Michel Mimran has a habit: put on his desk, a symbolic object from his last post. On the one he has been occupying for a few weeks at the headquarters of the National Basketball Line (LNB), his new general manager has posed a statuette "of Japanese inspiration" in the colors of PSG.
For 10 years, the new strongman of French pro basketball has been a pillar of Paris Saint-Germain's development strategy. Nourished in digital since its beginnings, marketing director between 2009 and 2018, after having also occupied important functions at Darty or Lagardère Active Media TV, he was one of those who accompanied "the change of universe" of PSG with the arrival of QSI in 2011.
"Paris and I loved each other very much"
He is also one of those who stayed in place. "Everything changed, it was no longer the same club, nor the same sport and I was not even doing the same job," he says. We went from a club which was fighting not to go down in Ligue 2 to a club of world dimension ".
In the corridors of Boulogne or the Parc des Princes, the marriage lasted a long time. It was exhilarating, exciting, engaging, exhausting.
An email sent to trainees went wrong
Rich and punctuated also with stories that hurt him like that of an email sent to trainees and that leaked in the press: "In order not to disturb my concentration which already reaches 130% of its capacity from 8 am morning, flirting with heights that you will never reach, he wrote, I would ask you to refrain from now on coming to shake my hand when you arrive at the office (...). At the risk of having to immediately organize your starting drink. In the face of the outcry, Mimram had been summoned by his management. The applicant had invoked a touch of humor.
"Paris and I loved each other very much," says the 56-year-old native of Grenoble, who has not set foot in the Park since his departure. Only the time had come to separate us. In marketing, after 10 years, you have to change things. Usually when I leave, I go around things quickly. With PSG, it took me longer. "
"Even the stars of PSG are basketball fans"
Michel Mimran begins a new love story, just as engaging, with the LNB. “Certain sports don't interest me, I admit, but this has never been the case with basketball. My own daughter was proud with her friends to say that I worked for PSG. It had prestige. Now she is happy because basketball is her favorite sport. "
His roadmap is clear: “Nobody is bored on a basketball game, we find it nice, groove, cool, urban, young. Few sports enjoy such high prestige: even the stars of PSG are fans. Who doesn't follow the NBA? My mission is to reduce the gap between what we think of basketball and its reality in France. "That is to say, complicated visibility, unknown players, medium-sized cities that hold the upper hand:" People who love basketball must become real consumers, says the boss. It goes through digital, social networks, a whole bunch of innovations. It's a job and I'm here for that and I'm going to do it. "