“I don’t want to be the laughingstock of the world. The deadline is getting closer day by day and the controversy surrounding the organization of the basketball tournament at the Paris Olympics continues to grow. No site has been officially chosen at this time to host this discipline. A trend emerges all the same, the qualifying phases should be played in Lille and the rest in Paris. This decision displeases the players of the France team, in particular Nicolas Batum who went to the net on the RMC antenna.

“I don’t care if we play in Lille (…) We do the Olympics in France, we are an extraordinary European capital… And we ask ourselves this question twenty months before. We are in Paris, damn it. We have a great overall French team, we have the Games at home, and twenty months before, we don’t know where we care about volleyball, where we care about handball, where we care about basketball. That’s what pisses me off,” said the Blues winger.

In addition to embarrassing the players, Nicolas Batum fears that this relocation will impact the image of the host country. “All of this can affect the image of my sport and of Paris 2024, fears the French player. Then we’re going to Los Angeles in 2028, and I know what we’re going to take as French people. I don’t want to be the laughingstock of the world. Because after Paris, it will be top level. »