Basketball: there will be a final phase in Jeep Elite

In a press release published this Friday at noon, the National Basketball League (LNB) says a little more about the organizational arrangements for the end of the season in Jeep Elite, the French first division basketball championship.

A championship very strongly disrupted for months by the Covid crisis.

The 17 members of the LNB's executive committee voted "by a very strong majority" in favor of holding a final phase, as proposed by a general assembly of the institution in February.

"The Steering Committee of the National Basketball League voted this Friday, May 28, in favor of the organization of a final phase for the Jeep Elite championship by a very large majority," explains the LNB in ​​a press release.

This final phase will therefore take place on condition that the 34 days of the regular season are complete before June 20, and that a hall with more than 3,000 seats is available for its organization.

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.

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A few days ago, however, the captains of the 18 Jeep Elite teams asked not to play a final phase so that the season ends on June 15, proposing that the French champion be the team that finishes at the top of the championship, without going through the traditional final phase. Their presidents, Tony Parker at the head of Asvel, went against their will, claiming that the final phase was in the DNA of basketball.

If we now know that there will be a final phase, we do not yet know its format. Eight teams with the best eight of the regular season? Just four to shorten the format and end this funny season as quickly as possible? The decision will be taken in the coming days, depending on the progress of the schedule and the catching up of the many late matches. But time is running out because the national teams will soon need their players. The Olympic Games are fast approaching and Fiba (the basketball player's FIFA) demands that the clubs release their internationals summoned to the national team by June 22 at the latest.