This American star, surprised not to play the basketball competition of the Paris 2024 Olympics in the capital, denigrated the northern capital…
To accommodate the numerous events of the 2024 Olympic Games, the organizers had to search for all available rooms. In Île-de-France, 26 different sites will be the scene of the competitions. But faced with such an organization, certain sports have had to see some of their meetings move away from the capital. Thus, water sports will establish themselves in Marseille, while surfing will be exiled to the other side of the globe, to Tahiti and its famous Teahupo’o wave. If the relocation here seems quite natural and understandable, athletes from other disciplines have complained about the move.
At the forefront of the slightly embittered relocatees are the basketball players, whose first meetings will take place in Lille, at the Pierre Mauroy stadium, and not at the Accor Arena in Bercy, as the French team is accustomed to when she plays at home. The site hosting the preliminary round of basketball had been at the heart of the debates during the allocation of the competition sites, and the choice of Lille was not unanimous. This choice, which had already caused a reaction among French basketball players and in particular Evan Fournier, also surprised the American Kevin Durant.
The 2014 MVP and winner of the last Olympics with Team USA recently learned at a press conference that basketball will not be in the capital, at least for the first matches. And he was surprised to say the least by this information, which had obviously not yet reached him, responding “wait, for real?” to the journalist of The Athletic who asked him the question.
Basketball suffered from some last-minute changes in competition venues. Initially, it was the relocation of the swimming events to the Paris la Défense arena due to an insufficient number of places in the new Olympic Aquatic Center which created a chain reaction. Exit gymnastics in Paris la Défense, it is now at the Accor Arena. Except that the gymnastics events will take place at the same time as basketball, which therefore had to find a new room. To avoid changing the site of half of the Olympic sports, the organizing committee decides to send basketball to Lille, which is clearly not to the taste of Kevin Durant and his teammates.
The Phoenix Suns star can, however, be reassured: the final stages of the competition will take place in Paris, and not seeing the Americans come out of the groups would be a huge surprise. After the disillusionment of the World Cup last September, the USA team wants to redeem itself and “send a message to the world”, in the words of the Suns ally. He will try to win his fourth Olympic gold medal, surrounded by all the best American players who seem to want to be present in Paris next summer, starting with LeBron James and Stephen Curry.