Did Marine Johannès really have tears of happiness, Monday evening at the Astroballe, by becoming French basketball champion for the second time in his career? Dazzling on the pitch during Lyon’s two successes in a high-level final against Villeneuve d’Ascq (74-68 on the beautiful Monday), with each time 16 points scored, the 28-year-old player indeed cracked afterwards. at the microphone of Sport in France. “I am exhausted, we have been waiting for this title for four years, confided the spectacular shooter, who had been strongly criticized for her failed 2022 final against Bourges (0-3). I just want to shut some mouths. We deserve it so much, we worked a lot and we gave everything. »
If Marine Johannès appeared so on edge, in a moment of collective jubilation on the Lyon side, it is above all because she has known for a few days that she should be deprived of the Euro with the French women’s team this summer ( from June 15 to 25 in Slovenia and Israel). As explained on Sunday The Team, the leaders of French basketball have indeed demanded that all the Blue be available for the start of the preparation camp on Wednesday May 24, before facing Serbia in a friendly twice in Toulouse, on May 28 and 29. However, this will not be the case for Marine Johannès, who is preparing to join the United States for several days this week, in order to sign a contract to participate in a new WNBA season with the New York Liberty.
Johannès took care to avoid Siutat on Monday evening
“I’ll talk about that later, there I just want to take advantage”, was content to indicate Monday evening the former Berruyère, about her probable non-participation, in spite of herself, in Eurobasket. Because the plan of Marine Johannès, as for her teammate from Asvel, the Franco-American Gabby Williams, was to chain the championship of France (plus the Eurocoupe won) in Lyon, then the Euro until the end of June , before switching to the American championship (which started last week but which continues until September 10)… then again with the LFB and this time the Euroleague under the jersey of Asvel from September-October.
Determined to win the Euro at all costs, after five defeats in a row in the final in this competition, the new coach of Les Bleues Jean-Aimé Toupane and the leaders of the FFBB have therefore sought to optimize preparation this year, in particular by shortening the women’s league finals. As specified The Team, the Federation even links Euro 2023 to the Paris Olympics. Clearly, if Marine Johannès misses this Euro “without reason deemed valid”, she should also miss the Olympics in her country, which all tricolor athletes necessarily see as a possible career apotheosis.
In this climate of great tension FFBB-Marine Johannès, the rear of Asvel took care to turn to the mayor of Lyon Grégory Doucet, and not the president of the Fede Jean-Pierre Siutat, present at the Astroballe on Monday evening, to receive her French champion medal. In the process, Tony Parker came to his defense at a press conference.
“She has blue blood in her veins”
“It is unfair what is happening around her, loose the president of Asvel. She’s an amazing girl. She wants to play for the France team and she hasn’t missed an appointment since 2015. We want the France team with Marine. She is European and French champion and you want to do a Euro without her? It makes no sense. We boys could go back and forth to sign our contracts. It’s happened plenty of times. She wouldn’t even miss an official match. I love Toupane and Siutat but at one point, for five days… I tried to weigh. She wants to play in the France team, it must be said. ” Captain of the French men’s team and director of basketball operations at Asvel, Nicolas Batum took an even more decisive position to support ” someone who is very dear to him “, Monday evening in the basketball show First Team on Youtube.
She’s a kid who since she was 15, hasn’t missed the France team once. There, she asks for a week to manage a contractual thing. That we put around his head an ultimatum on the Olympics, I find that extremely disgusting. If she hadn’t gone to the LFB final, her round trip to the United States would not have caused a problem, except that she is going to the end. Stop fucking shit, she’s coming, we need her. This girl is passionate. She has blue blood in her veins, she lives for the France team. She wants to do everything, let her manage the hell! She was crying on TV. I know I’m going to get yelled at but I don’t care. »
Suffice to say that it will seriously rock in the coming days at the head of French basketball, given the huge rant of the Clippers winger. There remains another question in the background specific to women’s basketball: how long can players like Marine Johannès (28 years old) and Gabby Williams (26 years old) chain very high intensity competitions without a real vacation to cut? “We are knocked out, the season was endless,” said Marine Johannès on Monday evening. However, she would like to continue in the coming weeks Euro, WNBA and LFB / Euroleague.