One last challenge with a group of friends: in the small room of Biscarrosse, Boris Diaw, the former captain of the French team, put on his sneakers again to realize “a childhood dream”, “playing the World Cup of Landes.
This amateur cup pits all the teams in the department against each other. Driven by historic village rivalries, it arouses a passion that is difficult to satisfy.
Previously played in small covered arenas, stormed and quickly saturated with smoke, the men’s and women’s finals will be moved this year to the arenas of Mont-de-Marsan, temple of bullfighting.
They should bring together 8,000 people, twice as many spectators as the average match in the French Professional League.
“When we grow up here, we only talk about that. I always wanted to play it but my career took another path,” Boris Diaw, 41, tells AFP, his voice covered by the sound of the bandas, after his first match in the competition.
“The only opportunity was now, in retirement, coming back with a group of friends,” explains the ex-NBA champion, surrounded by teammates he met during his sports-study years at Mont-de-Marsan.
Cédric Beesley, a lifelong friend and former professional trained with Diaw in Pau-Orthez, remembers matches played in the past with the Espoirs against the local teams: “Boris enjoyed the atmosphere but without playing because he was already a pro… that frustrated him a lot.”
A round of 16 against Real
In 2014, when Diaw was crowned in the NBA, Frédéric Fauthoux, seven-time French champion with Pau – including twice with Diaw – and winner of the Landes trophy, says he rubbed salt in the wound.
“You’re missing the most important thing: the Coupe des Landes,” said the local legend, now a professional coach.
A few tours “at the Bayonne festivals” between childhood friends, Diaw in the lead, at the end of each other’s careers did the rest.
This summer, the members of the gang who live scattered between Bordeaux, Arcachon and the Landes, are resuming their license in Biscarrosse, registered in the depths of the amateur divisions.
Former French international basketball player Boris Diaw (c.) poses with his teammates before a match of the Coupe des Landes, a very popular local competition in the region, in Biscarosse on November 26, 2023 / ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP/Archives
This team, initially with limited numbers and close to the withdrawal, now evolves with stands filled with “people”, including astronaut Thomas Pesquet during the first round in November, or kids collecting autographs and selfies.
But the jubilee spirit stops there. Because on Saturday in the round of 16, the team faces the defending champion, Real Chalossais, resident of Nationale 3 (5th national level).
“Immense respect for his extraordinary career… but we are going there to beat him, not to take photos of Boris and his friends,” warns Benoît Ducasse, the Chalois president.
His club, like many other teams in the department, is a group of several villages totaling barely 2,000 inhabitants, supported by an army of passionate volunteers, who organize festive meals after the matches to finance it.
Semi-professional or amateur with “travel allowances” to attract the best players who “all work alongside”, these associative structures bet part of their season on this competition.
Inequity?
And the arrival of the band of the former NBA star has sometimes caused incomprehension.
Because the competition, which brings together Nationale 2 teams, offers bonus points to clubs at lower levels for the sake of balance.
With the small Biscarrosse team, in departmental division 3, “Boris’ gang” – almost all former pros or semi-pros – will start with 42 points ahead against Real.
“As much as we give them the Cup”, “it will be mission impossible”, reacted certain local figures in the daily Sud Ouest.
For Benoît Ducasse, “it’s annoying but it’s the rules. A team like that doesn’t have the level of D3… We will adapt”, with players and supporters “over-motivated since the draw”.
Former French basketball team captain and former NBA player Boris Diaw (c.) greets his partners and staff before a regional match in Biscarosse, southwest France, on November 26, 2023 / ROMAIN PERROCHEAU / AFP/Archives
The unfair trial could have swelled further, because during the summer, the names of former stars “friends of Boris” – Ginobili, Turiaf, Piétrus – had circulated during “watery discussions”, Cédric Beesley laughs today.
But “we reasoned” to only “bring in local players to whom this Cup speaks” and “give meaning” to this “adventure born around basketball” and friendship.
2024-01-20 11:01:07
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