EDF – Beaten at the Paris Olympics, Canadian Luguentz Dort gives his frank opinion on the French team

Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif

A member of the Canadian national team, Luguentz Dort was unable to prevent his team’s defeat against “Les Bleus” at the Paris Olympic Games. Interviewed by BeIN Sport, the Thunder star reflected on this disappointment a few months later.

Nearly a year later, the French team’s run at the Paris Olympics remains as wild as ever. The tournament in the capital got off to a very bad start for Les Bleus, with two narrow wins against Japan and Brazil, before falling heavily to reigning world champions Germany.

Needless to say, Vincent Collet’s men weren’t exactly in the clear heading into the knockout rounds… and yet, they ended up winning the silver medal, after narrowly losing to Team USA in the final, just like they did three years ago in Tokyo. A spectacular comeback, to say the least!

Before reaching the gold medal match, Victor Wembanyama & Co. had taken their revenge against Germany in the semifinals, but it was against Canada that they really came back into their own in the quarterfinals. A match that saw bench players such as Mathias Lessort and Isaïa Cordinier emerge as indispensable assets, while Guerschon Yabusele shone alongside the Alien.

Lu Dort not resentful after defeat at the Paris Olympics

The win against the Canadiens was all the more impressive given that they had some big names on their roster, including new MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and his Thunder teammate Luguentz Dort. Dort was very honest with BeIN Sport as they played in the NBA Finals against Indiana:

(He’s a little bit angry with them), a little bit. I’m definitely still a little bit disappointed with the defeat we suffered, but I have to give a lot of credit to France. They played really well, they deserved that win, and it was a great atmosphere, it was good to play there against the French fans… it was really fun.

The OKC pitbull does not rule out the possibility that a real rivalry could eventually emerge between the two nations, since they have often crossed swords in recent years:

We’ve seen each other for two years in a row, at the World Cup and the Olympic Games. If we see each other again at the next World Cup, maybe it’ll turn into something like that.