The French basketball team won silver at the EuroBasket, beaten in the final by Spain (88-76). Less than 24 hours later, the Blues returned to France and turned to a partner’s shop on the Champs-Élysées for an initial evaluation. The opportunity to take stock with the leader Elie Okobo, trained at Élan Béarnais. The former Palois played all nine games, his playing time ranged between 4 minutes (in the quarter-finals) and 23 minutes (in the final), for an average performance of 4 points and 1.1 assists in 13. minutes.
France Bleu Béarn Bigorre: this is your first international medal, you get it on a defeat in the final, the feelings must be shared …
Eli Okobo : Of course, as a competitor it is always frustrating to lose a game, especially a game with a gold medal. But we taste it anyway, a medal is a medal! Second place is nothing in a EuroBasket like this, and I am still proud of what we have achieved, although there is still a lot of work to be done. And it’s true a bit of frustration not being able to win this gold medal.
After 24 hours, are you able to take a step back from this frustration?
I always manage to take a step back, to find positive in the things I do in life and it has been an interesting competition. We take a lot of experience, learn, adapt and leave with something in our hands. I think you must know how to appreciate it, even if even if I wanted gold, everyone wanted gold. But now Spain were better than us in the last match.
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Your playing time has fluctuated during the Euro, is that the learning and adaptation you speak of too?
Adapting to the game, adapting to the group on the pitch, having confidence, feeling at ease … There are many things in which I could have done better during this whole Euro. I take this experience and will work to do even better and get even better performance because I know I can do a lot better.
It was your first international campaign, is there anything that surprised you?
The level of basketball is not quite, it is not exactly the same as in the EuroLeague games, but we feel the importance of every mistake in the same way. You pay in cash, you have to be really focused and really work five in the field at the same time and ten or twelve counting those who come back. After it is a long process, there are many matches, it is one after another, you have to take care of your body. Like in a bubble, between the hotel and the matches.
Does this pressure inherent in every game, the knockouts, really change the pressure of a regular season?
During the season there are matches where we subconsciously relax a little, we say to ourselves: “Everything will be fine, it doesn’t matter, we’ll see tomorrow“, etc, but here all the games count. During the first phase, you want your place in the final 8th, and from the 8th, if we lose, we go home. So there is this level of requirements that you have to meet towards yourself. themselves and towards the group to be able to perform and go as far as possible, I think we did it quite well even though there is always this gold medal that we would have liked to have.
Can’t wait to play Pau, I lost last time, it frustrated me, I haven’t forgotten!
Does today’s Elie Okobo measure the path made by the one who was still a kid in Pau?
Sure! I was in a training center, I turned pro, then NBA, injuries, back to ASVEL, I tasted Euroleague and now my first competition with France, I have come a long way! There have necessarily been ups and downs, but I try to focus on the positive to keep my head focused and see far ahead of me. And I can’t wait to see the rest, what awaits me in this sport.
A few days of rest and resumption of the championship, yes, this weekend, is this the program?
That’s all ! I have medical examinations to do in Munich, photo shoots, media inquiries, etc. And then on Sunday we play against Nanterre and move on to Nancy, so I can find my team, the group, the staff. It will be brand new to me. Can’t wait to get started after two days off. You have to take some time, physically and mentally, it will be fine because the season is long. But with the goals we have in Monaco, I can’t wait for it to start.
So we’ll meet again this season in Pau, at the Palace, but we’ll have to wait a bit, the first leg is in Monaco …
Can’t wait to play Pau, I lost last time, it frustrated me, I haven’t forgotten! But I’ll go back to Pau and take my revenge!
