France squad for Eurobasket Qualifiers features no NBA or Euroleague players
French coach Collet has added that the NBA has not conceded the availability of five NBA players.
France coach Vincent Collet has selected 13 players for the primary squad for the upcoming Eurobasket Qualifiers matches vs Great Britain and Germany, without including any NBA or Euroleague players.
Collet stated, in a press release of the French Basketball Federation, the following: "With Patrick Beesley we anticipated a number of things. I had contacted the NBA players in the weeks leading up to this announcement, all the players I was able to contact were very excited to be able to play in this window. Unfortunately, the NBA refused to release players for this window and so we built a team accordingly. Evan Fournier, Nicolas Batum, Vincent Poirier, Frank Ntilikina, and Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot were contented, all were enthusiastic. I called them today to explain the situation, most have already answered me. I am also disappointed, I think it was a good opportunity, both to strengthen our team but also to work for the future, knowing that we did not have a meeting in the past summer. We have to take note".