“One last round of fun between childhood friends. » This is how Boris Diaw’s gang describes his “Bisca” 2024 project. Ten years after winning the NBA title with the Spurs, the former captain of the France team is aiming for a final trophy: the Coupe des Landes . Or rather “the Landes World Cup”, as every Landes basketball player wants to call it.
Namely, a competition bringing together all the amateur level clubs of the 40, with this year the key to a final scheduled for June 1 in the Plumaçon arenas in Mont-de-Marsan, inevitably boiling for the occasion, with no less than 8,000 spectators.
Coming out of his sporting retirement taken in 2018 to join the small club of Biscarrosse Olympique Basket (Departmental 3), the 42-year-old interior, who spent his childhood in the Landes, surrounded himself in September 2023 with ten long-term friends. date to try to accomplish his ultimate sporting dream. In the cast, we find a majority of “a little rusty” forty-somethings, having mostly played up to National 1 or Pro B, and even Pro A in the case of Simon Darnauzan (43 years old).
A YouTube series for the occasion
This very fun adventure to follow, marked by four qualifications from Biscarrosse before the semi-final against Elan Tursan (Regional 1), Sunday (4 p.m.) at the Gamarde-les-Bains arenas (2,000 seats), is entitled to its web series, the aptly named Landes of brothers. The four episodes on YouTube, produced by Skweek, show the tip of the “Bisca” iceberg. Namely the festive atmosphere of the bands in the arenas of Parentis-en-Born armored for the quarter-final (4,000 spectators) or interesting exchanges between Boris Diaw and young basketball enthusiasts. We also see the former 2013 European champion, graying hair and a figure light years away from his NBA seasons in Phoenix, laughing as he confides that he has not attempted the slightest dunk since 2018.
But Biscarrosse’s unprecedented journey, launched towards the first coronation of a departmental level team in this prestigious event, annoys a lot of people in the Landes. Starting with the clubs who left the Cup by this atypical armada of old hands. “We had a very bad experience with our elimination against them. It remains the black point of our season and I don’t want to say more,” said a Landes club manager coldly.
“All clubs should have boycotted this edition”
The main point of tension lies in the strict application of the historical regulations of the competition: we benefit from a 7 point lead per division of difference, which aims to try to give teams of modest levels a chance. In other words, as a D3 club, “Bisca” will attack its semi-final on Sunday at 35-0, after having had up to 42 points in advance from the outset during the two previous rounds against N3 teams. Player of Real Chalossais (N3), title holder of this Coupe des Landes and eliminated in January in the round of 16 by Biscarrosse (82-103), Yohan Cambon returned to the subject again.
“ I don’t mind the project itself, it’s very rewarding to face such a player. But like Freddy Fauthoux who won the Coupe des Landes in 2010 by playing the entire season in N2, Boris Diaw could have tried to win the title by playing for example with Stade Montois (N3). There, it has nothing to do with it, he built a whole team in D3. You don’t really have to be competitive to start a match at +42, especially when it comes to former pros. They’re also being smart to be quiet on the pitch, even though we won by 21 points in the end and it would have been the feat of the century to qualify… I understand the enormous controversy concerning them and the whistles of part of the public. All clubs should even have had the courage to boycott this edition in this context. »
Teammate of Boris Diaw at Biscarrosse, “the only club in Landes ready to welcome us all”, Cédric Beesley (41 years old, ex-Pro B) is aware that it is currently not “La La Landes” for his team: “Au At the start, people were won over, Boris’s project was well received by everyone. Over time, the teams who imagined themselves winning the trophy groaned to see a new contender arrive. But the rules are like that, it’s not our fault, we’re not breaking anything at all.” On the front line, we rather find the Landes basketball departmental committee, which refuses to touch the “handicap points”, for Biscarrosse in 2024 as for the next seasons.
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Four training sessions in two months before the half
On the other hand, the prospect of seeing this D3 team, which is causing so much discussion, lift the Grail on June 1st has pushed the organizer of this Coupe des Landes to make a major change. It will require players, from next year, to play at least 75% of championship matches with their club to be able to take part in the premier event. And this in order to avoid there being “a Cup team and a championship team”.
Which is generally the case this season, since Boris Diaw and his friends simply respect their “moral commitment” to participate in at least two D3 matches. Lack of time and motivation in what will undoubtedly remain a “ one shot » for them, they did not do more.
“ We have only trained four times since the quarter-final on March 16, confides Cédric Beesley. Boris, for example, has just returned from two months of crossing on his boat. When we know that there are sometimes pros in the teams opposite who train twice a day, with kids running everywhere, I don’t see why they wouldn’t have any chance of getting back to forty points to old people. » »
“I would have preferred that Boris Diaw stayed on his boat”
After inflicting a 25-0 on Biscarrosse during the quarter-final, Coteaux du Luy (N3) is the team which flirted the most with a remontada, for a fairly close defeat (79-92) in the end, given the initial gap of 42 points. Yohan Cambon still wants to clarify: “Believe me, these are not grandpas broken in two at all”. Landes of brothers clearly shows that all have beautiful remains on the ground. Enough to lift the trophy in three weeks against ESMS (N2), with a +49 at kick-off never seen before at this stage of the competition?
Listening to Yohan Cambon’s disappointment, even five months after his elimination, we understand the passion that drives “Babac” and his family to see the adventure through to the end on their childhood lands. “As a Landais, I only came back to the region for this Cup. I’ve dreamed of this title since I was a kid. I still shook Boris Diaw’s hand at the end of our match, but I would have preferred him to stay on his boat and let me win my Coupe des Landes,” smiles the Real Chalossais full-back .
“The trial against Boris is catastrophic”
The Landes departmental committee would like to see only this type of derision on the subject, like the recent parody video Land of Tursan published by Biscarrosse’s future opponent. But unfortunately, its president Barbara Canlorbe denounced in March on her Facebook account “a torrent of verbal violence”. “The aftermath of the Coupe des Landes round is more and more violent. Words have meaning. They stay, they wake you up at night, they chase you during the day. They hurt you, shock you, damage you. I refuse to submit to the dictatorship of the hateful minority and I refuse to allow it to sully the committee and the Coupe des Landes with impunity,” points out the leader, very marked by certain reactions.
The general euphoria surrounding the return to the Landes of Boris Diaw, who sells out each of his matches, has really crumbled since September. “It took on crazy proportions on social networks, all for basketball,” regrets his friend Cédric Beesley. It makes us sad for Barbara Canlorbe, and the trial against Boris is catastrophic. » What if it was ultimately even tougher to resist the external pressure surrounding the quest for a coronation in “the Landes World Cup” than in the NBA?
