Here is some video from the French Daily L’Equipe, in French, with a money quote at the end from Florent Pietrus, the brother of NBA veteran Mickael Pietrus.
I am in Paris tonight, sitting next to a bilingual American musician friend who is embedded here, who translates for us:
“I think it’s going to be tough for us, but I think it’s going to be tough for them as well,” Pietrus said.
The French team took the Eurostar train from Paris through the Chunnell to London, along with the Australian national team, which beat France 69-67 earlier this week when Parker missed the last shot of the game. (For a good close-up of Parker’s eye scar, click this L’Equipe video.)
The best quote from coach Vincent Collet: “The players are going to go all-out.”
More Collet, who references the opening game adrenalin rush. ‘You never know. It could be the same thing for them. They beat Argentina by only 6 points.
“In any case, we’re coming to play to the bitter end. We’re not coming just to watch, we’re coming to really challenge them, and to push it as far as we can.
“We’re coming to play basketball, and to my knowledge, anything can happen. Against the Americans there’s not many opportunities. I’m not going to give you a percentage, if one presents itself, we’re going to play to win.”