The Guyanese Jean-Marc Pansa, the Rookie who arrived late in the French team

Among all the new attractions of this new era which is dawning in the French basketball team, the arrival of Jean-Marc Pansa in the group has almost gone unnoticed. In the absence of players playing in the NBA and Euroleague, Frédéric Fautoux, who is taking his first steps as a coach, and the nuggets Nolan Traoré and Noa Essengue are attracting all eyes. But from the height of his 2.08m, the Guyanese doesn't care and “enjoy your moment“that he lives like one”reward for all the efforts I (he) have made.“

Jean-Marc Pensa summoned for the first time to the French basketball team.

•

©Carl BLS / France Télévisions

A player with an atypical background, the native of Kourou started playing basketball quite late, at the age of 15. “When I started, I was behind the others, so I worked hard and grabbed every door that wasn't necessarily open for me.“, he reveals. Trained at the Nanterre 92 club (in Hauts-de-Seine), Jean-Marc Pansa's career took off during his loan to the Boulazac club (Dordogne) in pro B. “I think that leaving Nanterre to train in Pro B was a very good choice.” Best pro B pivot last season, the Guyanese who is discovering Pro A this year with Bourg-en-Bresse did not expect to know the French team so quickly. “It was a very, very nice surprise when my coach announced it to me a month ago.” he whispers.

In club as well as in selection, Jean-Marc Pansa finds the same coach Frédéric Fautoux. “Having him here could be a plus for me,” he thinks. Selected for “his individual performances” since the start of the season, the presence of the Guyanese was not assured in the group. “We hesitated with other players, says the French coach. To be completely frank with you, I gave my opinion and stepped aside. I didn't want to come across as someone who imposes a player, because he knows him at the club. But all the others unanimously testified that he was the one to take.”

During his first training sessions, the pivot wanted to be sober and not overdo it in front of his new partners. No doubt a little inhibited by this new environment. “He is still shy about his positions and his shots, but when he scores his first baskets in matches, things will be much better“, judged Martinican Andrew Albicy after one of their first training sessions.

Aware that his presence in the French team is linked, among other things, to the absence of players playing in the NBA and Euroleague, the Guyanese is pragmatic. “It would be a dream to make the Euro, but I keep my feet on the ground. The objective is to help the team win and then we will see if I am called back, but in any case, I will be ready to respond at that moment.“

Jean-Marc Pansa will have to fight and maintain a certain regularity to continue to be familiar with this France group, in a sector of play, the interior, already well supplied for the tricolors, as the coach repeated at a press conference. “We are lucky to have a lot of interior players in France, some are in the NBA, many in the Euroleague, so there is a choice to make.

The 27-year-old Kouroucian whose model is Guadeloupean Rudy Gobert (Minnesota Timberwolves player) chose to wear number 72 in the selection. “Already 72 for my little brother who is at INSEP and who also wears this number, but also for Rudy Gobert who is a player that I have taken as an example since I started playing basketball. I have always worn the 27 and I never changed my number. There, I changed the numbers and put them upside down.”, he says.

Jean-Marc Pansa is now the fourth Guyanese player to wear the tricolor jersey after Damien Inglis, Livio Jean-Charles and the late Claude Marquis (he was the most selected Guyanese in the French team) “It's a pride to perpetuate that and in addition to wearing the Blues jersey it's something very gratifying.“