The 2024 Olympics are taking place in Paris, and understandably, France’s basketball team is facing a ton of pressure.
While Team USA is obviously the frontrunner to win gold at this year’s games, France is widely viewed as arguably the second-best team in the world right now.
As such, expectations are sky high for Victor Wembanyama and Co.
This week France faced off against Japan. While the latter squad ultimately lost, it did so by only four points. And for large swaths of the game, Japan looked like the superior team.
Towards the end of regular, France got a huge boost from the officials when Matthew Strazel hit a three-pointer and a fouled was called on Yuki Kawamura.
At the time, Japan had been up four. When everything was said and done after that sequence – they wound up losing the game by four.
Je sais pas comment va se terminer ce match improbable, mais ce shoot est déjà légendaire !
MATTHEW. STRAZEL. pic.twitter.com/mMO9qy2DAC
— TrashTalk (@TrashTalk_fr) July 30, 2024
A review of the play showed that Kawamura barely touched Strazel, but it didn’t matter. The damage was done.
It isn’t the most egregious thing to happen involving Japanese basketball this week, but it was definitely up there.
Clearly the officials really want to see France win a gold medal in 2024. How far will they take things as the Olympics chug along? Time will tell.
A graduate from the University of Texas, Anthony Amador has been credentialed to cover the Houston Texans, Dallas Cowboys, San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks and high school games all over the Lone Star State. Currently, his primary beats are the NBA, MLB, NFL and UFC.
