{"id":89903,"date":"2024-08-11T13:52:24","date_gmt":"2024-08-11T17:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=89903"},"modified":"2024-08-11T13:52:24","modified_gmt":"2024-08-11T17:52:24","slug":"paris-olympics-team-france-veterans-announces-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/11\/paris-olympics-team-france-veterans-announces-retirement\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics: Team France Veterans Announce Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After France\u2019s men\u2019s national team <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/10\/twice-as-nice-as-old-timer-propel-usa-to-5th-straight-gold-star-center-joins-lebron-james-and-luka-doncic-in-olympics-lore\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">fell to Team USA<\/a> in the Paris Olympics\u2019 gold medal game, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/b\/batumni01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nic Batum<\/a> announced his retirement from Les Bleus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter 15 years in this team, it\u2019s time for me to leave my spot to the younger generation,\u201d Batum says.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nicolas Batum calls it an end to his glorious France national team career \ud83d\udc4f\ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddf7 <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Paris2024?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Paris2024<\/a> <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/0jkHjbjyvB\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/0jkHjbjyvB<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 BasketNews (@BasketNews_com) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BasketNews_com\/status\/1822409969011995070?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old Batum, a native of Lisieux, has played 101 career games with France\u2019s Senior Team since 2009. In that time, France was won two gold medals, three silver medals, and four bronze medals. Notably, Batum has been part of two of the only three French national teams to win a silver medal in the Olympics.<\/p>\n<h2>Team France\u2019s Nic Batum, Nando de Colo Announce Retirement<\/h2>\n<p>Batum\u2019s best showing may have come in the 2011 EuroBasket tournament. In 11 games, the forward averaged 13.8 points per game and 2.0 steals per game while shooting 40.5 percent from 3 to lead France to a silver medal. Nonetheless, he\u2019s been an integral part of the team every year.<\/p>\n<p>On the court, his defense and 3-point shooting are sure to stand out. As the captain, he has to lead vocally and by example, in practice and in games. That\u2019s why, even at his advanced age, he played 25 minutes against Team USA in the gold medal game. With that being said, while the end result wasn\u2019t what he and France desired, they left with their heads held high.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Nicolas Batum played his last game with the French national team: &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t dream of a better finish&#8221; <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Paris2024?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Paris2024<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Aris Barkas (@arbarkas) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/arbarkas\/status\/1822403174948319738?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">August 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>37-year-old point guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/d\/decolna01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Nando de Colo<\/a> is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurohoops.net\/en\/olympic-games\/1706158\/batum-and-de-colo-say-goodbye-to-the-french-national-team\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">also retiring from<\/a> France\u2019s men\u2019s national team, per Eurohoops\u2019 Aris Barkas. Playing for the Senior Team since 2010, he\u2019s been on their roster nearly as long as Batum. A second-round pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, de Colo spent two seasons in the NBA before heading to EuroLeague.<\/p>\n<p>He averaged 3.6 points and 1.8 assists per game in the Paris Olympics.<\/p>\n<p>With his retirement, up-and-coming French guards like <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/16\/way-too-early-2025-nba-mock-draft\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Nolan Traor\u00e9 may be considered<\/a> as his replacement. Batum\u2019s replacement may already be on the roster given the way <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/c\/coulibi01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Bilal Coulibaly<\/a> played defensively. However, players like 2024 No. 1 pick <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/r\/risacza01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Zaccharie Risacher<\/a> could find themselves being called up as well.<\/p>\n<h3>Another Retirement Looms<\/h3>\n<p>It\u2019s worth clarifying, Batum hasn\u2019t retired from the NBA. The 16-year NBA veteran signed a contract with the Los Angeles Clippers this offseason after <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/g\/georgpa01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paul George<\/a>\u2019s departure. Nonetheless, Batum signed <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/07\/01\/former-clippers-wing-returns-home-in-free-agency\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">a two-year deal<\/a> with L.A. that has a player option after the 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n<p>As a result, it\u2019s possible that Batum retires from the NBA in the next couple of years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After France\u2019s men\u2019s national team fell to Team USA in the Paris Olympics\u2019 gold medal game, Nic Batum announced his retirement from Les Bleus. \u201cAfter 15 years in this team, it\u2019s time for me to leave my spot to the younger generation,\u201d Batum says. Nicolas Batum calls it an end to his glorious France national [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":89951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,27,62,3,23,34],"tags":[2702,3146,1052,49422],"class_list":["post-89903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-clippers","category-nba","category-news","category-trailblazers","category-spurs","tag-nando-de-colo","tag-nic-batum","tag-olympics","tag-team-france"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}