fourth quarter.  This kind of experience has got to be invaluable for him.  Boris Diaw was talking to him a bunch (in a good way like, “he good steal, way to keep your hands up” etc. and so were quite a few of the other players.)

Nic, as you might expect, played great defense.  I’m not sure how many steals were credited to him, but he was part of or directly responsible for 7-10 steals.  No joke.  He was guarding their point guard some of the time and did well.   He had blocks, he had interceptions and he did really well on defense.  No surprise here. 

Nic had two monster jams that brought quiet and reserved french basketball fans out of their seats.  and it looked really easy for him.  sweet stuff. 

The one thing that stood out to me was how excellent Nic was in transition (defense and offense).  He had many of his steals this way (running back) and he was a great finisher on the break.  I kept thinking about Andre Miller’s Addition and a running style and how much that would benefit him. 

Overall I was just happy at how big a part of this team Nic is playing and how much he was trusted by his coach.  clearly a much better experience than NBA summer league. 

Post Note:

We roamed around the exit for a bit and stood out with some, again, very quiet french fans.  We were the only americans that we noticed so when Tony Parker came out (and people in french accents were saying “tony” Tony” “tony” in very quiet voices my wife yelled “Tony, you’re wife is so hot” which is the main way that she is connecting with this experience. and Tony says to no-one in particular “Oh..we’ve got american’s here” and he comes over to us and gives us high fives.  and when Boris Diaw came out all I could think to say was “Go bobcats?” almost like Ron Burgandy – a question.  so yes, for a moment, I was a bobcats fan in order to talk to Boris.  He said “Thanks a lot man, really appreciate it”

Rip City.  

Good times.