Rudy Gobert was not there this Tuesday evening in Sèvres (Hauts-de-Seine).
But he wouldn't have missed this meeting for anything in the world.
The pivot of the Utah Jazz, who is preparing his first game of the NBA play-offs against the Dallas Mavericks, wanted to slip a few words by videoconference to the twenty or so personalities present for the good cause.
The latter participated in a free throw challenge in favor of the Rudy Gobert Foundation.
With his partner Yop, who organized this event, the objective was to stack the baskets to inflate a kitty in order to renovate the former playing area in Saint-Quentin (Aisne) of the French international.
“It's the Champs-Elysées pitch, just in front of the Palais des Sports where the Saint-Quentin professional team plays.
It's a field where I spent a lot of time when I was little, when I played basketball but also football.
We are also going to try to put things in place for young people, so that they can benefit from this ground not only for basketball, ”he said to the room watching him behind his screen.
The Jacques Monclar, the emblematic Limoges coach of the 1990s, Kévin Séraphin, the former pivot of Barcelona, or even Stephen Brun, the French Pro A champion with Nancy and Nanterre, had a great time.
In the end, they thus made it possible to collect the sum of 26,700 euros for the association.
For his part, Yop added a check for 35,000 euros, the result of the number of counters made by Gobert at home during the regular season (1 counter brought in 500 euros, or 70 in total).
With an amount of 61,700 euros, the Etendard association will be able to carry out the rehabilitation work on Rudy Gobert's childhood ground in Saint-Quentin.
The organizers have already announced that a second edition of this free throw challenge will take place next year.