With or without play-offs to end the 2020-21 Jeep Elite season?
This is the question to which the Steering Committee of the National Basketball League (LNB) had to answer this Friday, while many players are opposed to its outfit.
We knew that, in the best case, this final tournament would not look like ordinary play-offs given the constraints in terms of schedule, with the Olympic Games (23 July-8 August) and the TQO (29 June-4 July) in sight.
So a priori, we will finally be entitled to a "final phase" to complete the season of #JeepELITE ... Provided that ALL regular season matches are played before June 20 and that a room with more than 3000 places is available
Press release @LNBofficiel ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/6mXlgrE1r8
- Christophe Remise (@ CRemise77) May 28, 2021
Finally, this final phase will take place.
Or rather, should.
"The Board of Directors of the LNB voted this Friday in favor of the organization of a final phase for the Jeep Elite championship by a very large majority", we learn.
Two conditions, however: "This final phase will take place on condition that the 34 days of the regular season are complete before June 20 and that a room with more than 3000 seats is available for its organization."
Let us recall that the daily
L'Equipe
recently evoked the Kindarena of Rouen (5,500 places) to host the event, potentially on the weekend of Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 June and possibly from the 25 in case of "Final 8", with quarter-finals in this case.
"The final format of this final phase was the subject of a debate which will have to be decided definitively on Wednesday, June 2 before 5 p.m.", adds one in the League press release.
The players against the project, Tony Parker takes a stand
The National Basketball Union (SNB) had, last week, sent a letter signed by the captains of the 18 Jeep Elite clubs to the LNB asking for the cancellation of a potential Final 8. This had provoked anger and the incomprehension of a certain Tony Parker. “Frankly, this is a joke! On the other hand, when we go to see them to lower the salary, there is no one there. They have to stop. The players are paid until June 30, it's not as if we asked them more, “thundered the president of Asvel, on May 22, in the columns of
L'Equipe
.
And this knowing full well that his own captain, Charles Kahudi, had signed the SNB missive!
“I don't agree with him, that's for sure!
I will tell him straight in his eyes: "We must stop the joke there!" "He said, relying in particular on the frantic pace of NBA players to justify his stance cut and sharp.
Damien Inglis on Tony Parker's interview: "We are not slaves. Those days are over. We are playing our careers. We do not want to take the risk of getting hurt."
- Matthieu Marot (@ MatthieuMarot7) May 22, 2021
“We are not slaves.
This era is over.
We are playing our career.
We do not want to take the risk of injuring ourselves ”, retorted the Limougeaud Damien Inglis, while the president of the SNB, Amara Sy, emphasizes for
BeBasket
that the working conditions are not exactly the same within the big US league. .
“The Final 8 is not necessary.
There is a hecatomb of injury ”, he affirms, not failing to slip that Lyon-Villeurbanne is the club which has the most interest in the organization of play-offs… In the meantime, the final phase should therefore take place.
But it will probably be without most of the internationals.
For example the gathering of the France team will begin on June 23 ...
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