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Betclic Elite: "Like a final"... Paris Basketball has 40 minutes to save itself

2022-05-17T06:56:20.881Z


Unable to ensure the maintenance that has been stretching out its arms for several weeks, the capital club is playing its survival this Tuesday during the


Shirtless, Juhann Bégarin prolongs training and multiplies the shots on one of the baskets with a member of the staff.

A few meters away, sitting on a bench, Amara Sy, Ismaël Kamagate and Gauthier Denis are in full discussion.

The atmosphere is relaxed, relaxed, this Sunday at the beginning of the afternoon in the place of life of Paris Basketball, the huge sports complex The One Ball in Noisy-le-Grand.

And yet the situation is critical for the capital club.

Beaten six times during the last seven days of the regular season, unable to ensure a maintenance which seemed not to be able to escape them in April, the Parisians only have one step ahead of the relegation zone.

Tuesday evening (8:30 p.m.), they will simply play their future in Betclic Elite on the Boulogne-Levallois floor.

Metropolitans which, although in full internal war between the representatives of Levallois and Boulogne, will not make a gift to their neighbor.

The stakes are too high for them since they can still finish the season in one of the first two places in the championship, a classification which offers the advantage of the field at least until the final of the playoffs.

They have just recruited shooter Obi Emegano as a medical joker for Jordan McRae.

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For Paris, the proposed challenge is obviously more crucial, more vital.

To avoid leaving the elite of French basketball just a year after having landed its first dribbles there, the club, created in 2018, must beat one of the champions of the championship or, in the event of a setback, hope for a misstep from Fos traveling to Portel or Orléans going to Gravelines.

“We are not going to expect anything from the other teams to stay focused on us and our game, explains winger Gauthier Denis.

We would have preferred not to be in this situation but there is no point in adding stress to this situation.

We are focused on what we have to do.

We know we can do it.

»

Present in Paris, the American president David Kahn, "serene" according to his entourage, did not cause meetings with the players to leave them in their bubble and their concentration.

Coach Jean-Christophe Prat brought them together after training last Thursday to remind them that there was still "a final to play".

“They know the context,” continues Prat.

We have our destiny in our hands.

You just have to prepare, it's a life and death match.

But the players are concerned and attentive.

»

"One of the most important games in the history of the club"

“We had already seen each other between players after the non-match in Châlons-Reims (

109-77, May 3

), explains Amara Sy who will play the last match of her immense career against her younger brother Bandja, winger of the Mets .

We are not going to meet again to repeat the same things.

If you shout all the time, we don't listen to you anymore.

We must stop talking and act.

We know what we have to do.

It's up to us to show it on the pitch.

The time is therefore for the sacred union.

While they should have flown to the United States in the wake of the match against Limoges last week, pivot Ismaël Kamagate (who will appear in the NBA Draft in June) and point guard Juhann Bégarin (who must return to

camps

with

the Boston Celtics franchise that drafted him last year) remained for this round of the season.

To save the club from their professional debut.

An awareness that is also noticeable in communication on social networks.

Accustomed to promoting marketing operations, the club has put priority on the sporting issue.

"There is no crisis meeting but we are aware of the issue," says Mathias Priez, director of basketball operations at the club.

It is obviously one of the most important matches in the history of the club.

Perhaps even more than the one for the climb last year.

»

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Relegation to Pro B would obviously be a terrible failure for the club.

The consequences would be disastrous for the image.

Above all, it would be a dramatic setback for the project.

Many partnerships could be put on hold or stopped.

“It would necessarily be a stoppage because there was a great enthusiasm around the club but, as in everything, you have to know how to get up after a failure, know how to bounce back, continues Amara Sy, who will begin her retraining within the club whatever 'he is coming.

Nothing is lost.

We have already made a few moves this year (

victories against Asvel, Pau or… Boulogne-Levallois

), we will try to do one last at Cerdan.

We do not have a choice.

»

“Last year we climbed on the last day, recalls Prat.

It would be good if it brought us luck again.

I am not planning on relegation, we are not going to anticipate the consequences of what is for the moment only a hypothesis.

Paris Basketball is a great project, with an 8,000-seat arena (

under construction at Porte de la Chapelle

) which will open in 2023. It's up to us to ensure that the team is in Betclic when we enter it.

»

“There is no reason for the project to be called into question, confirms Priez.

A halt yes, but not the end.

On the other hand, it is impossible for the club not to be in Elite when the Arena opens.

It would be a disaster.

“Paris has 40 minutes to avoid this scenario.

Source: leparis

All sports articles on 2022-05-17

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