Nicolas Batum, in the name of thy father

Dear BEdgers,

As I was navigating through the french tv channel canal + website (I am french-american and have been living in europe for the past 14 years), I discovered this gem. It is a profile they did on Nicolas Batum, our favorite frenchie, that came out sometime in march last year, as the season was drawing to a close. It gives a good insight into the hardships of life as an NBA rookie, as well as some of the personal stuff Nic went through on his way into the NBA. I was immediately taken in and thought that all of you should have the chance to discover more about our very own Nicolas.

I tried to make this into a video with subtitles, but I don't have the time, equipment, or skills for that kind of endeavor, so I wrote a transcript in french and proceeded to translate. I trust you can find a way to follow the video along with the text, it's well worth it.

Here is the link, scroll down for the translation

Click here for the video

And if you want a copy of the transcript in french, feel free to ask.

ENJOY

    Nicolas Batum, from the top of the hills of Oregon and his 20 years of age, has just been through the most important stretch of his life, both as a young man and as a professional athlete. It's in the name of the father - his father; that this Frenchman has stepped through the doors into the NBA. The head of the Batum family passed away at the age of 31, struck down on a basketball court. Nicolas was only 2 and a half years old at the time. His mother Sylvie and his sister Pauline have come to share this new adventure with him, the three of them reunited under the same star

Sylvie: "I think it's a legacy, because during the 2 ½ years they spent together, Richard took him everywhere; he carried him on his shoulders, he took him to practice, he was the mascot of the club we were with at the time up north."

Nic: "I have a few flashes, I can remember we were at a theme park in a train, I can remember that. Some flashbacks of a game, otherwise yeah..."

Nicolas has some vague memories, but he admits that at 20 years old he still hasn't come to terms with his fathers passing. It's last June, during the NBA pre-draft workouts, that the bottom fell out.

Nic: "As an athlete I don't know, as a man definitely. I was feeling good, I'd just got there for the workouts, I had a great rating, I mean I was predicted in the top 15, I knew is was going at least between 8th and 15th without a doubt. And then, the Toronto thing, where I take a simple cardio exam, the doctors said fine and all, no problem, everything is ok, you're normal, you know, like routine. Same as usual. Yeah then I go through a few questions with the doctor and all, and he asks me for my family history. I said yeah my father died, and everything took off from there. You've got a heart problem. Hm. Then just about everything falls to pieces."

By refusing to know the truth about his fathers' death, Nicolas is toying with his fate, and with his family secrets.

Nic: "That's it: I never talked about it with my mom, it's true."

Sylvie: "Since he didn't ask, he didn't come to me and say ‘mom, explain what happened'. I tried a few times and he got angry. So from that point, well I, I let it go. I wasn't going to force on him things he didn't want to hear. It had to come from him."

Nic: "It's not that I didn't want to know, it was more like I was scared to know"

Sylvie: "There were times when I felt like a coward, when I was telling myself, ‘I have to talk to him, he needs to do some tests, maybe it's hereditary, and maybe Nicolas has something too'. I didn't have the guts to say ‘listen Nico, maybe I made a huge mistake the day your daddy died, I refused the autopsy; and maybe too you've got this weakness'...And it's terrible, terrible. I went through 18 difficult years."

Nic: "I'd already read in the newspapers, stuff like that, how he died. When they wrote about me and stuff, I was told, yeah, I saw he died from a heart attack, but I didn't dare ask my mom because I didn't want to talk to her about it. And I saw that he died from a heart problem, so I thought to myself, if I'm saying this, then that's what it must be. And yeah, in fact it wasn't a heart attack, it was a ruptured aneurysm. And that it happened on a basketball court, I knew that."

Sylvie: "6'8, in full health, and paf. He collapses on the court, free throw, over. He's gone, it's finished.  Pauline was on my back, she was a month and a half, Nico was on my knees, and I was just sat there. Time slows to a halt, the emergency services took forever to get there, and I found out later that on the court it was over. It was like lightning."

His father coming back to haunt him, and a cardio exam gone fiasco; Nicolas has just stepped into a nightmare.

Nic: "I got taken down from all sides with that whole thing. You get that told to you...then the newspapers are even less friendly with you because of that, you're in a foreign country, man you're on your own...I was all alone. People were on the phone, I had support, but at night I was all alone."

Sylvie: "I had him on the phone all the time, and it was ‘hi mom...', but then I would get an earful".

Nic: "I was angry, I was yelling at everyone, insulting everyone, my mom was going to the airport I sais ‘no you're not coming over I don't want to see you anymore I don't want to see anybody'."

Sylvie: "Why? Why now? Why one week before the draft, I'm on the verge of fulfilling my dreams, and them bam I get hit with all this. Why?"

Nic: "Philadelphia turned me down at the last minute"

Sylvie: "He's no longer in the draft, he doesn't exist anymore, Nicolas Batum doesn't exist."

Nic: "There's New Jersey who turned me down, New York...man there's loads. They didn't want to see me anymore. Toronto turned me down."

Sylvie: "And I was on the phone to him saying ‘but Nico wait, it's not a big deal, you'll bounce back in Europe, you'll play one, two years in Spain, and you'll be back in the draft next year or the year after. It's ok. We will bounce back. It's not over, because I'm sure there's nothing wrong with you'."

The Batum family finds the doctors from back then, who confirm that the father died from a ruptured aneurysm and not a heart attack. It's time to counter; now it must be scientifically proven that the kid has nothing wrong with him.

Nic: "I spent almost a full afternoon doing scans of my brain, my heart, MRI's; I did every test you could possibly imagine."

Doctor: I don't see anything abnormal...no, nothing.

Nic: "And they told me, yep, you're fine. You're fine, you're healthy. Don't worry, of everything your father had, you haven't got a thing. There's nothing wrong at all."

His spirit freed and his heart soothed, Nicolas Batum arrives in New York a few days later to attend the NBA draft. Nicolas is chosen with the 25th pick by Houston then immediately traded to Portland. Without the mistake by the medical staff in Toronto, Nicolas could have aimed a lot higher in this draft. From a financial standpoint, the Frenchman lost an estimated 3 to 4 ½ million Euros over his 4 year rookie contract.

Batum shows up in Portland at the start of August and gets straight back to work. A studious summer, with no Equipe de France, to try and exist in the eyes of the coaching staff. Here, as with all NBA teams, there is no place for the weak.

Nic: "You come in, you've got competition right off the bat, you play hard right away, there's no fooling around. There's no joking around. Man when I arrived for the preseason, as soon as I showed up in august, everybody was there...You've also got all the guys who don't have contracts, who play your position. They're saying to themselves ‘yeah this little French kid, what's he doing here?'. The guys are like 24, 25, they're at home so to speak being American and, they see a 19 year old Frenchman show up. They're saying to themselves ‘this kid ain't gonna steal from my plate'. You go at each other straight away. At first I was scared, but to tell the truth I didn't have much of a choice anymore. Especially after the summer league that I had, I had no choice. If I wanted to make the team I had to have the same attitude.

-At the time, practice was at 10, I showed up at 8. As for leaving, they left at noon, I left at 1, 1:30. And the afternoon when there wasn't practice, I came back anyways at 4, and I did 4 till 7. I had to. I had to do it."

At the end of October, with the start of the season a few days away, Portland is going to take on the Lakers, last years NBA finalists. Webster, starter at small forward is injured. So coach Nate McMillan gives Batum, the number 3 at the position, the emergency call up.

Nic: "You're starting for your first NBA game, at the Staples Center, on Kobe Bryant. Imagine. You're 19. So all week you're like: your first NBA game on Kobe Bryant in the starting 5 at Staples Center. You have like a weeklong dream. You're like damn after everything I've been through, the struggles at the draft, all the heart stuff, the shitty draft, crappy summer leagues, at last you're rewarded by starting  your first NBA game in the [starting] 5 on Kobe. And then that morning, no. That's why I was upset, I was angry. After that people said I was full of myself. It's not that I'm full of myself, put yourself in my position. So the next day, yeah, we're at practice, and yeah it's true that I was...I was defending fiercely, attacking like there was no tomorrow, fouling like crazy, at one point I got yelled at, pfff, he started yelling at me, I said ‘whatever', I turned my back, I was like ‘whatever' and turned my back, I basically shut him out. And the assistant coach says to me ‘what do you think you're doing here? You're a rookie, what the hell are you doing? Listen to him!' I was like ‘yeah whatever'. I was starting to change, but I found a way to calm myself, he puts me in as a 6th man the next game against phoenix, and then against Utah he puts me in the starting 5.

Nicolas Batum, through all of these misfortunes, discovers his tenacious spirit.

To keep up with the rhythm of the 82 game season, Batum works hard on his conditioning.

Nic: "They offer you supplements, like protein bars or shakes. You've got loads of protein. It's true, I've never taken this much protein in my life. In terms of weight I think I've put on between 13 and 15 pounds since august.

Canal: - That's never happened to you before?

Nic: - Nope. Natural.

Yeah everyone was worried about me physically, and now I'm defending every night against the greatest athletes in the world. And sometimes I do all right. In my bubble. Yeah I'm doing my thing, I've got 30 games to go, maybe more if we make the playoffs. I really try to stay focused on my thing, to not project myself, stay concentrated on what I do. But I think I'll be happy at the end of the year. When I finish the season.

Thrown quickly into the starting 5, like Tony Parker at the time with the Spurs, Nicolas Batum has generated some buzz during this first half of the season. Model teammate with a big heart, tireless defender, he gets his kicks out of blocking the stars and dunking on the league's giants. Batums second wind resonates in every arena he goes through.

Nic: "Aldridge hands off the ball and I literally go over Gasol. I didn't even think.

-Yeah we watched the play at least 30 times.

-Last time I made a list of all the so called stars or all-stars that I blocked. It's a sweet list. Yeah I'm happy. Yeah I stuffed Prince, Chris Paul, Parker, Duncan, Ray Allen, Pierce, Shaq, Nash, Iverson, Wade.

I love blocking for example when a guy goes on a fast break and I fly in from behind. I love doing that."

And it's these all stars that Nicolas comes to see in Phoenix for the All Star Game. At the same time NBA player and still a fan inside, the Frenchman discovers a new world, a world of excess and showmanship. Having missed the cut for the Rookie Game, the showcase of the beginners, Nicolas Batum greets his Portland teammates. Greg Oden, 21 years old and number 1 pick in the 2007 draft, and the Spaniard Rudy Fernandez, Olympic finalist in Beijing.

Nic: "There's still a little bit of regret, even though I know this year's selection was really tough, it's true that at the tip off there's a little twinge deep down because you want to be out there."

Worlds away from the NBA Stars whose figures cover the city's buildings, Batum practices and polishes his first autographs.

Nicolas Batum has to find the right fit for him in a world which can easily make the newcomers head spin. A world where the money flows and where for some you're only a number slapped onto a shirt. His education has told Nic all of this, but his stay in Arizona made him realize that the only thing that pays off in the NBA is work. On his arrival in this league at 19 years old the Frenchman has multiplied by 12 the salary  he had at Le Mans. And now he has to get used to the idea that he is a millionaire basketball player.

To prepare rookies for this new world, the NBA invites them to preseason camps. 4 days of conferences, where they go over all these things, and talk about everything.

Nic: "They explain everything, the financial aspect, the game, the rules. There was one that was pretty good, they taught us how to hold a fork. Yeah, they teach you table manners. On one hand it's good, but on the other hand we were wondering why that was there. What else is there, there's education, how to handle stress. A yoga teacher came, she gave us yoga DVD's. I have DVD's for yoga and stretching.

Canal: -So have you done them or not?

Nic: -Never (laughs)

-Gambling, betting, you can't fall into that, you know weird games and stuff. A guy called Michael Francis came for that one, he used to launder money for the mafia.  You hear a lot of creepy stuff, there's guys who did stuff like that, now they're completely debt ridden, and plus there's the risk of getting killed for nothing, so...I remember I was in Boston and I got a call from a guy offering to give me 10 000 dollars if I scored 4 three pointers. I hung up straight away. I'm not going to fall into that. When you go on road trips, you always get an envelope with money for food. So in fact we have a salary but they give you lunch money on top.

Canal: -And you're surprised when you see this?

Nic: -Well yeah the first time I was surprised.

Canal: -And how much do they give you?

Nic: -When you go for one away game, they give you 115-120 dollars for the night. Just for dinner. I mean we're always in very luxurious hotels, we're in good surroundings they do everything they can for us to feel good, so yeah, we just have to pay for food and they give us the money for it. Sure it's immoderate. Everything here is immoderate so...*

Portland is the largest city in Oregon with 575 000 inhabitants. There is only one major league franchise here, the Trailblazers. As with Tony Parker, Nicolas Batum has been lucky to land in a so called family franchise. Far from the glittering lights of Los Angeles, New York, or Miami. Perfect to blossom as a basketball player. 4th in the western conference halfway through the season, the Blazers play at the Rose Garden, where every game is a sellout. 3 hours before tipoff here among the cheerleaders we find our Frenchman going through his pregame routine with assistant coach Monty Williams. And like a first class student, Nicolas spends time in the locker room studying the scouting reports. He dissects the particularities of his direct opponent each night, on this blazers team the Frenchman is a defensive expert. For this game against Memphis, a bottom-rung team, some French students have come to support the ex-Le Mans player. Tonight Batum is taking on the most prolific rookie of the NBA. Memphis's O.J. Mayo is a scorer very much focused on individual prowess. Batum simply has to stop him from doing damage. The work he puts in for the team doesn't go unnoticed by the team's star, Brandon Roy.

Nic: "He told me keep up the hard work, you won't be good in this league you'll be great if you keep working. Coming from Brandon Roy, the guy who's a two time all star, one of the best guards in the league, in the top 10 in the NBA, the guy tells you that. I think he knows what he's talking about though, I mean he's reached a certain level, and the fact that he said that to me, it really made me feel good. And it encourages you.

There's no point in dwelling on the stat line, Batum is not lighting up the box score. He toils away far from the spotlight, and this work is greatly appreciated by the coaching staff.

(conducts interview in English)

Nic: "No I won't speak English with you"

Batum is a relatively shy character. 20 years old, after each game he goes home with his mother and sister, the Batum family is very close-knit. And his idol Scottie Pippen is never very far away.

Sylvie: "Since November, the three of us are living together again, something we hadn't done for 8 years. That's the first and most important thing for me. The fact that he's in the NBA is extraordinary, but the fact that the three of us are finally back together is even more. The NBA allowed it. He's grown, he's become responsible, basically he's become a man. Previously he was a young man, a teenager, and unfortunately what he went through was a necessary evil because yes it forced him to grow up, definitely. I think that through that episode he really took us both under his wing. It's kind of hard for me because at the age of 20 I don't want him to think ‘I'm responsible for my mom and my sister'. I really don't want him to carry that weight on his shoulders. But he did it. He sais to himself ‘well now I'm in the NBA, I've got the means to provide for my mom and my sister now it's my turn to protect them."

Between games, the great hope of French basketball heads to a high school in the Portland suburbs, into a french class, for some advanced quizzing.

"-My name is Relyn, do you have a girlfriend?

-Yes

-Do you miss France?

-Yes"

En route for the playoffs, Nicolas Batum is living the dream, always keeping a thought for his father who would have loved to see him compete amongst the best of the best. It's in the name of his father that Nicolas is starting to make a real name for himself in the NBA. As for his heart, don't worry, it's all good.