The now former coach of the French basketball team shares his feelings after the announcement of his departure on Monday in Paris.
Vincent Collet and the Blues of basketball, it’s over. Official since Monday morning, the end of his mandate marked the end of fifteen years overseeing French basketball, with a silver medal won at home against the invincible Team USA as a conclusion. Overcome by emotion, Coach Collet confided in his great blue adventure and the next challenges that await him.
His first words : “I wanted to share my emotion with you. Just a page or a little more? Much more… I have been a coach since 98, assistant at Le Mans, 26 years. I had the immense privilege and honor of being the coach of the French team. It is at least a chapter but even more of my life as a coach and in short, many great moments, very difficult moments too and that is normal, but they have always been very intense and strong moments. I remember each campaign, the 14, even the most complicated. There are incredible memories, New Zealand in 2010. Others happier. The last ones are still very close. Germany in the semi-finals of the Olympic Games will remain as a great moment of my career in Blue, like the quarter 2014, Slovenia in 2013 and 2021 and the semi-final in 2011. The five moments that I place above the others, great moments. Moments engraved in my memory, I had exceptional staffs, I want to share that with you. We live these adventures with a group of 30 people. The staff has grown over the years. It is the story of 25 or 30 people who live to go as far as possible, these are incredible human adventures. Having had the chance to live it 14 times is incredible, and being rewarded quite often. It is indelible, engraved. I told the players before certain matches, when they could be frustrated, I told them that in 20-30 years they could tell their grandchildren what they did in Tokyo or Paris, it only belongs to an elite. We can be unhappy with a situation but manage it in the interest of the common good. I often see me talking to the players and telling them “together”. If anything from these 15 years remains, I would like it to be this image. I have always tried to drive, influence the teams so that the we takes over the “I”. This year is the most beautiful image of that. When we switched after the group stages, when the combined talents of the players united with more determination and commitment and the “I” became “we”, that’s when we became great and approached the American ogre. 15 beautiful, unforgettable years, which are engraved. It is an honor to be entrusted with these missions, it means that they know that I have certain skills that can be useful for the future of French basketball. My determination was very great to lead the teams. It is also great to allow basketball to continue to grow and maintain itself. It will be difficult to continue to climb and I do not see why they would give up their first place but we must already perpetuate this level of performance. We were not better than Canada and Germany in intrinsic value. We will have to continue to fight and progress, first in training, that of the players but also of the coaches. I am happy, proud, to be entrusted with a mission in this area because there is still work to be done.”
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After the games : “On the evening of the final, I was asked about my future, I brushed her off a bit. There is a process. We saw each other three days later but I thought it was not possible to talk in the heat of the moment. I was not prepared, on the evening of the final, for this evolution. But I weighed up the pluses, the minuses, I evolved, we shared again with Alain and Jean-Pierre. It may never stop, it was a hypothesis, but it was the right time for this final curtain. (…) My feeling? If it were simple, it would mean that I did not love the French team as much as I loved it. It was a love story. There is a mourning curve to go through. But it is the right decision.”
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Hard times : “Rio in 2016, after a very good Olympic Qualifying Tournament, we missed our Olympics, with a quarter where we were very weak against Spain without fighting in the second half. Last year, even stronger, we had the same objectives as at the Olympics and we missed out in a big way, with the regret of not having beaten Latvia. Even if we wouldn’t have gone very far, we had to at least go to the quarters. Euro 2017 too, but it’s special, a reconstruction, a good preparation, reconstruction around Evan Fournier, Thomas Heurtel, Nando De Colo, three offensive players, we played a basketball that was popular, collective, spirited, but in competition, we quickly fell apart. These defeats were springboards to what came next, like in 2019. 2023 allowed us to build a very high-level cohesion and that’s what allowed us to make the switch to the final phase of the Olympics. We lived from June 20 to August 11. I was surprised that we didn’t react more after Japan. The indicators we saw in training allowed us to think so and it was just taking a step back to jump better. Each time the difficult moments were moments conducive to rebounds. My adventure could have ended at those moments. At those moments, the decision was not shared.”
I can’t be the coach of a team that can play against the French team.
Vincent Collet on a possible future in the national team
French coaches rarely present in Euroleague : “It’s very closed, you have to be able to get into the circle… We only had a few clubs up until now. When we have results, it highlights our basketball and the coaches. It can change quickly. There are also things seen from the outside, our playing identity is not always clear and the comments from abroad, we often attribute our successes to our athletic qualities for example. It is no longer enough to be athletic to be Olympic vice-champion. We will need pioneers. Among my career regrets, I have that of having refused Olympiakos in 2014. I had this offer because this bronze medal was not normal, without Tony, without Nando, and I had had credit in Europe. It was during the season, I did not want to betray in Strasbourg but it was stupid, I would have joined the circuit. But it will happen to others and maybe in a few months for me.”
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Their future in club : “The recruitment of coaches is done before. I had refused before the Games. I did not want to be polluted, the objective was too important. When can it happen? When the first cuts will arrive.”
A selection : “I don’t think so. My attachment to the French team is what it is, I can’t be the coach of a selection that can play against the French team. I would have been the coach of the French team for a long time and only the French team.”
The NBA? I have never discovered that, there is curiosity (…) But it will not be at any price, it will have to be interesting from a sporting point of view.
Vincent Collet on a potential rebound in the NBA
Missions at the FFBB : I will obviously not be on the bench (of the Blues) and my missions will have nothing to do with the French men’s team. I will be ready to speak with the future staff if they want and only if they want. Even for future coaches, it can only be consented to. The goal is to be able to do something that resembles the coaches’ academy that I was integrated into in 2011 by Claude Onesta. Few people have the opportunity to compete in international competitions and there is no training, it is done through sharing. But if the future staff of the French team wants to share with me, I will obviously be available.”
The NBA : “I still consider myself a coach, I am one in my head. My thoughts have allowed me to move forward. All the missions that they want to entrust to me, having this coaching mentality is important. It is not a question of giving lessons but of sharing experiences so that they can make their own, but for that, I have to remain a coach in my head and not a trainer, I have to be totally immersed in the issues of coaching. I have already reviewed the matches of the Games as if I were going to coach the next window. It is important to transmit. The NBA? I have never discovered that, there is curiosity. I discovered by going to see the players or through them. But it will not be at any price, it will have to be interesting from a sporting point of view. But it is complicated. Kenny would have liked to integrate me into his staff but he could not do it for political reasons, the GM made other choices. Number 1 coach in the NBA? You can’t say that when you arrive, but if I go for it, it’s all in! If I had been one of Kenny’s first assistants, I would have been there to help him succeed and then… My age can be a limit.”
Comments collected at a press conference
