France Men's National Basketball Team

The France men's national basketball team (french: Équipe de France de basketball) represents France in international basketball and is administered by the French Federation of Basketball. France is currently ranked fifth in the FIBA World Rankings.

France has been a regular at the EuroBasket, qualifying for 39 appearances all-time. Their best finish came in 2013, winning the gold medal. They have also come away with three silver (1949, 2011, 2022) and six bronze medals (1937, 1951, 1953, 1959, 2005, 2015). France has also won two bronze medals at the FIBA World Cup in 2014 and 2019. While at the Summer Olympics, France has won three silver medals (1948, 2000, 2020).

History

Rise and decline (1919–1979)

Throughout its history, France's national basketball team has experienced many ups and downs. The time periods where the national team earned medals have been quite streaky.

In Europe, team France started out as a fierce competitor. The team won five medals at the EuroBasket between 1937 and 1959.

1937: ''Bronze Medal'', 3–2 overall, second in preliminary group, lost semi-final, won bronze medal match

1949: ''Silver Medal'', 5–1 overall, round robin tournament, no playoffs

1951: ''Bronze Medal''; 6–3 overall, second in preliminary group at 3–1, won semi-final group in three-way tie-breaker with 2–1 record, lost semi-final, won bronze medal match

1953: ''Bronze Medal'', 6–4 overall, second in preliminary group at 2–1, second position of four-way tiebreaker for 2nd place in final round with 4–3 record.

1959: ''Bronze Medal'', 6–3 overall, second in preliminary group at 3–1, first in semi-final round at 3–0, third in final round with 1–2 record.

Their period of glory on the world stage began in the late 1940s / early 1950s.
At the 1948 Olympics in London, the France team led by Robert Busnel won an Olympic silver medal, the first Olympic medal in their history. France finished second only to the United States.

In the wake of this Olympic medal, France, led by captain André Vacheresse won three consecutive medals. Including silver at the EuroBasket in 1949, and bronze in 1951 and 1953 respectively.

The following years were less glorious. France's basketball team seemingly declined gradually, to completely fail to medal at major international competitions during the 1960s and 1970s.

Generation of hope (1980–1989)

After the disappointing 60s and 70s, the 1980s were marked by a generation of hope, counting in its ranks French basketball icons such as Richard Dacoury, Stéphane Ostrowski, and Hervé Dubuisson.
During this decade, France returned to the Olympics in 1984, and the World Cup in 1986.

Success and struggle (1990–2000)

During the 1990s France had their moments to shine, despite some internal struggles and many injuries to key players. At the European championship, the team did not win a medal despite some good performances. The years 1999 and 2000, however, marked a turnaround for French basketball. The team built around Antoine Rigaudeau, Tariq Abdul-Wahad, Laurent Sciarra, Jim Bilba, and Laurent Foirest finished in the top 4 at the EuroBasket 1999, which France hosted. Their first loss was in the semi-finals followed by their second loss in the bronze medal match to FR Yugoslavia 74–62, despite some internal problems that disrupted the group of players. In 2000, team France qualified for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, full of ambition, which developed the means for major achievement. At the end of their stint in Australia, the selection of coach Jean-Pierre de Vincenzi helped lead the team to the silver medal, France's first top 3 performance at a major basketball event in 46 years and their first Olympic medal in 52 years.

Tony Parker joins the team (2001)

After the 2000 Olympics, French phenom Tony Parker was selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2001 NBA draft. However, at the EuroBasket 2001, without Antoine Rigaudeau, who surprisingly decided to retire from the national team, the 19-year-old Parker alone was not enough as France failed to repeat their outstanding performance attained at the 2000 Olympic Games. France lost in the quarter-finals to Germany 77–81 and finished in 6th place overall. During this time, most of France's players cleared their spots for a new generation of players, which were available in abundance as the France Junior national team had won the 2000 junior championship.

Setback despite abundance of talent (2003)

At the EuroBasket 2003, France competed with an immensely talented squad, which included NBA players Tony Parker, Jérôme Moïso and Tariq Abdul-Wahad. As well as future pro Boris Diaw, and European standouts Laurent Foirest, Cyril Julian and Florent Piétrus. But despite competing with one of the most promising rosters ever, France lost in the semi-finals against Lithuania, then went on to lose a close battle in the bronze medal match to Italy 67–69.

Restructuring and improved performance (2005)

Hoping not to repeat the disappointing performance of 2003, France's squad once again saw considerable changes heading into EuroBasket 2005. Reconstruction of the national team roster was built based on team chemistry instead of big names; Amongst others, Jérôme Moïso and Tariq Abdul-Wahad disappeared from the roster with the newly formed team being built around the three NBA players Tony Parker, Boris Diaw, and Mickaël Piétrus as well as the returning national team veteran Antoine Rigaudeau. The new coach Claude Bergeaud, surprisingly also selected Frédéric Weis, an underachieving player once drafted in the 1999 NBA draft, who did not participate in the team's preparation. After a sobering preliminary round, France displayed stunning performances in the knockout stage. First, France eliminated Serbia and Montenegro on their home court, then the team defeated the 2003 European champion Lithuania. Heading into their semi-finals match against Greece, where both sides battled each other throughout with tough defense, France collapsed in the final minute after leading by seven points with 45 seconds remaining in regulation. The devastating loss relegated the national team to the bronze medal match once again. However, unlike 2003 France recovered to win the bronze medal by blowing out Spain 98–68.

Continued title aspirations (2006–2010)

At the 2006 FIBA World Cup France competed without Tony Parker, who suffered a twisted finger two days before the competition. Because of this, the San Antonio Spurs, who just signed Parker to a 51 million Euros contract did not allow him to participate. After a preliminary round marked by three wins and two losses, including a shocking defeat at the hands of Lebanon, France beat Angola in the Round of 16 match 68–62 before losing in the quarter-finals against Greece 56–73. Furthermore, two victories in classification matches finally granted the French fifth place.

At the EuroBasket 2007, France fell behind their aspirations again. After a strong preliminary round, the team was eliminated in the quarter-finals by eventual champion Russia 75–71, then was beaten in the classification matches by Croatia 86–69 and Slovenia 88–74, finishing in eighth place, missing out on the Olympic Games for the second consecutive time. In the following months, the team had to go through the ordeal of qualifications to participate in the next EuroBasket which was to be held in 2009. In 2008, former national team coach Michel Gomez returned to lead the team, a position he held between 1993 and 1995. But Gomez failed to help France qualify directly for the European Championship, and had to enter a repechage tournament. In August 2009 he was replaced by Vincent Collet, coach of ASVEL Lyon-Villeurbanne.

Under Collet's direction, ''Les Bleus'' grabbed the last ticket to the EuroBasket 2009 by trashing Belgium 92–54 in the final game of the repechage. At the European Championship, France won their first six games of the first two rounds but failed in the quarter-finals against the eventual tournament champion Spain. The French ultimately finished in fifth place, a performance which would grant the team the direct qualification for the next two major competitions, the 2010 FIBA World Cup and EuroBasket 2011.

Rise to the world elite (2011–present)

After a disappointing showing from France during the 2010 FIBA World Cup, where they were knocked out in the Round of 16, the team looked toward EuroBasket 2011 with high expectations after an impressive run in 2009. France was placed into Group B, with Latvia as their first opponent. France got off to a slow start to begin the game as they trailed after the first quarter 18–25. Although the team would step it up in the second quarter, to only trail 40–41 at halftime. In the second half, France demonstrated why they were one of the favourites heading into the tournament. As they finished off the game strong and pulled out the win 89–78, behind Tony Parker's game high (31 points and 7 assists). In their second match against Israel, France never faced any pressure, as they led throughout to an 68–85 victory. Standing with a record of (2–0), next up for France was a date with Dirk Nowitzki and Germany. Similar to their first match, France got off to another slow start where the team trailed after the first period. But they rallied back in the second quarter to take a 29–28 halftime lead. France exploded in the third quarter, which gave the national team an 18 point cushion heading into the fourth quarter. This deficit would prove too much to overcome for Germany, as France led by Tony Parker's 32 points on 55% shooting, and six assists moved to (3–0).

Still undefeated, France had another tough test awaiting, with Italy in their way. For three quarters France struggled against the stymie defense of the Italians, where they were down 67–60 heading into the fourth quarter. With Tony Parker having an off shooting night, other team leaders such as Boris Diaw (21 points), and Nicolas Batum