In France, there will be a before and an after George Eddy, and the youngest, fed on BeIN Sports and highlights on social networks, are not aware of the impact of our colleague from Canal + on the place of the NBA in France, and more generally of basketball. In any sport, it takes a voice to thrill and hook the audience. To bring a sport into living rooms.
There were Thierry Roland, Eugène Saccomano, Thierry Gilardi, Roger Couderc in football and rugby. Today there is Grégoire Margotton, Alexandre Pasteur and Julien Fébreau. George Eddy is one of the greatest voices in sport, and tonight, at 66, the Franco-American will comment on his last match for the French team since BeIN Sports has recovered the rights to the meetings of the Blues. From tomorrow, only Canal+ Afrique will benefit from its comments on the NBA.
“I understood from the start that my job was to sell basketball to a new audience to interest them in American sports”
And this EuroBasket final will have the most symbolic of posters: France – Spain. He has commented on many of them, and perhaps this is the most beautiful of epilogues for one who defines himself ” 50% journalist and 50% actor » when he had to comment on meetings of which he knew the result.
Tonight is live, and even if it’s not strictly speaking the end of his career, this meeting still sounds a bit like the end of 37 years of service in the basketball service of Canal + since everything has started in 1985 when he was playing in France.
« I was still a player at Racing and I was one of the very first subscribers to Canal+ because I saw that they were going to play American sports “he told us in 2015. “ When I looked at the documentation for the channel with my subscription, I thought to myself, ‘Damn, they’re going to play American basketball and I don’t know who’s going to be able to comment on that. Me, I live in Paris, I know the NBA well and I speak French correctly. Without really believing it, I therefore sent my CV to Charles Biétry. My friends at Racing told me that I was not known enough and that I would never be taken. I sent my CV anyway and I did well because two weeks before the first game, he still hadn’t found a commentator and I had my chance like that. »
The famous “lucky star” which places him on the road to Charles Biétry, a nascent chain and a basketball championship (NBA) which is beginning its internationalization. ” I understood from the beginning that my job was to sell basketball to a new audience to interest them in American sports. By being enthusiastic and highlighting the beautiful actions, with my expressions and my voice, it helped to popularize this sport. »
Humor, inventiveness, professionalism
Expressions that have remained in posterity such as “Bababoum”, “Gruyère time”, “Blocorama” but also “He made him lose his shorts”, “Put on your helmets”, “Stratospheric”… Not to mention puns such as “C is a Rasheed Peanut! », « Pau Gasol rolls at the super » or « This Penny is worth a lot of money ».
George Eddy is a voice, an accent, but also a great professionalism. It is also a sincere love for FIBA basketball that he commented on with Eric Besnard, David Cozette, Jacques Monclar or even Stéphane Genti and Bruno Poulain. We knew him with the NBA, but he knows European basketball perfectly, whether it’s the Euroleague, the French championship or major international competitions. Besides, he had explained to us why it was so exciting to comment on the Blues.
« It is often cleaver matches. It accentuates the emotional side and then I know all the players and the staff for 20 to 30 years so I feel totally involved in everything they do he confided. ” Maybe the emotional charge and the nervous tension are stronger on a cleaver match where there is no tomorrow if you are eliminated. But that’s where you have to stay objective and professional« .
“I would like to be considered the big brother of these generations who make up the current French team”
Tonight, George Eddy will push his last “babababa Gentlemen ladies” after a dunk from Rudy Gobert. A player whose father he knew, whom he saw start in Cholet, assert himself in the NBA and become part of the French team. France is in the final with the NBAers. A way to close the loop.
« As the NBA hardly existed in France, a young basketball player had trouble knowing what it was about. he remembered. “It inspired Tony, Nicolas, Boris and even those who came after like Rudy Gobert or Evan Fournier. That’s why I consider them my spiritual sons. I can’t say my little brothers because I’m too old but I would like to be considered the big brother of these generations that make up the current French team.. »
The big brother also of a whole generation of journalists, more or less young today, whether they comment on matches on the radio or on BeIN Sports like Xavier Vaution, or write on the Internet, and in newspapers and magazines . Many have done this job thanks to George. “Mister George”, as he is called.
