On its YouTube channel, Brisco Basket Freestyle, its hundreds of videos are followed by nearly 350,000 subscribers. Brice Coyère, alias Brisco, has become a real star of the Web. At 30, this basketball enthusiast has always been one of the best French people to practice freestyle, a discipline where agility prevails and which he now manages to live on. A passion above all, which also allowed the 2013 world champion to meet a few stars.
That day, arriving at the Saintry gymnasium (Essonne) where he sometimes trains, the Val-de-Marnais who has lived in Corbeil for seven years, has a smile. "Don't you mind if we put on some music?" He asks before taking out a mini-speaker which he places behind the basket. Then begins an incredible series of figures of style which combine dribbling, spinning (we rotate the ball on a finger) and rolling (it rolls on the body).
"It's a fierce thing," says Brisco. It takes years to master most of the tricks (Editor's note: figures in English). They are unlimited and there are always guys, including me, to invent others, with one, two, and even three balloons at the same time! In competition, it is creativity that counts. It is also thanks to his skill that this former player of good regional level became European champion in 2012 and 2013, the year he also won the world title.
"In France, freestyle is not accepted"
Brice started freestyle at the age of 17: “I sat for six months with a knee brace because of a dislocation of the kneecap in a street tournament. All I could do was spinning. He then finds the light with the videotapes of And 1 Mixtape, the street version of the Harlem Globe Trotters basketball team. “I started with small competitions. I trained a lot. At the time, there was no tutorial to explain the gestures. "
When his son Lewis was born in 2014, he found a job, teaching freestyle to kids from CP to CM2. He also begins to develop his videos on social networks where he shows his secrets of freestyling, as well as the specific gestures of basketball: "I was not looking to be a star, I just wanted to show what I knew how to do. I made my first video with Gary Payton (iconic player of the Seattle Supersonics), which rose to 600,000 views. "
Today, Brisco recognizes that its activity allows it to make a living from it, between videos, product placements, shows and other animations. It also allowed him to meet his idols (James Harden, Tony Parker, Stephen Curry, LeBron James…). The last date was barely a month ago: "I could see Kareem Abdul Jabbar during the NBA Paris Game match and I managed to get him to hold a pen with the ball spinning. A kif of phew! "
https://t.co/mKSQlv2xBV
Quality vlog one day before #NBAParisGame!
Meet Kareem Abdul Jabbar, practice with @Ronny_Turiaf and freestyle shows all in one day!
Enjoy! @NBAFRANCE @ kaj33 pic.twitter.com/4Jr4XZEJis
His only regret concerns the lack of visibility of his sport: “In France, freestyle is not accepted, unlike in Japan where it is crazy. Purists find it useless, especially when there is no dribbling. We clearly don't have the same culture, nor the same idols… ”