Did your father tell you about his selection for the French team?
He didn’t talk about it at all. Honestly, I discovered it when I moved my parents’ house after they passed away. I found piles of archives concerning basketball and I called Mr. Champsaur at the FFBB to get more information. It was he who sent me a very short video of the France – Spain match. Actually, I knew my dad was into basketball. I thought he was a player for the French team but I imagined he had played several matches.
If your father did not compete in a major competition with the French team as a player, he was a leading referee (J0 1948, 1952 and European Championship 1951), what memories do you remember?
My mother was giving birth to my brother in May 1951 when she heard on the radio that a referee had been whistled and booed by the Czechoslovaks because he had given the advantage to the USSR (victory of the USSR 55-54). She was giving birth, she was scared and said to herself: “Finally, this sport is dangerous!” “. He often went far away, notably to Buenos Aires, to Egypt… in the conditions of the time, we are in the 50s and 60s.
What did he do next?
He then stayed a little at the Federation (member of the Technical Commission from 1943, then President of the Commission from 1948 to 1950), where he mainly wrote a book on basketball techniques. He then gradually moved away from basketball, finding that it was becoming too professional and that there was too much money at stake. I think he didn’t like it because he really had integrity and for the sport. Maybe that’s why we haven’t heard much about basketball at home actually.
