How many professional Paris Basketball players will be present this Sunday afternoon (4 p.m.) on the floor of the LDLC Arena to face Asvel? And in what physical state? No doubt at least five (the minimum required) to be able to participate in the shock of the 13th day of the Betclic Elite against the team in form of the moment (5 victories in a row including 3 in the Euroleague including one against Paris). The capital club is currently decimated by a virus with flu-like symptoms, which first appeared in Finnish strong winger Mikael Jantunen eight days ago.
Three additional players (star TJ Shorts, Yakuba Ouattara and Enzo Shahrvin) were absent last Tuesday during Paris Basketball's first loss against Real Madrid (85-96) after ten successes in a row in the premier competition. And last Thursday, the Parisians were forced to give up playing their meeting (which will be postponed) counting for the 16th day of the Euroleague against the Turks of Fenerbahçe due to the impossibility of having at least eight players able to play the meeting.
In quarantine
The squad was placed in a sort of quarantine and the staff around Brazilian coach Tiago Splitter, also affected. Under fire from criticism after having been forced to request the postponement of its match against Fenerbahçe, the Parisian club published a press release in the form of an update: “Thursday morning, the club only had six players medically fit to train, which led the Euroleague to postpone the evening match due to a virus having affected almost the entire team. This Friday, the professional squad trained in three distinct groups to avoid any further spread: players affected by the virus or recovering from it were isolated from the four who were not affected. »
This Saturday, the Basketball League did not receive a message from the Parisian club about a possible new problem which would force them not to travel to Villeurbanne this Sunday. The rule is clear. To face Asvel, Paris must register 10 players on the scoresheet, including 5 professionals. The club can complete the squad with Espoirs players under contract (aspirant or trainee) who are between 16 and 21 years old. Two other Hopes not necessarily under contract can even be added. After the meeting, the Parisian delegation will immediately leave for the capital because another match awaits them from… Monday evening (7 p.m.) against Limoges at the Adidas Arena for the 14th day of the Betclic Elite.
The meeting should initially have taken place on December 27 but Paris Basketball travels the same day to the Spaniards of Saski Baskonia in the Euroleague. The schedule therefore found itself very tight with the Christmas holidays. And we had to find another date before January 12, the date on which the first leg of Betclic Elite will end and reveal the eight qualified for the Leaders Cup (February 14 to 16). Parisian and Limougeaud leaders therefore met to validate the date of Monday evening. Enough to allow the capital club to play the first “back-to-back” (playing two days in a row, something that regularly happens in the NBA) in the history of the French championship!
