Never 2 without 3? Is that the common expression? After a hugely successful first book (TrashTalk, American basketball in 300 crazy lists), then the orange best-seller which has toured the world of chimneys (The Greatest Basketball Book of All Time (according to TrashTalk)), your favorite media’s favorite basketball media is back this fall with a 3rd historic opus to leaf through. Take out your most beautiful blue jerseys, and scream your best Marseillaise: here you go The French basketball team (according to TrashTalk) : the big story !
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Ah, France…
Or rather: ah, the French team…
How many matches have we all experienced together live? How many liters of sweat shed watching boys and girls give it their all?
If the NBA and the performances of the French have occupied our minds all year round for almost 15 years, no American franchise or spectacular action is worth a successful match by our dear French team. The EDF, as we like to call it, we love it, we adore it. Sometimes it makes us crazy, but often it makes us proud. It is an almost indescribable love, patriotic and carnal, like a family member you want to cherish forever.
And for years, at TrashTalk, we have shared this same love with you: that of the blue jersey, and of the France team.
So many matches with live commentary, rivalries with Spain, screams at a poignant victory or tears shed at a frustrating defeat. How many hands placed on the heart before the jump? How many meetings are held with each reader, each listener, each visitor wishing to experience these national emotions with us? How many hot debriefs with your head between your knees, or how many fists are smashed on the table against a counter from elsewhere?
Within TrashTalk, we could not deny this obvious fact: we had to write about the French team.
After a first landing in the world of books, then a punch on the table by offering the greatest basketball book of all time, a third classic was needed.
And a third color.
Yellow…orange…blue.
This book was therefore worked on as a team. As usual, to offer you the best of this French team, ces French teams.
Day and night, between two sleeps, three articles and four videos. A colossal research and writing effort, worthy of this great EDF.
Nearly 100 years of history told in more than 250 pagesfrom boys to girls, from coaches to the most successful families. The greatest moments, the most beautiful stories, the most inspiring journeys, the most intoxicating successes, the most infuriating setbacks. Unpublished photos, lots of unpublished photos, you are starting to know the recipe of the house! All this in a format that is still just as small (2.00 kilos for 24 by 31 centimeters), enough to delight your shelves and your future postman.
This project? This is our “IS LOVE YOU” blue version.
It’s a “I LOVE YOU” to all these players. All these matches we experienced together, all these opponents we beat or fell on. It is a declaration of love, to the pioneers who laid the foundations of the identity of the French team when the media hardly existed, up to the heroes and heroines of the Paris 2024 Games.
From Nicolas Batum to Jacques Monclar, from Tony Parker to Yannick Souvré, from Jim Bilba to Sandrine Gruda, from the tilted heads of Antoine Rigaudeau to the counters of Rudy Gobert. From the rivalry against Spain to the exploits of Sydney, from the queens of Clermont and Jacky Chazalon to the flights of Richard Dacoury and the shots of Evan Fournier. From the very first victory against the USA to the latest medal, in 5×5 as in 3×3, at 12 or 15, at 18 and at 35, in solo isolation or in pairs on pick and roll. Families who gave everything, sacrificed, who wanted to be proud and make us proud. From gold to bronze to silver, from a poster on a King to the first matches of yesteryear. From mother Riffiod to son Boris Diaw, from father Risacher to the kid Zaccharie, from the muscles of Cyril Julian to the thin arms of Wemby.
Available today for pre-order, The French basketball team (according to TrashTalk) will be released in bookstores on November 6, 2024.
As you have also known for several years now, we like to mark the occasion, and history too.
This book? It’s pressing pause in the great story of basketball in France, and offer an object that will last for years and decades to come.
It is a grimoire, which will be passed down from father to son, from mother to daughter, from grandparents to cousins through nephews and nieces.
It is a must-see for anyone wishing to understand and know the French team.
It’s a bit like the passport of every French person, who loves their national selection.
The French basketball team (according to TrashTalk)it’s for you, it’s for us.
It’s for our team at heart, in blue, white and red.
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A few thanks are in order to finish.
Thank you to those who participated in this incredible project, the entire TrashTalk team behind this book (Alex, Giovanni, Nicolas, David, Benoît), the immense Peggy and Elyse with the brushes (how beautiful this book is, damn!), the Marabout teams (Benoît, Alizée, Lorna, Rejane, Claire, Elisabeth), and the Presse Sports teams. Thanks to Jacques Monclar for his wonderful preface, thanks to Guillaume Ars and his limitless documentation. Thank you Céleste, Christophe Riedinger, Julien Monclar, Léonce le MVP, Brieux, Simon, Nico Meichel, Nora, Léa, Robin, Nathan, Julien, Alex Taupin and Clément.
Thank you to all those who have contributed to TrashTalk since 2012, to all the media who participate and have participated in the evolution of basketball in France, and throughout the world.
Thank you to all members of the TrashTalk community, without whom this project could not have been born or sustained. You are giga-givers of strength, don’t change anything.
Thank you to our loved ones, our coffee machines, our heroes on the floor.
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