Four months after celebrating, in their lair at TD Garden, their first title since 2008, which made them once again the most successful team in the history of the NBA – the North American basketball league –, the Boston Celtics return to their arena, Tuesday October 22, against the New York Knicks, for the launch of the 2024-2025 season of the North American basketball league. A 79e NBA season where the Massachusetts franchise aims to repeat its success, but which should see many contenders try to come between the “C’s” and the Larry O’Brien trophy, which rewards NBA champions. On the French side, led by a highly anticipated Victor Wembanyama for his second season in the big league, the French squad strengthened during the summer and is approaching the season with ambition.
At the end of a year that they flew through, both in the regular season and during the final stages, the Boston players are aiming for a second consecutive title. The franchise will be able to rely on its duo Jayson Tatum-Jaylen Brown (voted best player in the finals in June). The two Celtics stars had a complicated summer: one was confined to the Team USA bench during the Olympic Games; the other was not selected, and admits to approaching the season “with extreme motivation” and a vindictive mindset.
Several teams took advantage of the offseason to strengthen themselves. Starting with Boston’s first opponent on Tuesday, the New York Knicks, beaten in the Eastern Conference semi-finals last season. The franchise, which had not qualified twice in a row for the conference semi-finals for twenty-five years, armed itself by recruiting Mikal Bridges, former resident of the Brooklyn Nets, and Karl-Anthony Towns, ex- teammate of Frenchman Rudy Gobert with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
LeBron James and his son reunited, a first
The Philadelphia Sixers, for their part, recorded the arrival of Paul George, former winger for the Los Angeles Clippers. At 34, he comes to support the leader, revelation of last season, Tyrese Maxey and the MVP (best player) of 2023, Joel Embiid.
In the Western Conference, the fight once again promises to be merciless. The Dallas Mavericks, defeated in the NBA final, will be able to count on their Slovenian star, Luka Doncic (33.9 points per game last year) and the arrival of Klay Thompson, quadruple NBA champion with the Golden State Warriors.
Another candidate for the title: the Oklahoma City Thunder. First in the regular season with a record of 57 wins for 25 losses, the franchise was eliminated in the semi-final in the West by Dallas (4-2). Their coach, Mark Daigneault, was elected coach of the year, and Canadian Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, second best player of the season. The Thunder – one of the youngest teams in the league – has strengthened itself with veterans, including guard Alex Caruso, NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2020.
Other stories, further removed from sport, will attract the attention of NBA fans this season. Starting with Hollywood. The Los Angeles Lakers, the club of LeBron James, the best scorer in NBA history, recruited his son “Bronny” James this summer. Selected at the very end of the second round of the draft (a sort of big scholarship for young players) – not without controversy – the 19-year-old winger will wear the same tunic as his father, a first in the history of the competition. « [C’est] as in [le film de science-fiction] Matrix or something like that. It seems unreal”commented LeBron James during preparation.
France well represented
For French basketball, whose men’s and women’s teams won Olympic silver at home (against the United States in both cases), the NBA season which opens on Tuesday may also seem unreal. In addition to Victor Wembanyama, who is starting his second season in the big league with ambition and crowned with praise from the biggest stars in history, two of his compatriots were selected in the first two positions in the last draft.
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Both born in 2005, Zaccharie Risacher, with the Atlanta Hawks, and Alexandre Sarr, with the Washington Wizards, confirm the rise in power of the French team. In total, fourteen French people will wear the tunic of an NBA franchise this season, making France the third most represented country in the North American league, behind the United States and Canada.
